The Uganda Schools Sports giants, St Mary’s Boarding Secondary School Kitende has been crowned the champion of Wakiso region Netball competition in the 2023 USSSA Ball Games II Qualifiers.
Kitende beat archrivals Buddo SS 21-19 in an epic and tense final held at Mt. Olives College Kakiri on Friday afternoon.
The Nourdine Kato coached side first went three goals down at the start of the first half but managed to bounce back and the half ended in a draw of 08-08.
Buddo SS, a side to beat in the next editions again in second half regain the lead they acquired in the first half but a long the way, they made few mistakes especially in the last two minutes and granted the victory to their biggest rivals, St Mary’s SS Kitende as the game that watched by many students ended 21-19 in favor of Kitende.
St. Mary’s brought back the trophy in their cabin after failing to defend it last year where they fell short in hands of Kawanda SS at the semifinal.
St Noa Girls who finished third in this latest edition were the defending champions.
Nourdine Kato, the SMASK head coach, based the victory on resilience of his girls and champions mentality.
“Wakiso District is a region in schools sports and is the most hardest region in schools Netball countrywide, at least 10 schools are capable of winning the title.” Kato said,
“Buddo is not an easy side, but Kitende is another exceptional team, to win this championship you need to do extraordinary things that can differentiate you from others, we were three goals down in first half, the girls put extra effort to bring it to level , they also led us in second half and we did the same and finally we won the game.” He added
While Buddo SS tactician, Jesse Assiimwe remained unmoved and termed the campaign as a success and an achievement for the team.
“As Buddo, we have achieved” says youthful tactician. “Last season we finished third,this time we finished second, it’s an achievement though we wanted the trophy.”
“We have already defeated the defending champions (St Noa Girls), so it’s an achievement to us, we made some few mistakes but this has been a learning platform for us, we are going to correct those errors and we are looking forward to win the nationals title come next month.” Says Jesse.
Last year’s champions, St. Noa Girls finished as the third placed sides after beating Kawanda SS on classification match, 21-17.
Wakiso region will be represented by seven schools in the nationals next month at St. Mary’s College Rushorooza in Kabale.
These schools are: St. Mary’s SS Kitende (champions), Buddo SS, St Noa Girls, Kawanda SS, Green Light Islamic, Canaan High, Madinah ss Islamic.
The region sports committee chairperson, Mr. Katamba Gerald revealed that the whole tournament was a success, he thanked the schools directors who managed to bring the teams, 50 schools participated in this years qualifiers.
And according to Katamba, this has been a big turn up and over 1300 students took part in Basketball 3*3, Volleyball, Woodball, Dance Sport, Football U14 and U16 and Netball.
