Front row from (left): Zachariah Ahmed, Aden Ibrahim, Abdimajid Mohammed, (back row from left), Salman Alio, Sudeysi Mohammed, Issack Abdi, Ibrahim Abdinoo and Dennis Lumuti, of Wayam Secondary School team from North Eastern Region, pose for a photo after their rugby sevens match against Bungoma Boys High School from Western Region at the Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association Term Two Games at The Bull Ring ground in Kakamega County on August 9, 2023. Bungoma won 50-00.
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Wayam Secondary School make history in Kakamega
What you need to know:
- He promised that they will come back stronger next year and also manage to score a try and possibly win a match.
As the rugby sevens event enters the quarter-finals stage on Thursday at this year’s Secondary Schools Term Two National Games in Kakamega, one school has made history.
Wayam Secondary School became the first school from North Eastern Region to feature in the competition since the discipline was introduced in the secondary schools’ games calendar in 2011.
Beneah Omollo, rugby sevens coach of Wayam Secondary School from North Eastern Region, during an interview after their match against Bungoma Boys High School from Western Region at the Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association Term Two Games at The Bull Ring ground in Kamamega County on August 9, 2023. Bungoma won 50-00.
The region fields teams in boys’ football, boys’ and girls’ volleyball and netball at the annual championships.
Wayam may not have won a single game in Pool “D”, but making it to the Kakamega bullring grounds is a milestone.
As they took to the pitch in their opening match against Nairobi Region champions Upper Hill School on Tuesday, they were awed by the pitch, posts and also the crowds that applauded their every tackle, line-out and scrum.
The 53-0 hiding by Upper Hill did not dampen their spirits, instead they fought till the last whistle, savouring every moment at this grand stage.
Fans cheered them on as they walked off the pitch and they duly responded with their version of a haka.
Their journey to this moment started last year when coach Beneah Omollo introduced the sport, four years after he joined the school.
“I saw immense talent just lying there and it motivated me to start the sport and we have been nurturing talent and this year we finally got the chance to come through zonal level until we won the regional event,” Omollo told Nation Sport on Wednesday.
He fondly recalls how his first training session, which had 36 students, was difficult due to the unavailability of facilities. They train in dusty football pitches under hot conditions.
“The students were hungry to learn and that made it easy to grasp the concepts of the sport and the management also helped in securing the things we needed,” he added.
“We have improved drastically over the years and I am really proud of what we have achieved. North Eastern as you know is most of the time under threat from terrorist groups, but we have braved it all to make sure rugby sevens is played,” Omollo explained.
He added the local community had also not embraced the sport for a long time, but they are slowly accepting and this will make it possible to have a bigger number playing the sport in the coming years.
Omollo said the first match against Upper Hill opened their eyes to modern rugby sevens, and admitted that his charges were intimidated.
“I think they also saw the physical appearance of their opponents and that could have contributed to how they played. However, I am proud of them and hope they enjoyed every bit of their time at the nationals,” he added.
Team captain Abdimajid Mohammed said they were stunned to see a standard rugby pitch.
“Back home, we train in dusty football pitches and it was new for us to play in a proper rugby pitch which has the right posts. Most of us fear tackling because of the pitches we are used to and that is why we did not tackle our opponents,” said the skipper.
He promised that they will come back stronger next year and also manage to score a try and possibly win a match.
