Handball
By Millicent Ifeanyichukwu
Lagos, June 6, 2018 (NAN) The Lagos State Handball Association (LSHA) says that talents discovered from the Season 4 of Lagos State Secondary Schools Handball Championships, will undergo a follow-up programme during the summer holidays.
Adeola Opeifa, immediate past Chairman of the Lagos State Handball Association (LSHA), made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Lagos.
NAN reports that no fewer than 100 budding talents were identified from the just-concluded championships, tagged “OPEIFA CUP’’, held in May at the Rowe Park Sports Centre, Yaba.
Opeifa said the schedule was to complement schools’ academic calendar, and to allow players to concentrate on their studies and tidy up their academic activities for the session.
“In spite of the fact that we encourage combination of sports and academics, we still give preference to their academics because the players involved are still in school.
“As part of activity and encouragement, we organise holiday coaching for interested players, but this segment of the programme is going to give attention to potential discovered at the OPEIFA CUP.
“Although, our training holds regularly at Rowe Park because of the standard courts but many of them don’t really come due to their busy academic activities,’’ she said.
According to her, there will be enough coaches on ground to do the needful on the players that will make themselves available and ready to improve on their skills.
“It’s a free grassroots programme and the purpose is to take advantage of the long vacation to thoroughly engage, expose them to handball techniques as they grow in the sport of their choice.
“We need to let these selected players know that we have them in mind and have will to fulfill our promises for them starting with this follow-up training,’’ she added.
Opeifa told NAN that such programmes had tremendous technical input in the performance of the Lagos state teams, which emerged winners at the 2018 U-12/15 National Handball Championships which held in Lagos.
She said that everything necessary was being done for the coaching event, while the dates would be made official in conjunction with LSHA, organisers of the programme. (NAN)
MIL/ERO/PDE
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(Edited by Emmanuel Okara/Peter Ejiofor)