Chasing after books and balls, Strathmore way

By James Onyango

In a country where academic performance is valued over excellence in sports, students who pursue extra-curricular activities are easily mistaken as lacking direction and purpose in life.

It gets worse when the student-turned sportsman is in his final year the university and his family pile pressure on him to perform well and secure a qualification to help him find a good job and recoup their investment in his education.

But if good grades point to a bright future, then students who excel in both class work and extra-curricular activities have even better prospects, as exemplified by a group of youth on sports scholarships at Strathmore University.

The students are either on partial or full scholarships and the rich collection of trophies at the institution tells it all.

Their latest haul, the Kenya Hockey Union Men’s Premier League title, the Kenya National Sevens Cup, the Great Rift ten-a-side Cup and several other trophies in different games, is testament to the students’ sporting prowess.

To date, the teams have won several titles to prove their effort on the pitch since the sports scholarship programme took off at the institution five years ago.

But it is Strathmore’s triumph in hockey that depicts a fairy tale of what effort can achieve when it meets opportunity.

When the national Under-21 hockey team travelled to Cairo, Egypt, for the 2008 Africa Junior Hockey Championships (qualifiers for last year’s junior Hockey World Cup), 12 students from Strathmore formed the core team, including siblings Davis and Frank Wanangwe.

But the players temporarily fell from grace to grass after the team refused to take to the pitch following delay in payment of allowances, leading to a two-year total ban by the Africa Hockey Union, which was later lifted.

A year earlier, the 12 had been part of a team which had won the men’s Nationwide Hockey League and with it, promotion to the Premier League where they gave veterans Kenya Police and Kisumu Simba a run for their money.

Serious counselling

But the ban threatened to wipe out all the gains and it would take serious counselling to turn around the team to become the first varsity side to win last year’s Premier League in a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Kenya Police, with siblings Davis and Frank sounding the boards.

Davis is a second year student taking a Bachelor of Business Information Technology degree; Frank is a final year student on the same course, while team captain Kenneth Nyongesa is pursuing a Bachelor of Business Studies degree.

Watching the team during training at Nairobi’s City Park Stadium, one quickly notices a sense of purpose and dedication to the sport which played a key role in their quest for the title just a day before the start of their end of semester examinations. The team coach, former international Meshack Senge, says when the institution’s hockey team enrolled in Kenya Hockey Union Men’s Nationwide league as a nondescript institutional team in 2007, the young scholars dreamt of winning the title one day. And five years later, they achieved it and with it, a slot to battle for continental honours at the Africa Hockey Clubs Championships.

Team discipline

For Senge, strategic planning, embracing technology in training and sticking to set targets are the secrets of success.

"Sacrifice and determination have been key to our success, but team discipline has been crucial as players implement what is learnt in training," said Senge.

Senge insists his team would have won the Premier League title on their debut had his players not been banned. The tactician draws from his 15-year experience as a member of the national team.

He has played at different times for local teams like Kisumu Simba, Armed Forces and Italian sides Suelli Hockey Club and Cus Bologna.

The veteran coach insists African hockey teams, Kenya included, have lost the plot as European teams have infused pace, technology with vision as opposed to individual flare.

According to Strathmore University Sports Officer Isaac Mwangi, the students are competitively selected, having scored a mandatory Grade B plain and above with strengths in Mathematics in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination, and caught the eye of Strathmore scouts at the Kenya Secondary Schools National Sports Championships in various sports disciplines. Still, the students have to pass a practical assessment in a particular sport. But the success enjoyed by the institution’s teams is a result of having the right individuals in charge of the teams.

"At Strathmore, we believe in getting the right people for the job and this led us to settling for former internationals to coach these teams," Mwangi explained.

Rugby tactician

Former Kenyan international and former national Fifteens rugby tactician Mitch Ochola is behind the hockey team’s success. The team is at present in France for the Riviera Sevens Rugby Tournament.

Ex-national football team member Mickey Weche is in charge of football, while Fiba-certified Toney Ochieng coaches the basketball team that plays in the Kenya Basketball Federation Men’s Premier League. The ladies’ team is under the tutelage of Silvya Njeri.