Kiptulwa Secondary eye Rift Valley regional dominance as games begin

Kiptulwa Secondary School after winning Bomet county title. [Gilbert Kimutai, Standard]

Bomet County champions Kiptulwa Secondary are confident of a good show in Nyahururu when the Rift-valley Regional Secondary School Games begin today in Laikipia County.

Kiptulwa edged out favourites Tenwek High School 3-2 in the county finals and their coach Sila Sang said the win has motivated the team and they are going into the games with a mission of winning the title.

“We are prepared for any opponent even though they will treat us as underdogs. We will take advantage of that and take every game seriously,” said Sang.

“Our players are disciplined and normally, they play according to instructions and we will bank on that because anything is possible. We can pull surprises in the game because we know most of the big names will underrate us, but we are ready for them.”

Kiptulwa will square it out with East Africa champions Cheptil Secondary School in their opening match. They are in Group C with Tuiyo Secondary School from Uasin Gishu.

Last year, Kiptulwa were edged out by Cheptil in the quarterfinals at the same stage, but coach Sang has promised to turn tables against them and advance to the nationals.

Ironically, despite being crowned the county volleyball champions for two consecutive years, the school lacks a volleyball pitch.

Students are forced to seek refuge at a space at a nearby cattle dip where the school has erected a net for them.

The recent Bomet County School games trust the little known school to the lime light after beating giant Schools to be crown volleyball champions.

The school Principal James Rotich told the standard that they were forced to specialise in Volleyball due to lack of space at the school.

“We have opted to specialise in Volleyball and ignore the other events because we do not have enough space where students can play,” he said.

He added: “ We have talents but it is difficult to tap because of lack of space to put up facilities such as football pitch.:

The school seats on barely half an acre of land which has been consumed by Classrooms.

The Standard Sports caught up with the team as they put finals touches a head of the regional games.

Players lack training costumes and most of them are barefoot.

The principal however said the challenges has not poked them down but forced them to work harder.

He said they have become a blessing in disguise as the players enjoy the game.

“These challenges have not deterred us from achieving our goals. We have been facing our opponents head on despite their intimidation of lack of training resources and school bus,” said Rotich.

He said that the main aim as an institution is to blend academic and extracurricular activities.

The school head appealed to the county leadership to come to their rescue so that they can comfortably nurture talents among the learners and improve the education standards.