Captains Nassiwa, Ssemwogerere favourites ahead of KHC awards

What you need to know:

  • Nassiwa is the favourite tonight given that Belcher missed some crucial games of last season due to personal reasons while Auma also spent different parts of the season on the sidelines through injury.
  • For the men’s category, Kenyan defender Cliff Otieno Owino will seek to retain the top gong but is up against his captains Richard Ssemwogerere and Benjamin Mkapa.

KAMPALA. Asked to describe Kampala Hockey Club (KHC)’s journey through the last 10 year’s club president Dr. Emmanuel Ewochu says “resilience.”

On April 11, 2009, Ewochu, Stanley Tamale and others realised the dream of starting a new hockey club that would be based in Lugogo but “elevate the social and competitive status of the game of hockey across the region.”

The journey that will be celebrated at a dinner tonight at Wombo Restaurant – Kampala, has been a rollercoaster and has been well defined through the club motto “ad alta per ardua” which from Italian translates to “through difficulties to heights.”

There is no league trophy yet but KHC have had lots of Cups for consolation and have grown by leaps and bounds; from pushing the game into new schools like Naalya SS - Buto and Namilyango College currently to rejuvenating it in schools that had given up on it like Gayaza High School.
The club has further gone on to start a schools tournament – the KHC Schools Festival – from where it consolidates its activities in school.

KHC have also been lead travellers winning honours across the region. KHC are also pioneer importers of talent across the region and are always a welcome avenue for foreign talent coming into the country.
One such player Elise Belcher is actually competing for the club’s female player of the year (2018) award with captain Margaret Nassiwa and the versatile Vicky Auma.

Nassiwa is the favourite tonight given that Belcher missed some crucial games of last season due to personal reasons while Auma also spent different parts of the season on the sidelines through injury.

For the men’s category, Kenyan defender Cliff Otieno Owino will seek to retain the top gong but is up against his captains Richard Ssemwogerere and Benjamin Mkapa.
Owino marshalled a rather leaky Stallions defence while Mkapa was deployed out of comfort in midfield for most of the season.

Mkapa also challenges his former schoolmates at Namilyango, Jordan Mpiima and Vincent de Paul Kayanja for the young Stallion’s award.

KHC Awards – Nominees

Player of the Year (Stallions)
Benjamin Mkapa
Cliff Otieno Owino
Richard Ssemwogerere
Player of the Year (Swans)
Elise Belcher
Margaret Nassiwa
Vicky Auma
Young Player of the Year (Stallions)
Benjamin Mkapa
Jordan Mpiima
Vincent de Paul Kayanja