By Saks Akintunde
Chairman, Uromi Like Minds Initiatives, ULMI, Sylvester Abumere Ekpen an NGO, of top professionals of Uromi, Edo State descent, has said that the body intends to sustain secondary school sports, particularly, in Uromi land as this year’s edition of its annual ULMI Secondary School Football Competition kicked off on recently.
The matches continue, Friday, with Holy Family Academy taking on Ufuah Memorial in the morning while Olili Uzea Secondary School faces Okpere Group of Schools later in the day.
Explaining the gains of promoting sports in schools, Ekpen said that extracurricular activities gives avenue for strengthening classroom lessons, providing students the opportunity to apply academic skills in real-world situations and context and thus forms part of a well-rounded upbringing.
“Who knows, there are chances some of them could be spotted by soccer agents for development programs that could see them taking the game as their means of livelihood,” explained the ULMI chairman.
Recalling that the sports fiesta is the second edition of competition, ULMI said that there has been more interest this year from more schools.
”Following the resounding success of the maiden edition of the competition in 2021, there has been increased interest from almost all secondary schools in Uromi/Uzea communities, which together make up Esan North East Local Government Area,” Ekpen said.
The first game of the tournament was between Young Scholars Academy and Eigbibhalu Group of schools which ended in a draw after both teams failed to grab a single goal in the both half of the game.
Eigbibhalu however advanced to the next round after 6-5 score on penalty shootout.
For the second edition, 15 schools will slug it out with Buddy Group of Schools for the covetted N100, 000 cash price.
In addition to providing kits and other soccer materials to the schools, all participating teams will take home a range of cash prizes from a minimum of N15,000.00 to a maximum of N75,000.00, courtesy of ULMI.
Also speaking on the initiative the head of the main organising committee, (MOC) Vice Chairman of the ULMI, Engr. Sebastine Osita, encouraged the students to be discipline young players.
“I want to encourage them to put in their best, enjoy the games as they come and ensure everything is done in friendly atmosphere and total adherence to the rules of the game,” he said.
