Life & Work with Arunark Kolipaka

Today we’d like to introduce you to Arunark Kolipaka.

Arunark, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin? 
I was born in an agricultural family in the southern part of India. I was a meritorious student and also inclined towards sports (i.e., Cricket) I had represented at district-level competitions and also went for state selections in U14 age group. However, I did my bachelor’s in chemical engineer and moved to the USA to pursue a master’s program. Eventually, I finished my Ph.D. from a world-renowned Mayo Clinic and became a professor in Radiology. During the course of time, my son started developing an interest in cricket and he joined a local academy called Buckeye Youth Cricket Academy (BYCA). BYCA taught young kids over the weekend, especially on Saturdays. Interest in cricket for my son grew, and since I was a cricketer, I started teaching him in my basement on rest of the days. I used to teach him a couple of hours 3 days a week. However, during the COVID pandemic, BYCA decided to stop coaching. At that point in time, a couple of friends and I started the American Youth Cricket Academy (AYCA). We initially started training kids in the early morning for a couple of hours in the summer of the year 2021. When we started, we had 12-15 kids who used to come for regular practice. Eventually, we started a full-fledged program for age groups greater than 6 years old, where kids were grouped based on their skillset, i.e., Stars- Starters, Strikers- Intermediate, Blasters- Advanced. We have leased an indoor facility in Delaware that is being used to run all our practice sessions. For outdoor practice and matches, we have leased the ground from Liberty Township. However, we are looking to build a dedicated ground for these youth to practice the sport in the summer. Currently, the strength of the kids has reached ~100 in the academy. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As with any other business, we had challenges. Having an indoor facility was a much-needed priority (due to 6 months of winter) and we need huge lanes that are 120ft in length and 12ft wide. We used to practice in small baseball nets which were 70ft max in length. This wasn’t sufficient for cricket coaching. Therefore, we started to find a place for lease to build our indoor facility. The challenge was funds to build the facility as well as the monthly payment for the lease. However, we have raised some funds to build the indoor facility. The other challenge was we didn’t have sufficient subscriptions to pay for the rent and coaches. However, we took it as a challenge and worked hard to build an indoor facility, the first of its kind for cricket in Ohio. The other challenge we faced was finding a suitable outdoor cricket field for kids to practice. All the cricket fields (i.e., a few in the town) are run by adult cricket clubs, and it was challenging to get time for these kids to practice. We eventually worked with Liberty Township to build an exclusive youth cricket field. We still have another challenge, which is to build an indoor field for these kids to play match simulations during the winter season. The current facility is only equipped for individual practices i.e., these are cages specifically designed for batting/bowling practice. 

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a tenured associate professor in the Department of Radiology at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. I am a scientist/MR physicist who has expertise in developing novel MRI imaging techniques. I have a few inventions under my belt. My research focuses on Magnetic Resonance Elastography (MRE), which is a novel non-invasive imaging technique to estimate the stiffness of soft tissues. For example, this technology can diagnose fibrosis in the liver without the need for a biopsy. My website link is https://medicine.osu.edu/departments/radiology/research/magnetic-resonance-elastography. 

I am the first person in the world to develop cardiac MRE from its inception. Also, I have many publications in reputed journals and have been an international collaborator. My research work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and other professional societies. I am proud to be an academic scholar and help to develop the sport of Cricket, especially for the youth. 

What do you think about happiness?
I love science and, at the same time, teaching these young kids cricket. It gives me immense happiness when I am working with these young kids. It makes me happy when our academy kids excel in different national tournaments and get recognition. This also makes the name for the academy and also gives recognition to the coaches, which makes me happy. 

Pricing:

• Stars – Skill Level-Starters; $150/month, Monthly 8-10 hrs of coaching
• Strikers – Skill Level- Intermediate; $175/month, Monthly 16-18 hrs of coaching
• Blasters – Skill Level- Advance; $225/month, Monthly 24 hrs of coaching

Contact Info:

• Website: aycacricket.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aycacolumbus/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aycacolumbus

Image Credits
A1 Photography-Anoop