Sports
NAFA Invites 80 Players For Lagos U-18 Screening
The Nigeria America Football Association (NAFA) has invited 80 players, mostly students from secondary schools, for the Lagos U-18 flag football combined screening ahead of the formation of a national team.
According to NAFA, the U-18 screening and competition, which will hold at the King’s College, Lagos, from September 14 to 16 for boys and girls, is being organised by the Federation to groom a young national team that will participate in an International Federation of American Football (IFAF) U-18 tournament slated to hold in Ireland, next year. It has given NAFA the opportunity to train young players that will be drafted into the envisaged senior national team in future.
It said experienced and exposed coaches in the sport would supervise the U-18 flag football screening.
Speaking with Thetidesports source on Monday, Secretary General of NAFA, Lawrence Ojaideh, said the screening for players would be carried out through a stringent process to ensure there is a solid flag football team.
“The Lagos U-18 Flag Football screening would involve most of the outstanding players that represented their schools in the maiden Flag Football Championship held at the Teslim Balogun Stadium.
“The tryout process would be done in an organised manner from 9.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. daily for three days to ensure the best players are selected.
“Eighty players, comprising 40 boys and 40 girls, will participate in the exercise. Flag football is the first process of American football at the junior level before graduating to the senior level.
“We have to get it right at the U-18 level to make American football a strong force in Nigeria. Players will be tested in all departments of Flag Football.
“The team will represent Lagos State in National Flag Football Championship in the nearest future.”
Ojaideh said screening for the senior national team, which is the contact level of the sport, would be held in November.
He added: “NAFA’s target to develop Flag Football and America Football in the country has yielded positive results, as we recently received jerseys from an NFL club, Detroit Lions’ player, who directed that we give them to winners of the 2022 Nigeria Secondary Schools Flag Football League (NSSFFL).
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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