Playing in the men’s league

Mercy Adoch the goal keeper at UPDF under 15 team. PHOTO BY ALICE ADIKIN

Mercy Adoch
Mercy Adoch,19, who is in Senior Six vacation, says she picked the courage to join UPDF team where she is now a goalkeeper last year (2016) for the Under 15 team when she saw her friends who are even younger than her doing well in the team.

Adoch was a goal keeper for her former school (Sacred Heart School) in Gulu Football team. She says she enjoys training and playing with men than women because it gives her strength and whenever her former school calls her back to go and play for them in any game, she never loses the game. On top of that, the club makes her busy and has exposed her in the whole region. She has a dream of playing in the national team for women.
“When I saw those two girls playing along with soldiers, I first wondered how they could not fear soldiers, but later on, I found out that soldiers are very easy people like any other person after joining them,’’ explains Adoch.

Barbara Atim
Barbara Atim, 16, the third born of four is a Senior Three student at Gulu Central High School. She plays as a defender and midfielder (No.5&6) for UPDF club, under15.
Atim says though her father died in 1999 when she was in Primary Two, she was given bursaries to study in the school from Primary Three to Primary Seven after discovering that she was an athlete. However her primary school did not have a female football team .
Atim started playing football in 2012 when she was a Primary Five pupil at Unifort Primary School, Gulu.

She would also play for the male team of Gulu Bible Church where she fellowships because the team lacked the required number of boys to become complete. They added her and five other girls but some of the girls got pregnant and others eloped, leaving her as the only girl in the team.
She was identified by the UPDF team when her church team went for the interdivision tournament for all the four divisions of Gulu Municipality in the same year (2012) played in UPDF grounds in Bardege Division.

“I didn’t know that the coach was noticing me, immediately after the match, he talked to me and advised me to join them since I was already in the system (playing with men). I did not object the offer because I knew it could expose me to other opportunities and they even bought for me all the required sports items,” explained Atim.
Through football, she is offered bursary by Gulu Central High school as she plays for female football team of the school.

However, she faces the challenge of rough players from competing teams but she says she has managed to catch up with the speed and is able to defend herself.

UPDF coach Meta Data Israel says:
The presence of the girls on the team is an eye opener to other girls who still think football is only for men. I urge other girls who have such talents to join the team despite their education level. I’m willing to give them all the support they need to fulfill their dreams. We are trying to promote women empowerment in every sector that is why I always give my three daughters much love and support so that they do not feel out of place however much men and their fellow ladies discourage them.

Team mate Genesis Ouma says:
The presence of the three girls in the team has made many youths mostly female ones, to support the team as morale boosters. They are determined and disciplined, they never miss training whenever they are during holiday. I enjoy playing with them.

Scovia Nabasa
The 16-year- old is a Senior Three student at Gulu Central High School and a striker (No.9) who plays for UPDF club of under15. Nabasa, the third born of six, joined UPDF male team under Gulu Barracks in early 2015 after completing her primary leaving examination (PLE) from Kasubi Army School in Gulu. She was easily identified by the coach of UPDF who used to watch her playing football for her former school under a female team.
“Because my dad had just passed on and I was not sure of joining secondary school, I saw that as an opportunity to keep myself busy after my peers had already joined secondary school,” she recalls.
Of the matches that she has played for the team, she has scored three goals as a striker.
Sometimes she plays in the second half or is a substitute.
She reveals that the corporate league that they played with Airtel three months after she joined the team exposed her.
“Immediately after the match, I was scouted by Gulu Central High School.

They began paying my fees as my mother caters for the pocket money and other scholastic materials,” she says. Nabasa had lost all hope of going back to school given that even her elder brother had dropped out too.
However, at the school, she plays for the female football team. Nabasa has a dream to become either an international footballer or a coach.
However her challenge is that men from other teams intimidate and insult her to discourage her. Some even go to the extent of intentionally kicking her when she has the ball. “I take it easy and this has made me even stronger and I have learnt more techniques of self-defence.”