By Oscar Pilipili
The celebrations witnessed after St Mary’s Lwak won the girls’ hockey at the Brookside Kenya Secondary School Term One Championships were appropriate.
After all, it was a crown obtained by an extra time goal after years of failed attempts.
Lwak beat St Cecilia Misikhu 2-1 in a tense final to clinch the trophy for the first time. The best performance by the Bondo District school had been a third place finish they achieved at the Nationals at Mang’u High last year.
It was without doubt that their ascent to the crown was fit to go down in history as their greatest achievement of all times.
Without losing
Lwak won the crown without losing a match starting from the group stages. They defeated Kisau of Central Province 2-0 in their opening match and overcame former champions Itigo from Rift Valley with the same score before playing to a barren draw with Misikhu to qualify for the semi-finals as Pool ‘A’ winners.
Lwak proved they deserved to reach the semi-finals by beating three-time champions Hillcrest from Nairobi 4-0 to advance. How did they manage to win the Championships?
Coach Elias Okal says quality players and sound tactics is what matters most when it comes to Championships.
He said: "A good player is not the one that scores most goals and defends well but a skillful one who is out to make his or her team excel."
"Lwak does not only concentrate on scoring goals and defending in their training, we also deal with psychological part of the game and skills," he said after they ran over bigwigs to lift the trophy.
He singled out captain Winnie Adhiambo who scored seven out of their 10 goals at Kangaru as the most outstanding player in the team.
Scored crucial goals
"Adhiambo is our matchmaker who has scored crucial goals for the team. She has the ability to turn around a match when the team is in a difficult position and she’s highly regarded by teammates," said Okal.
The form four student captain rates their win at the Nationals as her major achievement in her hockey career.
"Our victory at the Nationals is of course a major success but bigger things are yet to come," said Adhiambo.
"My dream is to lead Lwak to the East African Championships trophy before I leave the school after ordinary level examinations this year," she said of her bigger dream.
Kenyan teams dominated hockey when the sport was introduced at the East African Championships in Kigali, Rwanda, last year.
Kerugoya and Pangani occupied the top two places in the girls’ category while St Anthony’s beat Kamusinga in boys’ final to bring the new trophies to Kenya.