Afraha High determined to leave a mark in Eldoret

Afraha High School hockey team players in a training session. [Ben Ahenda, Standard]

As an inexperienced side their qualification to next week's National Secondary School games in Eldoret has shocked Afraha High School girls' hockey team.

Their least expectations and dream was to take part in Nakuru County games and start preparing a team for the future as all players were inexperienced form two students.

Though they suffered a humiliating 8-0 defeat to Kitale's St Joseph's Girls in the Rift Valley School games final last week, the team captain Esther Andiwo believes they can still make it to the East Africa games.

"With the spirit that saw us get to the national championships from the zonals, we believe teamwork that made us do so, can still be achieved in Eldoret as our desire now is to qualify for the East Africa games," Andiwo told Standard Sports.

Andiwo feels they lost by a big margin at Rift finals due to fatigue.

"After a series of training sessions, we have gained more stamina that is required at higher levels of such competitive matches and it's our belief, we'll not disappoint by losing by bigger margins again," she said.

Sandra Maxim, another player, said their urge now is to improve on their performance against seasoned teams, the same way they did at the county and regional championships.

"Although, we had several factors that affected us previously that include fasting from a number of us who are Muslims, we are determined to proceed to higher levels," she said.

Though still surprised with the team's performance, school principal Charles Murage said their aim was to gain experience at the county level as they chart their destiny at a time.

And as they prepare for the national showpiece, head coach Collins Chelloti said they are taking one step at a time in the fight for top honours.

"This time, we'll not start the games as underdogs despite it being our debut. This is because we don't want to put more pressure on ourselves as the tournament progresses. We are taking a match at a time," said Chelloti.

Chellotti said his players are ready to tackle each team with the seriousness it deserves and therefore would not underrate their opponents from the word go.

"We'll not underrate any opponent from the first to the last match as our urge is to see we get to the higher levels of the competition," said the coach.

Afraha High School are in Group B with AIC Nyayo Girls of Eastern, Loreto Girls, Limuru of Central and Tigoi Girls of Western.