Baseball hope to grow through USSSA channels
Baseball and softball coach and administration Timothy Einu believes they can tap into the Uganda Secondary School Sports Association (USSSA) numbers and platform to grow.
They had seven teams – three for girls (The Allen VR Stanley, Muni Girls, and Panyadoli Self Help) and four for boys (AVRS, St. Peter’s Nsambya, Mehta, and Kakira) – demonstrating the sport at the USSSA National Ball Games II in Tororo. But St. Catherine Lira, Jinja SS, and Nsambya Police are some of the other schools involved.
The 2023 National Sports Act requires associations and federations to have presence and activities in 50 and 75 percent of the districts in Uganda respectively. But it is also pushing schools to be involved in at least 15 sports disciplines recognized by the law.
Usually, the baseball federation has waited for schools to write to them for them to spread the sport but now they hope a faster approach would involve schools can inquiring with USSSA, which will in turn contact the experts to spread the game.
Baseball has been in Uganda for 30 years, according to Einu, but the expenses involved have left them struggling to make numbers. A bat, among other equipment, could cost Shs150,000 on the low side.
“And you need at least seven bats for a team because they are of different weights. Also you need bats that correspond to the power and height of the player,” Einu said.