Elite Schools Championship starts school sports season

The schools’ sports season kicked off last week with the completion of the Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Association (USSSA) Elite Schools Championship at Old Kampala SS.
The competition, an off-season activity for schools, witnessed St Mary’s SS Kitende take the boys’ football tournament for the second time in as many editions of the tournament while St Noa Girls Zzana took the rest -- football, netball and basketball. St Cyprian Kyabakadde were the other winners in boys’ basketball.
USSSSA president Patrick Okanya emphasised the need for more school competitions and stressed this was one of the solutions to prepare athletes. Despite the adverse circumstances as teams finance their participation, it unveiled a new perspective.

Just how good is Kitende?
Kitende are the reigning national and East African champions. Their dominance is undoubted. During the Elite Schools Championship, they had the luxury of resting some first team players and gave minutes to recruits. Yet they scored 19 goals against three in seven games. Kitende will only be victims of their own success. They are just too damn good for school football. Their team which has the likes of goalkeeper Mutwalibu Mugoloofa, Ashraf Zizinga, Charles Lwanga, Najib Yiga, Ivan Ashaba and Andrew Kawooya, among others, is simply on another level.
Surprisingly, the best player in this generation, Derrick Kaija, a phenomenal midfielder, is at St Henry’s Kitovu. He is so good that when the mere movement of an opponent is enough to make you doubt gravity, the best of Kaija is at work.

You can’t ignore St Noa
St Noa Girls Zzana is the only true challenger of the dominant Kitende in netball and basketball. They are also building a girls football team that could challenge the unstoppable Kawempe Muslim. Head coach Julius Ssengendo is optimistic of what they plan to become. Of the players that took part in the three-day tournament, only Angel Nakitto, the skipper, was in A-Level. St Noa has already sent their best players to Uganda Christian University (UCU) with Joan Kwagala, Sandra Kisakye and Stella Namutebi leading the way. Yet they have in their ranks highly rated Mastula Nakku, Auki Kigongo and Mary Kabucureezi bubbling under their football team. Beating Kawempe at the championship was a statement. But Ssengendo prefers to talk about what the future holds. “We have come at a stage where we need a league team to be able to create a proper pathway for players that go through our system,” he said.
How elite is the championship?
In her keynote address at the closing ceremony, Hajara Ddembe, the commissioner Physical Education and Sports department in the Education ministry, insisted that the tournament needs to have a countrywide outlook.

The timing of the tournament needs revision. All the 25 schools that participated were from the central region. Had Jinja SS, Mvara SS, Mbarara High or Sentah College attended, the level of competition would have been higher. Not that Kitende would not be favourites.
The timing also has a major flaw. Kitende coach Dan Male, for instance, said that they only had four days to prepare the team. Luckily, most of their players are active with Premier League clubs. But by snubbing the tournament, Buddo left Standard High Zzana and Royal Giants as the only schools that could attempt to stop Kitende’s juggernaut.

Being the second year, the windows of opportunity are wide open. Only football made a debut yet this year, basketball (boys and girls) as well as girls’ football were added.
But USSSA needs to find ways of having more participation. Only St Noa honoured the basketball invitation for girls’ basketball with Exodus College, Seeta High and Hope Biira keeping away while Old Kampala, St Cyprian Kyabakadde and Bethel Covenant played the boys’ version. St Noa had to wrestle Kawanda and Blessed Sacrament Kimaanya for the netball title.
“You could think of regional qualifiers,” Ddembe advised.

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