By Don Peter Okoro.
The 2023 Edition of the All Secondary Schools Football Championship kicked off yesterday, the 14th of February, 2023 at the Anglican Girls Field Uruagu Nnewi with pomp and panache. It was a very interesting tournament as the Defending Champions, Christ The Way Secondary School walloped upcoming Queen of Angels Secondary School by a whooping 8-0. The match was virtually played at half field in favour of Christ The Way Secondary School. In a brief chat with the Press, the Organizer of the Tournament, Mr. Obichebendu Chidiebere, he has this to say:”The All Secondary Schools Football Championship is a grassroot sports Competition that is open to every student in Secondary School. We have the Male and Female Categories.
What we witnessed today is the Female Category. The Male Category will kickoff on Friday. It is a Competition that unites all Secondary Schools in Anambra State.”. On his assessment of the day’s Competition, he replied:”All I can say about the Competition is that from the scoreline, you can see that it 8-0, which is a humiliating defeat anyway; but I’m bold to tell you that why it happened like that is because the opponent (Queen of Angels) are coming into the Competition for the first time. Most of these players have never been exposed to field exercise, but their opponents that scored the 8 goals are people that were here during the last tournament. Of course they are the defending Champions.
You see the reasons they are the Defending Champions. This particular match is like the Trained versus the Untrained. I believe that as they are . Like I was discussing with some of my colleagues about the improvement of the Defending Champions. We saw how the players have gone. They are able to articulate what they want. When they see the ball,they are not too anxious to kick. They have to think of what to do with the ball, because they have been exposed to training. I believe there is still room for improvement for the losing Team despite the fact that it’s a humiliating defeat; when they come back they will do better.”
On his words of encouragement, he offered:” This is the 2nd Edition and it’s a Tournament that comes up every year by February/ March. My words of encouragement to the people that won is to keep it up and to those that lost, that they should not see it as a loss, but an opportunity for them to grow.
At least, they were able to do something with the Defending Champions. This is their first time of coming out and I believe there is still more room for improvement for them.”. Also speaking, the Chief Referee, Mr. Elochukwu Onwuegbuna a.k.a. Lagos Amaka described the Tournament as:. “a wonderful showpiece. This is the 2nd Edition of this great Tournament.The first Edition came up last year and I was the Chief Referee, because I did well last year,I was called again this year to anchor it.” On his words of encouragement,he replied:”I will first of all,give kudos to the Convener, the Host Of this Tournament in the person of Obichebendu Chidiebere,a youth who thought within himself that it is a good idea to get players from the Secondary Schools. When you get players from this level, you harness them before they get to Higher Institutions. When you get them at 15,16,17,18 you will be helping the Super Eagles and the Super Falcons to select their player without much stress. So I encourage them to keep it up”.