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Sport
TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 2015 NEW TELEGRAPH
Odyssey of a Green Eagle: Skill honed at barracks The former Director General of the National Sport Commission, Dr. PATRICK EKEJI, recently unveiled his book titled “Odyssey of a Green Eagle”. We continue the serialisation of the interesting book.
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t Standard Five, I made it into the school football team and we eventually got to the final against St Stephen’s Catholic School Ebute Metta, in the Lagos Primary Schools football competition of 1962 played at the King George V (KGV) Stadium. From my outside right position, I scored the equaliser to level scores at 1-1 and was chosen as one of five outstanding players from either side. Each of us was presented with one piece of the winner team memorabilia. Football rules at that time had no provision for extra time or penalty shootouts at the end of a stalemated match. In any case it was the equivalent of Under-13 of today. It was a dream fulfilled to have played in the KGV. Before that experience, Ishola Folorunsho, the ace broadcaster and football commentator brought the KGV arena to the ‘feel and sight’ of all football followers whenever he ran live radio commentaries of matches. Ironically, I would record my first major victory in my sporting life in that stadium, in 1971. My first love of a profession was medicine. I desired to become a medical doctor. As a six-year-old boy, growing up in Obalende Police Barracks, I recollect that Mr. Anthony Njoku (Da Antho), as we called him, was a laboratory technician in the service of General Hospital on Broad Street Lagos. He was fond of me and sometimes on
his way to work and if we were on holiday, he would occasionally take me with him to his office. I guess that a combination of my admiration of him in his immaculate white overcoat and perhaps the cleanliness of the entire environment left an indelible mark on me. I also admired nurses not only because they turned out for work very sprightly in their combination uniforms, they smiled all the time and I wished my younger sister, now Mrs. Rose Onuoha, would one day be a nurse. This ambition was further reinforced when I got admitted into St Gregory’s (GREGS) College, Obalende Lagos. Gregs was one of the better-known elite Catholic Missionary Schools. My attraction to Gregs evolved from watching some inter college football matches in the school compound, in addition to the annual inter house athletics competitions, which organisationally, I would describe as flawless. John Enahoro was blessed with football skills. Only leftfooted and not endowed with a lot of height, he was quick, stylish, flexible, but strong. He was the Lionel Messi of his time. I saw the likes of Carew in goal for Gregs. Carew was simply a delight to watch in between the uprights and the cross bar. He was equally a great high jumper. He and Charles Njoku would be the first college students in Nigeria to scale the high jump bar at 6 feet 1 inch
and 6feet 2 inches respectively at the school’s inter house sports. Now I know that my attraction to Gregs as a child growing up at Obalende Police Barracks was intricately connected to the sports programmes I witnessed on the school’s grounds. My skills in football were honed at the police barracks sports field where we played daily after school. It was addictive. On many occasions I got flogged by my mother for abandoning laundry to go play football. I got admitted into Gregs in 1963. At the first football practice during games period, I was selected for the school’s ‘Rabbit’ team drawn essentially from class one (first year) students. I turned out to be multitalented. Indeed, I excelled at any sport I took part in. In 1966, I represented the school in the 110 yards (known today as 100 metres) hurdles at the Grier Cup competition among secondary Schools in Lagos, held on King’s College grounds. Okunowo, (I guess his father owned the popular Okunowo transport services in Lagos in the 1960s) of Igbobi College coasted home with ease after Pat Njoku and I (both from Gregs) were disqualified for two false starts. Pat was the favoured school huddler in Lagos at the time until I caused an upset at our school’s trials as well as at the school’s inter-house Sports shortly before the Grier Cup. At the Grier Cup event, both of us tried to have a head start on each other as that would (we individually believed) determine who won the race, between the two of us. Okunowo was supposed to a distant favourite in that event. I also did some long, and tri-
ple jumps, and played cricket as well. But I would become more involved in football as I was selected into the first team in class three in 1965. This was an outstanding feat in the school. Prior to this, the school team had always been drawn from class four through upper six. Monsignor Edmond Akpala (the present Administrator) and Chris Okwudibonye were other classmates who made it into the team with me. Gregs was different in so many ways. The motto of the school then was—and still is— “Pro Fide et Scientia”. It means ‘For faith and knowledge’. By the policy of its establishment, it was a public school, yet its administration and their style of management infused it with a dose of elitism which led to production line of students imbued with knowledge, love and respect for each other irrespective of social strata of their parents or guardians. The neologism, publitist, conveys my feelings about the school. This culture of excellence in the school was handed down by the Irish Catholic Reverend Fathers who significantly influenced and husbanded the growth and development of the College. They include: Rev. Fr. Leo Taylor (1928-1934), Rev. Fr. James Saul (1934-1937), Rev. Fr. Francis Duyan (1938-1942), Rev. J.T Moran (1943-1957), Rev. Fr. MacAndrew (1957- 1959), Rev. Fr. J. McCarthy (1959-1969) by ensuring the engagement of very high quality teachers in both science and arts subject but more importantly for respect and adherence to rules. Gregs was a public-private school with a difference. It was a pride to be a Gregorian. As a fresh student coming into
the compound for the first time, one cannot but take note of the meticulously manicured flower hedges, the immaculately neat compound and the alluring flush green football pitch lined, at the western end, with well trimmed non-fruit-bearing foxtail coconut trees. The sereneness of the daily morning assembly, followed by the prayer session in the chapel, brought to our consciousness a sense of orderliness to which compliance was mandatory. We would get to know also that our Principal, Father McCarthy; a very quiet, soft spoken Irish priest had very little tolerance for behaviours antithetical to morals and learning. And he knew every student by surname! Of course he sustained discipline with strict application of all the rules contained in the school’s brochure provided for all new students, which included as well entrants into the HSC two-year program. In Gregs, participation in one or more sports was an integral part of our education and, sports equipment were issued out to students for games in those sports which had the facilities. By my last year at Gregs in 1967, I had become the star of the school’s football team. And then came the 1966 coup which eventually led to the Civil War. One Friday afternoon in April 1967, my father came back from work and got me into an Eastbound passenger lorry at Iddo Motor Park the next day. The situation in Lagos, he said, was getting very precarious for the Igbos. The year before, he had sent my mother and my seven other siblings home. TO BE CONT INU E D NE XT WE E K
Taiwo eyes return after 14 months absence
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former AC Milan and Nigeria defender Taye Taiwo is keen to find a route back into top-level action despite 14 months of inaction. His last game was in April 2014 for Turkey’s Buraspor, but his contract was ended a year later by mutual consent. “I know I can still play
for another top club and that’s why I’ve been training hard to stay fit,” the 30-year-old told BBC Sport. “There are good possibilities in Italy, France and Netherlands so we’ll see.” Taiwo’s biggest success came during a six-year stint with French side Marseille, his first European club which he joined in March 2005.
He made over 200 appearances for the club, scoring 21 goals before joining Italian giants AC Milan in 2011. He struggled to establish himself in Italy and then spent six months on loan at QPR in 2012 before the move to Buraspor. The left-back says playing club football is his main goal rather than playing for
the Super Eagles again. “Even when I was playing regularly in Ukraine and Turkey I never got a chance with Nigeria,” he said. “In football you have to arrange your priorities and my immediate target is to get back to club football. “As a Nigerian I remain a big fan of my country and that will never change.”
Basketball: NBBF names Adeka as U-16 coach Ifeanyi Ibeh
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he Nigeria Basketball Federation has named veteran youth coach, Adeka Daodu, as coach of the U-16 women’s team ahead of the FIBA Africa U-16 Championship for Women taking place in Madagascar from July 10 to 19. Daodu, who is the technical adviser of DStv Premier League campaigners, Dodan Warriors, has past experience with several of the country’s national youth teams. According to a state-
• Set to pick D’Tigers’ handler ahead 2015 AfroBasket ment signed by the NBBF’s spokesperson, Patrick Omorodion, Daodu will be assisted by First Deepwater stand-in coach, and former national team captain, Shola Shomala. They are expected to select team for the championship from a shortlist of 20 players who have been in Abuja since Sunday. Nigeria received a wildcard to take part in the 2015 FIBA Africa U-16 Championship for Women from the continental body earlier in
June. It will be the country’s maiden appearance at the championship whose maiden edition took place in 2009 in Mali. The top two teams at the end of the championship will qualify for next year’s FIBA U-17 World Championships. Meanwhile, the NBBF is set to name a coach for the senior men’s national team, D’Tigers, later in the week. According to a state-
ment from the NBBF, the basketball body received over 20 applications for the head coaching job. Among the applicants are 2012 Olympic team assistant coaches Sani Ahmed and Timothy Shea. Others are Jose Maria Berrocal Riera (Spain), Ricardo Daniel Maffei (Argentina), Guy Arnaud (France), William Voigt (USA), Sodini Marco (Italy), Dennis Felton (USA) and Aramis Naglic (Croatia).
Taiwo