Aloysius Byamukama
The happiness, the joy and the cheering is back, as secondary schools in Uganda get ready for the first national championships after 2 years of no activity due to the pandemic that closed the entire universe.
And Arua and Gulu will be the places to be for the USSSA boys football and the Fresh Diary respectively.
And as the teams prepare to start the long journey to the northern part of the country for the showdown, Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Associations (USSSA) technical team will on Wednesday April 13, conduct draws of the two events.
The activity that had earlier been scheduled to take place on Monday April 11, was pushed to Wednesday to give some of the regions time to complete their qualifiers.
“The draws for both the Uganda Secondary Schools football boys Championship Arua 2022 and that of Fresh Dairy games Gulu 2022, have been postponed to Wednesday 13th April 2022 at USSSA head office. This is to allow for more teams especially those that qualified late to fully pay and register on the USSSA competition System,” Said USSSA official Justus Mugisha.
Mugisha warns qualified teams to should have registered through a new system and also cleared the dues by Tuesday evening for them to be able to be included in the draws.
“Please remember to forward your bank pay in slips in time after which you will receive information to enable you register your team on the system. It’s only those teams that will have registered that will enter the draw,” Mugisha warned.
The new registration system is aimed at eliminating ineligible players and easing the accreditation process before the games commence on April 18-26.
64 boys teams from the 19 zones in the country will be hosted at Mvara SS in Arua and will be drawn into 8 groups where Wakiso zone dominates with 6 boys teams and Kampala comes second with 5 slots.
Ankole, West Nile, Acholi, Lango, Teso and Busoga have 4 teams each, Bugisu, Mukono, Luwero, Mpigi, Masaka, Kigezi Rwenzori, Bukedi and Bunyoro have 3 while Karamoja and Sebei have one apiece.
St Mary’s Kitende will be vying to retain the title they won in the Jinja edition after overcoming hosts Jinja SS in a memorable finale and will be rivalled by FEASSSA 2018 champions Buddo SS.
The USSSA Fresh Diary games to be hosted by St Joseph’s College Layibi and Sacred Heart SS in Gulu has the biggest highlight of girls rugby 15 featuring for the first time in the USSSA games history, where 8 teams had qualified but only 6 will be drawn, a good start.
64 girls football teams, 48 basketball (boys and girls), 32 Hockey girls and boys, 13 rugby 15 boys and 6 rugby 15 girls team, alongside the racket games teams (Badminton, Tennis and table tennis) will be drawn.
Record winners and FEASSSA champions Kawempe Moslem will be vying for their second successive accolade after winning the 2019 in Mbale after beating St Noa 4-3 on penalties, the event Rehema Adubango (RIP) played a big role in their coming back to the podium and Kawempe are expected to wear black armbands in honor of their fallen player.