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