USSSA president calls for more funding for secondary schools games

 The First Lady Janet Museveni (right) applauds as the Executive Chairman of Fresh Diary and Brookside Muhoho Kenyatta presents her with a shirt

Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Association (USSSA) president Patrick Okanya has called for more funding for the secondary schools competitions from the Ministry of Education and Sports.

This was in his speech before Team Uganda was flagged off by the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports Janet Museveni, to the 17th edition of the East Africa Secondary Schools Sports Association (FEASSSA) games in Rwanda, at state house on Wednesday.

Okanya reasoned that because most of the national teams' players emerge from the secondary schools before they are spotted, there was need to channel some of the money that goes to the national teams to the lower levels to widen the level of competition.

"We celebrate the funding to our national teams, but our appeal is that this support trickles down to the national level because all the national teams pick from us, so we pray this is done in the next planning," Okanya stated.

 The First Lady Janet Museveni (right) applauds as the Executive Chairman of Fresh Diary and Brookside Muhoho Kenyatta presents her with a shirt at State House, August 8 2018. PHOTO: Michael Nsubuga

He also asked the ministry to have affirmative action towards sports personalities in the areas of recruitment, deployment, transfers and promotions.

A team of 369 girls and 397 boys (56 teams) were flagged off and will represent Uganda in 13 sports disciplines that include football, rugby, badminton, netball, tennis, basketball, table tennis, hockey, athletics, swimming, handball and volleyball.

The executive chairman of Fresh Diary and Brookside Muhoho Kenyatta who presented a sh3.8bn cheque towards sports development and kitting Team Uganda said his company had undertaken a scholarship program for the best players during the competition.

"Our scholarship for the top players always goes in tandem with excellence in academics; thus outstanding performance in final school examinations has always been a pre-requisite to being awarded the sports scholarship," Kenyatta stated.