Coaches bet on school holiday training camps to sharpen hockey talent for national teams
Musingu High School players celebrate with the hockey title after beating St Charles Lwanga of Uganda in the final of the East Africa Secondary Schools Sports Association games in Mbale, Uganda on August 25, 2024.
What you need to know:
- Elvis Shikunzi, who plays as a midfielder, is set to take over the position previously held by Brian Omuse, who sat his Form Four examinations this year.
- His exit has left an opening for Shikunzi to assume a major role on the team. Helping him in midfield will be Brian Muse, who proceeds to Form Three next year and promises to bring fresh talent and energy to the squad.
Musingu Boys High School’s hockey coach, Michael Malungu, has underscored the role sound sporting infrastructure plays in the development of talent for Kenyan teams.
Speaking at Kisumu Girls High School yesterday, where his team is participating in the National Sports Talent Camp organised by the Kenya Academy of Sport (KAS) and the Sports ministry, Malungu said: “The future is bright due to the increased popularity of the sport in the country, and the presence of qualified coaches to train the youngsters. This will enable us to develop the sport, regardless of who wins the national title,” Malungu, an engineer by profession, said.
The training camp started on December 1 and will close on Sunday. The camps are running concurrently in centres located in Eldoret, Mombasa, Nairobi, and Kisumu.
The training camp in Kisumu has brought together 650 athletes in eight disciplines; chess, football, badminton, rugby, swimming, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, and hockey. Eleven hockey students are from Musingu.
“This is the ideal time to train these young athletes on proper surfaces, equiping them with skills to compete effectively with their peers across Africa, and the rest of the world. The gap in performance stems from inadequate facilities, and addressing this puts our country at an advantage,” Malungu, who also doubles up coach of Kenya Hockey Union men’s Premier League team Western Jaguars, said. This season, Malungu guided Jaguars to win the 2024 title unbeaten.
Malungu won his first national title in the schools championships last year with Musingu, whom he has been coaching since 1996. It was Musingu’s first national title in 30 years, and it came after the team trounced St Anthony’s Boys Kitale 1-0 in a thrilling final match in Eldoret.
That victory propelled Musingu to the prestigious East Africa Games held in Rwanda, where they finished second after narrowly losing 1-0 to Kakungulu from Uganda in the final.
This year at the national championships held in Machakos, Misungu beat St Anthony’s 3-2, earning them their ticket to represent Kenya in the East Africa Games in Uganda. The teams’ performance continued to shine as they beat their Kenyan rivals, St Charles Lwanga from Mombasa, 2-0 to lift their first regional title.
“Everything requires patience. It could be that it is not your time to win at the club or national level. But this doesn’t mean that we were unsuccessful as we don’t really count on trophies but the number of players who have successfully taken the game as a career. We have a good number of players in Kenya Under-21 team, and this shows that we are doing well,” he added.
Elvis Shikunzi, who plays as a midfielder, is set to take over the position previously held by Brian Omuse, who sat his Form Four examinations this year.
His exit has left an opening for Shikunzi to assume a major role on the team. Helping him in midfield will be Brian Muse, who proceeds to Form Three next year and promises to bring fresh talent and energy to the squad.
“What stands out for us as a team is that we work hard in training and remain prayerful. Our aim is to retain the national title and East Africa title,” said Shikunzi who started playing hockey as a Form Two student.
