Nyanza teams have sounded a warning to their rivals ahead of the Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association (KSSSA) Term One games set for next month at Shimo La Tewa School in Mombasa.
The Nyanza region’s Term One games concluded at Homa Bay School with Kanyawanga (handball boys), Sega (handball girls), Barchando (basketball girls) retaining their titles.
New champions emerged in rugby 7’s (Agoro Sare), 15’s rugby (Maseno School), girls’ hockey (Nyamira Girls), boys’ hockey (Homa Bay School) and basketball (Agoro Sare).
Kanyawanga coach Andrew Owino says he is now ripe for the national title. “In 2017, we finished third, last year we were runners up and his time round, we are going for the title. We are more technical this time,” said Owino.
He added: “We play against champions in our pool alongside teams from Eastern and North Eastern. The pooling is okay.”
Kanyawanga defeated Mbita School 33-17 to retain the title for the third consecutive time. In the girls’ category, St. Ann’s Sega coach David Owinyo said his target at the nationals is to reclaim the title they lost last year against Kamusinga Girls.
“We want to bring back the trophy. We lost narrowly to Kamusinga but this time, the girls are determined to win it. The team spirit is high and the girls are raring to go,” said Owinyo.
Sega beat Msare 29-23 in a tough final match to retain the Nyanza title. In the preliminaries, Sega will play against teams from Coast, Central and North Eastern. Owinyo termed the group as easy. The last time Maseno School won the 15’s rugby title was in 2014 and coach Paul Nyamira believes they have what it takes to recapture the crown.
“I want to sound a warning to teams that Maseno School is back and we want to reclaim our title,” said Nyamita. He praised the team’s defence and discipline, saying they contributed to the team’s narrow 10-5 win over arch-rivals St Mary’s Yala.
Nyanza Secondary Schools Sports Association chairman Moses Adala said standards of games in the region are rising and challenged the teams that qualified for nationals to go for the titles. “We have two weeks to prepare. Let’s go back and work on areas where you identified mistakes. Last year, we were ranked number two overall,” said Adala.
