St Charles Lwanga gunning for glory at the games

Coast region boys and girls hockey champions St Charles Lwanga will be gunning for glory at next week's National Secondary School Term One games in Eldoret.

However, despite going for glory, the school will be out to prove it can make it to the finals.

It has been a long journey for coach Julius Masero who handles both the boys and girls teams.

The school situated in the industrial area of Changamwe, Mombasa might be ambitious but they are determined to prove a point at the games to be held at Hill School and Moi Girls from April 25 to 329.

For St Charles Lwanga girls team, they will be making a comeback to the national games after a 29 years hiatus. The last time the girls team played at the games was in 1994 when none of the current squad was born.

In their 1994 debut, the school was eliminated at the group stages but this time round, the team is well prepared according to captain Josephine Wambua.

"We are thirsty for win and qualify to represent Kenya at the East Africa games in Kigali, Rwanda," said Wambua

"Where there is a will, there is a way and the current squad is ready and determined to realise its dream come true," said the captain who led the team to beat Bura Girls of Taita Taveta County 1-0 in the final of Coast region secondary school final a fortnight ago at Kwale High School.

"My expectations for the girls is to make it to the last four. The boys' side will be making their seventh appearance at the national games and the focus is for them to make it to the final," said coach Masero.

The coach who is an alumnus of the school started coaching the team in 2013 after he completed his ordinary level at the school in 2012.

Since then, he has won the Coast region girls title once in 2023 and guided the boys to six titles at the regional level.

Interestingly, Masero is yet to lose a single match this season after winning the Mombasa County and Coast region games with an unbeaten record.

They beat Kajembe and Mac Millan schools 3-0 and 2-0 at the Mombasa County games.

At the regional level, they drew 1-1 with Bura and Waa Girls respectively to qualify for the semis where they upset former champions St Johns Kaloleni 1-0. In the final, they edged out Bura Girls 1-0 to qualify for the national games.

The boys team has also set eyes to the trophy according to captain Paul Kililo "We don't expect smooth passage but we are ready to rattle our opponents on our way to history making," said Kililo.

The boys team registered huge victories at the Mombasa County games where they clobbered Kajembe Secondary 4-0 and went ahead to humiliate former champions Shimo La Tewa High School and Tudor Day School 5-0 and 14-0 respectively.

At the regional games, St Charles drew 0-0 with Kwale High before they beat Kilifi's Sokoke 2-0 to land in the semifinals where they hit Kasighau of Taita Taveta 5-0.

In the final, they narrowly edged out Kwale High 1-0 to qualify for the Eldoret event.