The Handball Federation of Nigeria (HFN) yesterday appealed to local government councils to support the grooming of talents discovered at the 18th National Sports Festival concluded on December 9, in Lagos.

HFN Technical Director, Musa Hamza, said that the assistance would enable state associations to organize programmes that would develop the athletes.

“I am calling for support from local and state governments from where our newly-identified players emerged, to make sure that the talents are kept busy,” Hamza said.

He said that players who passed through development programmes such as grassroots competitions came out better when invited into the national camp ahead of tournaments.

Hamza also appealed to coaches to prepare training programmes that would fall within their academic calendar since many of the newly-discovered players were still in school.

“The players fall within the school-age bracket and we do not want anything that will hinder their academics. Coaches should put this into consideration in drawing up their programmes,” he added.

Hamza advised coaches to update themselves with the technical know-how of the sport so that they would be in a better position to train the players.

The HFN official said the body would ensure that national training programmes were organised during long vacations to evaluate the players’ development.

According to him, some states have been of tremendous assistance to the federation by sponsoring some of its activities and urged others to emulate such gesture.