Coming from a financially weak background, Nitesh Gurjar is the epitome of hard work, determination and never-giving-up attitude. He has outshone others and validated himself as a National Level Basketball player, and an excellent coach.

Nitesh Gurjar hails from Udaipur. He started playing basketball in his sixth standard, after one of his friends took him to a basketball court one day. He was enchanted by the game so much that he did not eat food for a day to get a pair of shoes from his father. Convincing his father to buy him the gear, Nitesh then went on to join his training under a coach and made it to the state level basketball team in just one year. He started practising day and night religiously. Till date, Nitesh has played more than 25 state level championships and has also starred in the 7th West Zone Inter University Basketball Championship.

Nitesh is currently a Basketball coach at DPS, Udaipur. He has been giving his services at the school for three years now, teaching students the skills they require to play the game. In his very first year at the school, as a coach, six of his students were selected for playing at the state-level which was very promising. Along with coaching the students at DPS, Nitesh also takes classes at the Police Line and Vaikuntha Sports Academy in the evening. He started with a batch of two students at Vaikuntha and today, he has a batch of thirty five.

It was a regressive phase in Nitesh’s life, when he was not called up for the National team in 2012. He was disappointed and wanted to call it quits on his Basketball career, but his coach and his family backed him up. He started training vigorously for the next three years, and finally made it to the qualifiers of the West Zone Championship with his Mohanlal Sukhadia teammates, which was a very big achievement as it was the first time in twenty five years that the team reached the qualifiers. And it doesn’t stop there, Nitesh is currently practising to play at the National-level.

Nitesh’s inspiration in life is Shiv Khoiwal, an international Basketball player who always motivates him to practice more and hone his skills in the game. Professionally, his inspiration is Michael Jordan.

Nitesh says that Basketball is a team game and one player cannot win a match without the coordination of the others, therefore, leadership skills are very important in the game. He always tries to inculcate leadership in his students so that they can coordinate and succeed.

Being a sportsperson, Nitesh emphasizes on the importance of education in life. He says it doesn’t matter if you are a national or a state level player, if you’re uneducated, you can’t land a good job to achieve the success you want in life. He feels there is no sport without education.

In the next five years, with all his training, expertise and knowledge, Nitesh aims to become an international basketball coach.

Nitesh appeals to all the parents to send their children to some form of sports activity. He says it’s not about winning medals but if a child is physically fit, they would also perform well mentally. He also urges parents to let their children make careers in sports as the time has changed, and today, the government has made a lot of opportunities available for sportsmen to make careers in Army, Navy, Banks etc.,

If he gets a chance to go back in time, Nitesh would like to revisit the days when he first started playing Basketball. He wants to relive the days where he used to spend most of his time on the ground practising.

Nitesh concludes by saying that one should always listen to themselves, and not to what the others around them say. They should always keep their motivation within, and keep at it with their full strength and one day, they will surely be successful.