‘Grassroots Dev, Way To Revive Sports’

A university Don has said that grassroots sports development
was the only way to revive sports in the country.

Head of Department (HOD), Human Kinetics and Health
Education, of University of Lagos, Adeyemi Awopetu,  made his views known in an interview with
newsmen in Lagos.

According to him, unless sports competitions are revived in
schools, the situation will continue to be awful for the nation.

The HOD said that it was from there that the country could
select athletes to groom to represent the country at future national and
international competitions.

“A lot of the problems bedevilling our sports is due to poor
sport administration, there is a need for us to reorganise the way sport is
been administered in the country.

“There is a need for us to go back to grassroot sport
development, there is a need for us to look into our schools to recruit young
men, boys, girls.

“Who we can groom to become stars in the sports arena and
there’s a need for government, private individuals and other stakeholders to
also develop school sports.

“In the past most of the sportsmen and women were fed from
the schools, if we go back to the development of sports in schools right from
primary schools.

“Up to the secondary schools, the tertiary education,
colleges of education, polytechnics and universities, we fund sports in this
areas, we would be able to recruit the young men and women,

The HOD cited Emmanuel Ifejuna as an example of a student,
then of the University College, Ibadan, who won a gold medal in high jump in
the 1954 Vancouver Commonwealth Games.

Awopetu gave the assurance that if school sports were
revived the way it had been in the 60’s and 70’s, then there would be
improvements, instead of the current decline.