USSSA creates Ball Games III

The Uganda Secondary School Sports Association (USSSA) has witnessed an increasing number of athletes in the National Ball Games Championships for the last couple of years because of the sports disciplines that have been newly added.

The bulging numbers have been witnessed in USSSA Ball Games II, where more than ten new disciplines had been added, with the large numbers experienced during the 2023 games at St Mary’s College Rushoroza, Kabale where 7,000 took part in 13 disciplines.

However, the USSSA executive picked lessons from the Kabale experience and in their meeting last month, agreed to decongest the Ball Games II.

And at this year’s edition which starts at Teso College Aloet, Soroti on July 9, only athletics, handball, netball, volleyball, rugby 7s, and basketball 3x3, will be competed for.

“We have decided to separate the FEASSA qualifying disciplines from the non-FEASSA ones and created a separate championship for them,” said USSSA CEO Chris Mugisha.

This means football U16, woodball, dance sport, lacrosse, beach volleyball, and beach soccer, have been shifted from ball games II to ball games III.

The newly created championship which will be USSSA Ball Games III, has been scheduled for September 1-9 at the same hosting venue Teso College Aloet.

The championship will now have 7 more new disciplines added, with the junior competitions in netball, volleyball, handball, football U14 and basketball 3x3.

So the ball games III will comprise of football U16, basketball U16, netball U16, volleyball U16, handball U16, basketball 3x3 U16, dance sport, woodball, football U14, beach soccer, beach volleyball, lacrosse, and mind games (chess, ludo, and scrabble).

The best teams from the Ball games II in Teso will qualify in addition to the already qualified teams from the USSSA ball games I in Ndejje and boys football in Masaka, for the FEASSA games due at Bukedea Comprehensive and Amus College in August.