Sang raiding athletics field to tap scrabble talent in North Rift

Well known for producing top athletes, both track and field as well as road running, John Sang has decided to venture into another field of sports, scrabble.

As an employee of the University of Eldoret, Sang, the scrabble player, has taken up an initiative to nurture young scrabblers in the region.

This is in a bid to boost the sport in the region, which has been in many years concentrated in Nairobi, Kisumu, and parts of  Nakuru, Nyeri, and Kirinyaga.

Last weekend, Scrabble Kenya hosted the last qualifying round in Eldoret ahead of the East, Central, and Southern Africa Scrabble championships in Jinja, Uganda this weekend. 

With the Kenyan team, popularly called Word Warriors picked, Sang is one of those who will fly the Kenyan flag to help the Warriors retain the regional title ahead of the Africa Scrabble Championships in Zambia in  November.

“We were privileged to host the national championships this weekend," Sang said.

"It is not right to call it a national but international event because we have international players from Liberia and Uganda all competing here.” 

He said the future of scrabble in Kenya and across the world lies in juniors, especially school-going pupils and students. However, that has not been taken up seriously in the region that he represents.

“We are putting together locals, internationals, and juniors because the seniors can help the juniors progress in their careers," he said.

"We have a club, but we lack places to practice as we seek to develop others like the youths and students.” 

Sang said in order for them to make scrabble grow in the country, they need to venture into the learning institutions and do sensitization and demonstrations.

“Introducing scrabble as part of school games is a tall order because it involves the development of the curriculum," Sang said.

"We are not in it but we will be requesting to see if we can have an input to the curriculum development, I am sure we shall be there. But as of now, it is tough."

The talent developer said even when they go to institutions, they find teachers who have no idea of what scrabble is. He is, however, optimistic that the game will be played in schools in the near future.

"We have to appeal to the stakeholders to accept the idea then allow them to train others to the level they can embrace the sport," he said, adding that by doing so, they will be encouraging young people to join the game.

He admitted that the rate of scrabble talent in North Rift is decent because they are ranked 4th after Nairobi, which has the highest numbers, Kisumu, Nakuru, Nyeri and tying with Kirinyaga.

“We are in touch with schools in charge of games to provide relevant skills. We do this  by buying some equipment to promote the sport in the institutions," he said.

"We are in touch especially with colleges to tap the talent across the region with the main aim of promoting the sport. We hosted the Scrabble Kenya tournament in Gulab Lochab Academy which is remarkable."

Sang said previously, they used to host events in hotels and clubs but hosting them in educational institutions gives juniors moral support that they can also do it.

He said by hosting the tournaments in clubs and hotels, they will be closing off the students and children who are willing to play or join the sport.

“For us to attract young players into the sport, we must give them incentives and dedication by sensitizing them on the game,"sang said.

"When we are playing, some elderly people ask us what we are doing. We really have a hard task to make people understand why we should play scrabble.” 

To achieve all these, they are working on proposals to the government in the next financial year to see if they can get funding to take the sport to schools.

“We are also making proposals to schools. We want them to feature the sport in their co-curricular activities."

"If they agree, it will be our responsibility as Scrabble Kenya to get some tournaments for inter-schools. We must get there.”

Sang said it is a tough journey to take scrabble to the people now that the game is not being played in many schools. He said even those who have an idea about scrabble, they don’t play competitively.

"People playing the game are those who are old unlike in a country like Nigeria who beat us because they have academies," he said. 

"That is why they are number one in Africa because others have not developed the talent at the youthful stages.” 

He said starters have many challenges. “We have the will to develop this sport but we must get down to where children or juniors are," Sang said.

"That starts with the parents of these young people allowing us to access their children. This has proved to be a tough task but we will succeed."

Sang said in a bid to take scrabble to a majority of Kenyans, they will start with some member clubs, churches, and other areas where children are.

"We will talk to parent and guardians to let them know we are interested in training their children," he said

"Once we have access to them, we will use the resources we have to buy playing equipment, show them some skills, and with time. I am sure we will get somewhere."

Sang said this is the only way the government can recognize their efforts and give support.

At the University of Eldoret, where he works, Sang said that challenges exist because the budget has been concentrated on known sports like football, hockey, rugby, volleyball, and basketball.

“Almost everything is channeled towards other sports. There are even some tournaments we don’t attend because they prefer popular games," he said.

"I hope someone is listening to me out there so that once we meet them, they can support us.”

He said that many scrabble tournaments do not attract sponsorship and they normally dig deep into their pockets to host a  game.

“We will talk among ourselves, raise some funds and do more sensitization. I think that is the first phase,” he said.