The just ended secondary school games provided huge insights and lessons for sports stakeholders. The extravaganza rekindled hope, interest and unexploited potential. It showcased the best in our youngsters and gave reasons for us to dream big.
The Kenya Secondary School Sports Association (KSSSA) national championships delivered a masterpiece in Kakamega County. For a week, Bukhungu Stadium was filled to capacity as football fans enjoyed exciting duels among Kenyan school footballing giants. The mainstream and social media kept the world abreast with the games, highlighting the abundance of talents on show.
Video clips of spectacular goals and fans enjoying the matches were shared on social media, which demonstrates the love of the beautiful game among Kenyans. Majority could have paid any amount of money to watch the matches.
Football is popular among Kenyans and the interest it has generated in recent years among parents with school children should mean something. Numerous football academies have sprung up in major towns where parents are willing to pay fees for their children to train and play the game.
The Ministry of Sports, Football Kenya Federation, Ministry of Education and school managers must now step up their game and tap into this emerging academies and interest in football among children. The academies have grouped players according to their age and are organinising tournaments locally and outside the country. They are also engaged in league matches where winners are recognised at the end of the year. This should provide a platform to scout real talent and feed into the national football teams, the Harambee Stars and Harambee Starlets.
Kenyan Premier League clubs and the nationwide championship clubs should also follow keenly the school games and the football academies. With proper structures, prudent use of funds and professionalism football can be the spark our economy needs. The game's ecosystem can create thousands if not millions of jobs and income generating activities.
But this can only happen if the government and enough private sector players put enough resources into the game. In Europe, football is big business where governments and big companies have invested heavily in the game. In turn, fans returned to stadiums while TV rights are discussed in billions of dollars.
The same can be replicated here. What with the thrilling matches witnessed between the ultimate champions St Antony Boys Kitale who took home the crown after thrashing Dagoretti High School? New stars such as Aldrine Kibet, Amos Wanjala and Alvin Kirigano were born. In girls' football, Faith Lorna emerged the best player in the tournament.
It is now upon school managers and football officials to track the youngsters' progress in the game. A good number of them have got invites from top academies abroad and they could just make the cut in professional football. Let's build from here.
