Girls footballers from Arua S.S(in blue ) and St Marys Ediofe Girls S.S(in white) in action

By Swali Sabiri

Arua City

Since being rebranded as Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Association (USSSA), the tournament from the previous Coca-Cola schools championship, this year’s tournament in Arua city has more schools presenting footballers in the ladies category.
 
Last year only four secondary schools including Mvara SS, Arua Public SS, Muni Girls SS and St. Mary’s Ediofe girls SS were able to form ladies football teams and this year the numbers have gone up to 15.
 
Rashidah Basma a student and also football player of Arua Secondary school said “I am very impressed by the number of girl’s teams, level of competition but also the officiation of the games, I pray this continues for the good of our region”.
 
Similarly Atimango Sharon a student of Muni girls’ SS said “this is the right opportunity for us girls to showcase our talents and live our dreams, for me my dream is to play for Lady Doves FC of Masindi in future”.


Girls footballers from Arua Secondary school and St Micheal Odramacaku

The tournament brought together a total of 39 schools including the traditional giants such as Mvara SS, St. Joseph’s College Ombaci, Arua SS, Arua Public SS among others competing for the championship with 24 boy’s football teams and 15 girls’ teams.
 
Two venues   were used for the for girls group stage games, St. Mary’s Ediofe girls’ SS playground and Jiako Primary school playground. It has been the tradition that football and Netball go co-currently in the schools but this year, Netball has been categorized under ball game 2 thus will be played in the 2^nd term of the school term as well as athletics.
 
The tournament will climax on Saturday March 23, 2024.
Six schools including three each from both the boys and girls teams will represent Arua city in the regional championship slated for April this year in Koboko Municipality, West Nile.