• Kanyawanga coach Andrew Owino says he is ready to go for the national title
• Agoro Sare will also represent Nyanza in boys’ basketball
Nyanza teams have sounded a warning to their rivals ahead of the national secondary schools term one games to be held next month at Shimo la Tewa School in Mombasa.
The Nyanza region 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) girl’s hockey (Nyamira Girls), buy’s hockey (Homa Bay School) and Agoro Sare (basketball).
Kanyawanga coach Andrew Owino says he is ready to go for the national title. “In 2017, we finished third, last year we were runners up. This time round we are going for the title. My team is 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 girl’s category, St Ann’s Sega Girls coach David Owinyo says 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 the 15’s rugby title was in 2014. Coach Paul Nyamira believes he has a good team that can regain the title.
“I want to sound a warning to teams that Maseno School is back and we want to reclaim our title,” said Nyamita. Nyamira praised the team’s defense and discipline saying they contributed to the team’s narrow 10-5 win over archrivals St Mary’s Yala.
Agoro Sare 7’s coach Kistus Onditi says he is eyeing a place in the finals.
“It will be our first time in the nationals and we are going there to compete competitively with other teams,” said Onditi who guided his team a comfortable 17-5 win over Chianda in the Nyanza finals. Chianda will also proceed to nationals.
Agoro Sare will also represent Nyanza in boys’ basketball after 1 narrow 56-54 victory over former national champions Maseno School. Agoro Sare principal James Momanyi and coach Paul Odok said they expect a good performance from the boys.
“Since this is our first time at the nationals, I don’t want to put boys under pressure. A third place finish is all we want at the moment,” said Odok.
Nyanza Secondary Schools Sports Association chairman Moses Adala said standards of games Nyanza 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.
Nyanza Regional Education director warned Limo Chepkawai warned teams against fielding ineligible players saying stern action will be taken against the teams.
“We are investigating two cases. You cannot field an ineligible player and expect to go scot free. The PS must be aware of this because the investigations have begun,” he added.
Sinyolo Girls was suspended from participating in girls’ hockey after they fielded a player from Kerugoya Girls. Mtchelle Akoth had not met the 90 days rule.
Nyanza Secondary Schools Sports Association secretary Tom Odhiambo said Sinyolo the former East Africa champions has been provisionary banned for one year.