How Dr. Omondi balanced football and studies

With football being a short-term career, players are always advised to either invest during their heydays or pursue education, both of which offer a fall-back plan upon retirement.

Some are those who follow while others disregard, only to find themselves struggling once they retire, despite the fame and glory that followed them on and off the pitch during their active days.

However, juggling between sport and studies is a tough choice to make as former Tusker player Zacheaus Omondi narrates.

Omondi, now a medical doctor in Ireland, says that pursuing his choice of academic, led him to a path dominated by gruelling days, sleepless nights, and unrelenting pressure, sacrifices that are not easy to bear.

Add top-level football into the equation and the challenge becomes even greater, both mentally and physically.

But Omondi, who played for Kenya Breweries (now Tusker FC) for seven years until 1994,  says his experience in sports did more than prepare him to become a doctor at a time when only a few dared balance sports and education.

Omondi, who was part of the team that lost to DC Motema Pembe of DR Congo in the final of CAF Cup Winners’ Cup at Nyayo Stadium in 1994, says it took him a lot of hard work to achieve his goal. The loss saw Breweries miss the chance to grab a first-ever continental title, losing 5-2 on aggregate.

The Kenyan side had managed a 2-2 draw away 13 days earlier and were very confident of finishing the job at home. However, it was not to be as the visitors ran out 3-0 winners. This remains the last time a Kenyan club reached a continental final.

Omondi’s rigorous training schedule prepared him for his next big challenge: balancing the demands of medical school at a time when little was known about the footballer’s academic background.

“Student-athletes have hectic schedules,” he explains. “Training becomes a full-time job. So, I was used to having a lot on my plate.”

“The pre-med world can be cutthroat because it’s all about the curve,” Dr. Omondi, as he is fondly called in the medical field says, but recognises that success in both medical school and sports depends on teamwork.

As fans and players left Nyayo crestfallen, Omondi had to shift gears into his final exams where he `satisfied the examiners` to join the small list of footballers who had qualified as medical doctors.

By graduating, he joined JJ Masiga and William Obwaka, who were among the few medical doctors in football by then.

Just like most of the Kenyan footballers, Omondi’s journey to top-flight football began at a young age where he had to contend with parents’ objection to sports for the obvious fear of neglecting his academics. But unlike many, Omondi was able to balance the two.

“I encountered all the challenges that boys come across. My dad was strict. So much so that the thought of the punishment he would unleash made me toe the line. My mum was equally strict. My love for soccer was such that I would sacrifice many things to play. I recall my mum urging me to pass my CPE (Certificate of Primary Education) and I would thereafter play all the football I wanted. I passed but still had to study,” he recalls.

He then went to Jamhuri High School for ‘O’ Levels before moving to Mangu High School for his ‘A’ Levels.

“I almost went on a tangent in high school, playing football at the slightest provocation and missing on my school work. Were it not for one of my teachers, Mr Danston Ondachi, who later became my mentor, I would have missed the boat. Through him, I realised that I had to burn the midnight oil. I would ensure that I trained but had to sacrifice many hours deep into the night to ensure I completed and understood my homework in readiness for the next topic/day. This paid dividends as I passed my ‘O’ Level exams,” he recalls.

Interestingly, it is his football prowess while at Jamhuri that earned him a scholarship at Mangu, which saw his parents go easy on him when it came to sports.

“I recall my inception into sporting activities as a young man growing up in Eastlands. I was lucky that these formative days shaped my journey in football which then got me a ‘scholarship’ at Mang’u. Learning at the Mang’u ensured that my path to do medicine was predetermined,” he said.

He was an important member of the Jamhuri High School side where, during the 1986 finals of the nationals secondary school games, Omondi came up against players who would become his teammates at Tusker.

“Jamhuri was a team to contend with. We were like a Nairobi XI, beating each and every team hands down. We put up a sterling show against Iterio High School which had some top players like Mike Okoth and Henry Motego, who eventually became my contemporaries in the Super League,” Omondi said.

It’s while at Mangu that Omondi was drafted into a Nairobi Division One side, Iqbal FC (Speedways) where he joined the likes of John ‘Shoto’ Lukoye, Zedekiah ‘Zico’ Otieno, Dan Ogada and Joseph Adach Osewe. Dan Shikanda was supposed to be part of the team but joined AFC Leopards.

“I used to leave school over the weekend to play in the Division One league that was competitive too,” he said.

He played for Speedways for two years before the ‘big boys’ came calling.

“I finished my ‘A’ level exams in 1988 and scouts from Gor Mahia and Breweries came to our house. I chose Breweries and played through my medical school for five years. In 1994, we eventually won the league with Breweries after a very long time,” he recalled.

He recalled the loss to DC Motema Pembe as if it happened yesterday,  saying their opponents were a strong team on that day and deserved to win.

“Motema Pembe had a game plan. They played like they had two players to mark each one of us. They had the mindset of champions. They were geared up for the game. Two goals in quick succession; corner kick and a shot from outside the 18-yard box. I cannot even recall the way the third goal happened. We got disoriented and we did not have a game plan to recover,” Omondi recalled.

He says overconfidence cost his team what would have been his most memorable title.

“Even before the match started, ‘we were two goals down’. Still in dreamland thinking about the title. All the promises were like castles build in the air.”

He added: “We won the match even before it began. A journalist accosted me along the streets of Nairobi and asked about our game plan. We didn’t have one. We believed that we were a superior team because we had drawn 2-2 in Kinshasa and we would roll over them at Nyayo."

"Looking back now, it is very clear to me that we approached the game like novices. We believed in our ability rather than in fortifying our positions to counter a chess master.”

“Having now watched the great teams all over the world, Omondi says he has realised that the team with better preparations— physically, emotionally, and psychologically— always wins the game. Never the better team,” he says.

The next season he moved to Gor Mahia, whom he barely played for. “I hang my boots after one match. I realised that I couldn’t make an impact and decided to continue with my internship in Machakos,” he said.

“After losing to Motema Pembe, reality hit me. I had missed out on an elective term and I had to join my colleagues for the fifth year. A clinical year, and the final one in Medical School. It was challenging and I was stressed up to the zenith. I had to contend with not knowing some basics that my colleagues were now at home with, thanks to their apprenticeship in this time in different hospitals,” he said.

After his internship, he joined Kangundo Sub-District hospital as a Medical Officer where he only worked for five months before switching gears.

“I worked for the government for only five months, after which I hurriedly resigned to join the private sector. This being one of the errors of my life. By resigning I had to sponsor my Master's program and while my colleagues had two jobs — the government money and sponsorship from the government, I only had one job and had to pay for my education,” he said.

He worked at the Aga Khan University Hospital in the surgical department and had a two-year stint in the Neurosurgical Clinic. “A very exciting time in my surgical experience. I then worked in the Accident and Emergency, for more than six years,”

At the end of 2013, he joined his spouse and son in Ireland after having worked as a doctor in all the ‘private’ accident and emergency departments in Nairobi and later as a hospital surgeon for an Italian NGO in South Sudan.

“Moving to Ireland was a new beginning. I moved over with nothing, save for my medical knowledge. I had to sit exams once more. I failed the basic exams many times before I eventually passed. It took me five years to break through and start practicing as a Locum Doctor in General Practice. It is a journey,” Omondi said.

Omondi watches in pain as the standards of football in the country go down each day.

“We were lucky that FKF (KFF then) was a unit and they at least tried to run football well despite the political influence. Politics and self-interest from officials has killed our football and sports in general in Kenya,” he observed.

He challenged young sportsmen to realise that sports have an early retirement and there is life after sports and one needs to develop a skill that they will utilise after the limelight.

“The easiest route in Africa is a sound education. Sporting activities in the western world are considered highly. Sports scholarship is a culture that is embraced in the west. Most of the high performers in studies were also top-end sports figures. The young sportsmen should have a laser-sharp focus on their education even as they engage in sporting activities,” Omondi added.

He said that a balance should be struck and a realisation of success in both should be the main objective.

As COVID-19 terrorizes the world, Omondi is in the frontline in Ireland's Primary Health Care attending to patients.