Appeal for financial support for College Sports

Sunyani (B/A), Sept. 5, GNA - Mr. Kwasi Hobenu, Volta Regional Chairman of the Ghana Schools and Colleges Sports Federation responsible for the First Cycle schools has made a passionate appeal to Government to channel resources to the management committees of the Federation so that the nation can achieve its objective of producing talented future national stars through schools sports festivals.

Mr. Hobenu said at the end of the 24th Edition of the National Schools and Colleges Sports Festival in Sunyani on Saturday. He said no matter how perfect the planning of school sports programme could appear, it would need the financial support of the Government to be implemented to achieve the desired results. Mr. Hobenu regretted that many schools lacked sports equipment and appealed to the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to honour their contributions to sports development as demanded by the Assembly's concept of helping to promote sports in their operational areas.

He said there was the need for the Sports Authorities to revisit the former administration whereby affordable prices of sports equipment were supplied in Regional stores to offer them access to affordable equipment to run sports.

Mr. Hobenu urged Physical Education (PE) masters not to restrict the teaching of the subject to only football and athletics but stretch their experience to cover other disciplines such as handball, table tennis, basketball, volleyball and other lesser known sports. Mr. Michael Kenneth Nsowah, Acting Director-General of Ghana Education Service (GES) in his closing remarks commended the organizers, officials, students and all other stakeholders who in diverse ways assisted to make this year's festival to end without any serious incident.

The Director General said that since the essence of the Festival was to unearth talents at the schools level to build formidable teams for the Under-17 national soccer team and for other sporting events, it was important that the selecting committee remain impartial so that the correct and deserving sports boys and girls are chosen.

Mr. Nsowah noted with gratitude the enticing sponsorship package of the US-based Maria Tsakos Foundation and the Ghana Athletics Association towards the promotion of athletics through the Schools and Colleges Sports programme and congratulated each of the three individual athletes in any of the track and field events in the boys and girls divisions. He also thanked Nestle Ghana Limited for its long-time partnership with the Federation's programmes saying it was a practical demonstration of building upon interest of young budding athletes and sports boys and girls to improve on their performance.

The Acting Director-General urged students to disabuse their mind that it was not academically safe to mingle academic studies with sports, explaining that such notable national figures as Professor Ohene Frimpong, a Sickle Cell Consultant, Dr. Owusu, a Lawyer both based in the United States of America, Dr. S.L. Lamptey, Dr. J.A. Armah, both lecturers at the University of Cape Coast were all leading sportsmen in their heydays who combined sports with their academic studies and were able to achieve their goals.

"Attaching commitment and perseverance to any of the disciplines you take part in school competitions, coupled with effective academic studies can raise you up to the occasion as others have done", Mr. Nsowah further advised the students.

Mrs. Akua Debrah, Brong-Ahafo Regional Director of Education and Chairperson of the 13-member local Planning Committee of the Festival thanked all the organisers for the peaceful and successful end of the games, which the Central Regional team won with 10 gold, four silver and three bronze medals to emerge the highest medal winning Region in a Festival participated by all the 10 regions in the country.