Sports
‘Self Motivation, Secret Of Rivers Baseball Success’
Recently, Rivers State Baseball team went to Burkina Faso unheralded and return as champions of West Africa with the feat came the ticket to represent the region in the forthcoming World Baseball and Softball competition.
Apparently, the story and journey to success of the Rivers Baseball team was not as rosy and celebrated as their triumphant return.
According to the coach of the team, Jacob Dede Albert, the tennis success story was attributable to the sacrifice self motivation and resilience of his players.
As if the players knew that glory was awaiting them at the end of the tunnel, they showed tremendous determination to soldier on against many odds.
Coach Albert said that when the team was about travelling to Calabar for the national championship, which provided the ticket for the West African Competition, there was no assistance from any quarters.
“The players had to put together their meager personal resources to ensure that the team participated in the national championship in Calabar, when nothing came from anywhere else,” said Albert.
However, the team beat all comers at the national championship to qualify to fly Nigeria’s flag in Burkina Faso during the West Africa Championship.
After qualification, the team made efforts to raise funds for their participation in the regional competition to no avail.
“A letter was written to state government through the Sports Ministry for assistance, but we were told to wait till after the 17th National Sports Festival, which the state was hosting at the time.”
The response was not good enough as the competition was scheduled to commence just a week after the festival, which would have left the team no time to prepare and travel to Burkina Faso.
For fear of missing the competition, the team resolved to embark on the journey at their own discomfort.
Players had to forego food, eating only twice a day in order to save money for the journey, while they trained with inadequate facilities.
Before leaving Port Harcourt for Lagos enroute Burkina Faso, another round of efforts to raise money yielded no result, except for the sum of N30,000 which the state weight-lifting coach, Ojadi Oduche used to assist the team.
“In fact, we were literally abandoned, left to our fate. At a stage, I almost gave up on the trip out of frustration, but the players insisted on continuing, stating that no matter the odds they would attend the competition,” said coach Albert, who has become the new Technical Director of West African Baseball and Softball Union (WABSU).
However, when the team got to Lagos, it was able to get some assistance that enabled it travel to Burkina Faso to fly Nigeria’s flag.
In the competition proper, the resilience, determination and skills of the team shone through as they overcame all opposition to emerge West African Champions.
The team emerged winners as they played Mali, Ivory Coast and Togo to top their group, in a round rubby format and got through semi-final and beat the host Bukina Faso in the final.
Now, the team is preparing to fly the regions flag very high in Japan come November this year.
Coach Albert was happy that the team’s feat has made people to take notice and become aware of the sport.
He appealed to the sports authorities, especially in Rivers State to pay more attention to other sports, especially the ‘lesser sports’ other than football, adding that football was not the sport with the capacity to develop youths and bring glory to the state.
He also challenged coaches not to only depend on government’s sponsorship to attend a competition but to always seek for alternatives.
While expressing gratitude to Ojadi Oduche, Albert said, “my fellow coaches should emulate me and my team, we struggled to be in Burkina Faso but returned with glory. Most times if you wait for government’s sponsorship, you may not attend your competitions.”
Tonye Orabere
The Sports Writers Association of Nigeria ( SWAN) Rivers State Chapter has set up five standing working committees on Tuesday, in its general congress.
At the playoff held at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan, the team of Canice Abua, Michael Emmanuel, Daniel Adeleye, and Abubakar Yusuf was majestic as they restored Nigeria’s hope in a sport that once gave the country so much joy.
Speaking after the final game, Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) President, Victor Ochei, said the Davis Cup feat is the stepping stone to better days in the sport, adding that the federation has set up programmes that will help the budding talents across the country play at the same level as their counterparts in other tennis-developed countries.
Ochei said: “The whole aim of having this new board is to lift the sport to the level we used to be. I tell you, tennis is taking a new shape in Nigeria. We are putting everything and anything to make that work happen.”
Ochei said that the NTF has looked at sponsorships and how to get the emerging players compete at the same level with their peers elsewhere, adding that the federation is working on organising local competitions and helping the players to compete in international championships.
“We believe that with what we are doing now, sponsors will come to us to organise new competitions. But beyond that, there’s a strategic growth development plan, a 10-year development plan, which the board is working on.
“The programme will ensure that we catch them young. This is because we believe that to create champions, we must start grooming them early. The champions you are seeing today were those groomed yesterday.”
“The process of building new champions will include building the coaches, the players, the infrastructure and sensitising the parents so that we can start catching them as young as age five to six.
“By the time that we groom them through 10 years of training, at age 15, 16, you will see fantastic professional players.”
To achieve the federation’s plans, Ochei admits that the NTF needs a lot of investment, adding that the board is working at realising the funds quietly and tenaciously.
The NTF president acknowledged the contributions of former international stars like Nduka Odizor and Sadiq Abdullahi to the bid to rejuvenate Nigerian tennis, adding that NTF is open to collaborating with former players who know what it takes to play at the highest level of the sport.
He said, “Nduka Odizor is around as one of our VIP personalities. He has been psyching up the boys in the battle with Uzbekistan. He will not enter the court to play, but his mere presence is enough motivation to the boys, who will want to be like him in the future.
“You see, the type of support the Odizors, the Imonities and the Abdullahis got in their time is no longer there, but we are revamping it with the support of our stakeholders in the Diaspora.
“It will appear to take us some time, but I can tell you that the Diaspora support is massive.”
In its bid to get good results in this year’s Commonwealth Games, the National Sports Commission (NSC) has disbursed N200 million as training grants to 26 athletes.
The 2026 Commonwealth Games will be held in Glasgow, Scotland.
The NSC stated that the grants were disbursed through its Elite and Podium Board, noting that N200 million was allocated to select top-performing athletes.
The beneficiaries are both foreign-based and home-based, the NSC said, adding that it will cater for their training and preparation expenses.
According to the NSC, the recipients span several sports, including athletics, wrestling, weightlifting, and para-sports, in line with the Commission’s mandate to prioritise athletes’ welfare and high-performance development.
The Commission added that the disbursement follows the establishment of the Elite and Podium Board, created to implement a scientific and institutionalised support system aimed at sustaining peak performances by Nigerian athletes at major international competitions.
NSC Director General, Bukola Olopade, said the Commission, under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was established to restore confidence and provide renewed hope for Nigerian sportsmen and women by placing strong emphasis on athlete welfare.
“The training grants disbursed to 26 athletes across different sports followed a careful and professional selection process by the Yusuf Ali-led Elite and Podium Board. This is our way of reassuring our athletes that their welfare remains our utmost priority,” he said.
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