Dallas, Global Post; April 19, 2015.
The Himalayan Druk Dallas Soccer Club of Dallas, Texas bagged the Texas Bhutanese championship defeating the Soccer Team of Fort Worth Texas on the final game of Intercity Knockout Soccer tournament that was held on April 18, 2015 in Grapevine, Texas. The tournament was organized as a state qualifying tournament for the selection of two best state representing Bhutanese soccer teams to participate in the 5th Annual Interstates Bhutanese Soccer Tournament 2015, Nashville Tennessee.
Total seven city level Bhutanese soccer teams from five different cities of Texas had participated in the one day knockout soccer tournament organized by Himalayan Druk Dallas Soccer Club at Parr Lane Park in the city of Grapevine, Texas. The final match was played between the two cities of Dallas and Fort Worth which ended with a score of 3-0 declaring Dallas as the State Champion of 2015. Among the seven teams, Suk Raj Subba of Dallas won the title of highest scorer of the tournament.
The voluntary soccer referee for the tournament, Bhim Acharya and lines men Naresh Karki and Surya Subba were appreciated by the tournament host organizer through A. K. Rana Sampang, the General Secretary of Bhutanese American Sports Council (BASC) and the Vice President of Bhutanese Legacy Youth Club. The trophies of the championship and the second position were awarded to the Himalayan Druk Dallas Soccer team and Fort Worth Football Club respectively by the tournament organizers through A. K. Rana Sampang, who is also Texas state coordinator for 5th Annual Interstates Bhutanese Soccer Tournament which is going to be held in Nashville, Tennessee in June 19-21, 2015.
The United Houston and Druk Houston Football Club from the city of Houston, GBFC and AMFC from the city of Austin, AFC from Abilene, Fort Worth FC from the greater Fort Worth and Himalayan Druk Dallas Soccer Club from Dallas have participated in the intercity qualifying tournament. Among these Bhutanese soccer teams, the finalists – Dallas and Fort Worth teams are qualified for the participation in national Bhutanese annual tournament of Tennessee.
Speaking to the mass in the award session of the tournament, A. K. Rana Sampang said, “The mission of establishing a system to send the best and qualified state representing teams from the state of Texas has been successfully done for the year of 2015.” He added, “This will be a model example for other cities and states to standardize the quality of our sports profession, and send limited best players and team(s) to represent in national competitions.” The coordinator of the host committee, Surya Subba said, “From this year we have started organizing such state qualifying tournament, and we’ll continue it in every future year too.” He said, “We already have city representing temporary sports committee connecting with the team leaders of different cities of Texas, and we are on the process to establish it as a formal state Bhutanese sports committee to support our youths sports within the state.”
The host of Intercity Qualifying Tournament for 2016 has not been declared yet, but the soccer team captain of Fort Worth, Kopil Khatiwoda has proposed for it to be hosted in the greater city of Fort Worth.
