Africa-Press – Uganda. Lucky. Mukono Kings High School were fortunate to defend the Mukono Zonal football trophy after a scary start in the ongoing Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Association (USSSA) games.
After losing the semi-finals of the district qualifiers, the emerging Mukono giants were out of the running but did not run out of luck. A successful petition saw them crawl to the zonal finals. Miraculously, they did not lose a single game among the powerhouses.
On the final day, they beat St Kalemba SS Nazigo, who will play at this level after 32 years. The other qualifiers to the Fort Porta finals is Latifah Mixed SS Kabimbiri.
“We are absolutely delighted. It was a tough campaign but we held on and I am happy we are in the nationals,” said Shafiq Mudholo, the team coach.
Quarterfinalists at last year’s event in Arua, Mukono Kings only retained seven players. Losing John Kityo and Ismail ‘Keita’ Ndifuna, was the most hurting.
Diriisa Wasswa, scored eight goals but he was short of the spark Ndifuna had with 19 goals at the same level.
“The goals were few in the tournament. Maybe the opponents have improved. But right now our focus is to play in the semis and go for the East African games,” Mudholo said.
Regular campaigners Dynamic SS will have to try again next year after failing the quarterfinal hurdle against St Kalemba while Buikwe champions Quality School fell short against Latifah in the last eight.
Jinja shocker
Jinja Town may still be in shock after Jinja SS was knocked out of the tournament 4-3 on penalties by Victoria HS in the quarters.
This leaves Jinja Comprehensive, Victoria, Ibun Baz Iganga and JIPRA as the zonal representatives for the nationals in Fort Portal City next month.
For Jinja SS, the writing was on the wall! When Iron Lady Dinah Hope Nyago resigned her role as head teacher of the “Mighty School” in 2012 after 12 years, the school sports project started collapsing.
Nyago had established a strong team that even won the national title in 2012 while players flourished in Kirinya/Jinja SS, an entity that is now so flaccid to wake.
Further scrutiny
The USSSA secretariat announced Sunday that all participants at the national level will have to undergo further verification.
All students are enrolled on the Education Management Information System (EMIS) portal and students will be verified using their matching EMIS data.
“Only verification letters from UNEB that bear the date of birth will be accepted. In case of contradiction in the date of birth of a participant in the system, EMIS, NIRA, or federation license, the earlier date will be taken as official. As a matter of fact, affidavits and UNEB letters changing the date of birth of a player with a different date of birth will not be respected. In case, after verification, a team remains with a number with which it can’t competitively participate in the nationals, the zones will be requested to nominate another next team,” Justus Mugisha, the president USSSA, said.
Mukono Zonal championships
Semi-finals
Kings (3) 0-0 (0) Latifah
St Kalemba (7) 0-0 (6) St Andrews
Final
Kings 1-0 Latifah
For More News And Analysis About Uganda Follow Africa-Press
