Ashpal Kaur Bhogal has become the first Sikh-Briton female player to be selected in any of the England Woman's Hockey international programs.
Leeds Met Carnegie hockey Coach, Regional Performance coach and former elite player, Bobby Singh Bhogal has been single handily coaching Ashpal Kaur Bhogal, who is also his daughter, since the age of six.
Ashpal says she has "realized a dream in being selected for the England Under 16 squad to travel to Holland for the Four Nations tournament [in April]."
Ashpal, 15, is a Leeds based schoolgirl and currently a pupil at Boston Spa School Leeds. She made it through several months of rigorous assessment to earn her place in the 18-strong party. She has moved through the England Hockey's new single system process and has excelled at every age group.
Ashpal, who started playing senior Ladies hockey with Pudsey Leeds at age 9, now represents Harrogate Hockey Club Woman's 1st team and has been playing there since aged 13. She managed to retain her place in the national side after the provisional 30-strong squad was whittled down to 18 over the course of a three-month period.
Along with her 17 team-mates, Ashpal took part in a holding camp at Lilleshall at the end of March before flying out to the Netherlands on April 1. England faced Germany, Spain and hosts Holland during the five-day competition.
Coach Bobby Singh said "What she has done is inspirational and I cannot yet convey in words how proud our family is of Ashpal. To get to this point we started the journey 10 years ago and through sheer hard work, dedication, focus and commitment we are here today. Was it worth it? You bet!"
He added: "A significant part of our program was carried out using our exceptional facilities here at Leeds Met".
Ashpal's family members were originally refugees from Idi Amin's repression in Uganda. It is a family steeped in the game of hockey. She has been coached by her uncle Satvinderpal Singh Bhogal and, of course, her father - both elite players.
Bobby was an England representative at the European Indoor Hockey Championships in Prague in 2000. Today, Ashpal's father works as a hockey coach at the Carnegie Faculty of Sport and Education at Leeds Metropolitan University.
[Courtesy: Carnegie Sport and Fabian Hamilton, MP's blog]