Kitale's St Anthony ready to stamp authority in hockey

St Anthony Boys Kitale's Gideon Koech (left) shields the ball against Bramuel Nyabuto of Kapsabet High School during the Rift Valley Secondary School games at Hill School on April 8. [Peter Ochieng, Standard]

Rift Valley region is looking up to St Anthony Boys Kitale for a win as it eyes to top the charts at the National Secondary School games set for Eldoret, the City of Champions from Tuesday.

St Anthony, the national hockey champions displayed raw talent and tactics to lift the Rift Valley secondary school games trophy in the event staged in Eldoret earlier this month.

The Kitale-based boys team yesterday said they were not under pressure but were well prepared to defend their national title and proceed to represent the country at the East Africa competition.

Together with their neighbours St Joseph's Girls, St Anthony stamped their authority during the regionals in Eldoret after thrashing Kapsabet Boys 4-0 at the finals played at Hill School Eldoret grounds.

Yesterday, St Anthony head coach Kevin Lugalia said his side was pulling all stops ahead of next week's battle royale where his boys will be playing hockey giants Maseno School, Nairobi School and Meru School representing Nyanza, Nairobi and Eastern respectively in Group A.

"So far so good. All our departments are in top shape and only waiting to attack and score. We are training because these are the national games and we don't want to leave anything to chance," Lugalia said.

He said he was working on his team's defense and attack while enhancing the team's strength ahead of next week.

"Rift Valley is looking up to us, and we are the national defending champions. We want to defend the title, and we are cognizant of the hard work required to bring home the title. We are assuring Rift Valley that we are set," Lugalia said.

He said his bullish squad was lucky not to have picked injuries at the tough Rift Valley regional games.

St Anthony's Victor Sirengo bagged a hat trick when the Lugalia side started their title defence on a high note by trashing Ndururumo Boys at group stages of the Rift Valley secondary school games. Peter Rono scored a brace in their emphatic 6-0 win.