Bogere visits former school

Back to the roots. All eyes were on old boy Sharif Bogere as he addressed students of Kololo High School. BY ABDUL-NASSER SSEMUGABI.

What you need to know:

  • Juggling sport and education. Fellow boxers you also need to focus on academics. I joined the national boxing team when I was only in Senior One because of my prodigious talent. Many opposed my selection because I was too young, too small. But I managed to balance books and boxing.

Kampala. “I remember we shared a desk with Sharif in S.2. A big girl came and provoked you. She threw your school bag on the floor, stamped your seat with her dirty shoes. You got angered but your reaction surprised us. I thought you were going to punch her. But you took your bag and sat at the back.

She uttered some funny words. Surprisingly, Sharif returned and cleaned his seat, without raising his hand or voice to the girl.”
That was testimony from Emmanuel Kwizera, Sharif Bogere’s former class monitor, emphasizing that Bogere just doesn’t preach discipline. He practices it.

Earlier on Monday, the renowned US-based boxer had addressed a very interested student’s audience that braved the unforgiving afternoon sun in the school square. Visiting for the first time since he stayed in America in 2007, Bogere advised them to “be humble, patient and focused.

You are here for a short while. Before you know you will be done with school, but you need discipline to succeed in life. Kololo is the best school. So you guys listen to your teachers, be punctual, and have faith in God. You will make it.”
Such remarks provoked applause from, among others, revolutionary headmistress Hajjat Aminah Buyinza.

Kwizera’s testimony came at lunchtime as Bogere met the boxing class, in what was a dining room of sorts during his school days here.
“Fellow boxers you also need to focus on academics. I joined the national boxing team when I was only in Senior One because of my prodigious talent. Many opposed my selection because I was too young, too small. But I managed to balance books and boxing,” said Bogere, whose amateur record reads 68-4.

“Whenever I went for tournaments, I did my best and won medals. But whenever I returned I copied all the notes from my colleagues and revised from home. In the exams I managed to beat even those who were in class fulltime. So you have to focus, have a dream and don’t give up you gonna make it.”

Kololo High, situated on the tail end of William Street, in central Kampala, welcomes children from the neighbouring slums likes Kisenyi, Bogere’s birthplace, Makerere, Kamwokya, et al. It was a traditional boxing nursery, with Bogere the finest of its latest products.

But before him was former world champion Kassim Ouma; 1990 Commonwealth gold medalist Godfrey Nyakana; 1991 All-Africa Games gold medalist Fred Muteweta; former world title contender Peter Okello, the late Olympian Jolly Katongole, 2016 Olympic coach Sam Rukundo, national team coach Sam Kabugo, kickboxer Moses Golola, among others.

“I saw boxers who killed people in street fights. But why do you ruin your life? If someone provokes you, just ignore them, it will hurt them even more than a punch,” Bogere advised. Herbert Kwoba, another old boy, and coach, vowed to fight street fighting. Emmanuel Isinde promised “free psychosocial support counseling.”

While Sharifa Lule Alba rallied the girls. “You can make it like the boys. Be disciplined, respectful, work hard.” Listening carefully was Leilah Nangendo, who is preparing to defend her title as the best female boxer at the national schools championship.

Juggling sport and education. Fellow boxers you also need to focus on academics. I joined the national boxing team when I was only in Senior One because of my prodigious talent. Many opposed my selection because I was too young, too small. But I managed to balance books and boxing.

Juggling sport and education. Fellow boxers you also need to focus on academics. I joined the national boxing team when I was only in Senior One because of my prodigious talent. Many opposed my selection because I was too young, too small. But I managed to balance books and boxing.