Shimba Hills High School, the newly crowned East Africa Secondary Schools basketball champions, arrived to a rousing welcome in Mombasa on Wednesday .
There was jubilation as the team passed through the streets of Mombasa with the trophy they won at the regional games in Fort Portal, Uganda, last week.
Immediately the team arrived, people lined up in the streets of the coastal city from Changamwe, Makande, Jomo Kenyatta, Digo Road, Nkrumah Road, all the way to the Provincial Director of Education (PDE) office, cheering the girls for their sterling performance.
The schools principal, Robert Aran, said the school, the Education Ministry and the Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association (KSSSA) invested heavily in preparing the team and he was happy the team delivered.
“Since the majority of our team players are in form one and two, we intend to continue winning the trophy at the national and regional levels,” Aran said.
American universities
Aran thanked the American universities of Union and Oaklahoma Baptist for giving the team their coaches who trained the girls prior to the regional championship. He also commended the coach, Philip Onyango, for co-ordinating the coaching programme by the US universities.
The Coast Secondary Schools Sports Association (CSSSA) chairman, Athmani Yeya, who led the Coast delegation to Uganda, said they were happy to have one of the trophies Kenyan schools won during the East African championships.
“We recognise the efforts made by the Education ministry in terms of sports,” said Yeya, who singled out Coast PDE Alex Majani for taking a keen interest in the development of sports in schools.
Yeya said Shimba Hills have high hopes of retaining the trophy next year since the team will miss only two players who are completing form four this year.