Sports
School Sports, Catalyst For Sporting Excellence In Rivers – Educationists
Governments at the various tiers have been urged to revive school sports as a necessary ingredient for sporting excellence in Rivers State and Nigeria at large.
A cross section of sports fans in Port Harcourt told Tidesports that school sports should become an integral part of every government educational policy.
They reasoned that most private schools in Port Harcourt and environs do not provide sports facilities for their students, while lacking adequate space to locate such facilities.
An educationist and director of Promise Institute of Commerce (PIC), James Mpi noted that most successful sports men and women in the country were spotted during inter school competitions.
According to him, talents spotted during the competitions were nurtured to stardom, by giving them scholarships and opportunities to explore and actualise their talents.
Mpi decried the dearth of sporting facilities in most public schools in the state, and lauded the efforts of the Governor Chibuike Amaechi’s administration to revive public schools.
Assessing sports in private primary and secondary schools, which dot the state, Mpi called for the ban of schools without the right environment and facilities to aid sports learning.
‘How can you operate an institution responsible for the growing of the future generation without the necessary facilities in that regard.
Sports is a vital ingredient for the development and it must be taken seriously in any academic curricula.
“I recommend that any school without the necessary facilities should be suspended, especially if we want to improve our performances and fortunes in national and international sports competitions,” he said.
Mpi praised some schools, especially, in the rural areas for embarking on yearly inter-house competitions and called on the appropriate sports authorities to attend these events to achieve its purposes.
Another retired educationist, Pa Austin Ekanem, said that considerable funds should be voted yearly for sporting activities in schools.
Ekanem said that despite the presence of facilities in some schools, the organisation of sports competitions involves huge financial and material resources.
“I can tell you that, when I was in the school system, one of our greatest challenges was getting financial help from government and public-spirited individuals.
“Let the funds be provided, monitored and we would see how it goes.
However, the schools should be able to raise considerable amounts through the parents’ teachers association (PTA) and other philanthropic individuals”, he said.
Akonta Samuel
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor
