Piyush Vaghela Award
Welcome to the Hall of Fame for the Piyush Vaghela Community Appreciation Award.
About the award
This award honours those people who we believe have contributed the most towards the UPAI community. Whether through selfless dedication through coaching new players and teams or serving voluntarily to use Ultimate as a tool for social change: there are certainly some special people who deserve this award.
History of the Award
Piyush Vaghela was an inspirational coach whose untimely death shocked the community. In fact he was coaching at the time of his unfortunate incident in Ahmedabad with his team 'Silent Voice' when lightning struck a tree that they were taking shelter under. One of his players, Nilesh Solanki, also passed away.
Piyush was known in our community for his purity in thought and action. He coached Silent Voice simply out of his own heart with no financial gains and sought to uplift his community through this sport and many other social work related activities.
As well as raising money for Piyush and Nilesh's families we decided to create this award in his memory; thanks to the Dream Catchers team for getting it made.
Photo Credit: Manu Karan
Commissioned in September 2013, and given to several individuals at most of the tournaments that happen in India.
The Executive Board decides on who should receive it, and presents it at the tournament presentation ceremony.
Hall of Fame
| Year | Name |
|---|---|
| 2013 | Manickam "Manix" Narayanan |
| 2013 | Ramkumar "Boon" Nityanandam |
| 2014 | Srinivasaiah Laxminarayan |
| 2014 | Vardan Kabra |
| 2014 | Manu Karan |
| 2014 | Chiai Uraguchi |
| 2015 | Vrajesh Jani |
| 2015 | Liz Haynes |
| 2016 | Jaidip Patel |
| 2017 | Michiaki "Mike" Ito |
| 2018 | Akshai Abraham |
| 2018 | Mohammed Waseem |
| 2019 | Anish Mukherjee |
| 2025 | Benoy Stephen |
Next time you see one of these folks at a tournament, be sure to congratulate them for all their hard work towards the sports we all know and love. And, email us if you'd like to nominate anyone for upcoming consideration!