Over the recent past UMOJACHIEFS has been working with primary schools around to introduce flag football. This is a simpler version of American football which is easy to understand and teach. This has cultivated the interests of players to play flag football.
After a month of preparation the team split on Saturday 16/4/2016 into two separate teams to show case the sport to fans that came to support the teams. 7 v7 flag football competition was well advocated for the community which saw of young interested athletes come out in numbers to watch the team battle.
coin toss
White (RAIDERS) VS blue (RECCE) captained by Emmanuel Juma and Fidel Oduor. This was a highly charged, testosterone, match that pulled an energetic crowd. The main goal of the match was to sale, to the Umoja residence, the beauty & benefits of the sport so as they could join thus to build a strong community based team.
The first half was well coordinated, where Raiders picked 21 points to nothing. The whites were organized and everything was executed as per their play book. RECCE defense minor mistakes saw them give away easy 21 points. They were able correct before the margin got bigger.
RECCE came out strong in the second half, thus quickly scored 12 points. This was first, full of speed and skills as they wanted to recover the score margin to win the game. Raiders didn’t get on the score board the entire second half. The game ended with Raiders winning by 21-14. The winners took home victory and won the hearts of many young athletes who signed up in numbers.
Team captain Fidel Odour had this to say, “I don’t have an American football background but somehow got exposed to this beautiful game, I take everything am taught serious and I go an extra mile to research about the game. That’s how I build my knowledge and skills on American football. So I encourage teammates to open up to other youths in the community.”
This is first of its kind within Embakasi West constituency and will see more of the same organized around in different schools to garner youths playing the game. The team plans to conduct more clinics and demonstration games in learning institutions around.
After the games we caught up with one exciting fan that seemed to enjoy the game more than others as he even cheered for the team in possession of the ball. He had this to say “I just cleared high school, I l played rugby but this game is interesting and fun won’t be a challenge for to be a star”
Event organizer George Alwanga who’s the Umojachiefs coach had this to say “Am pleased to see the strong mentality guys have, they are quick learners and very aggressive group have worked with. After practice on their way home they talk to random people, share their stories about the sport and recruits players, every day I see new players coming in. We started with 4players and now we are 30 after 3 months. Glad to be associated with this growing sport.”
full team
It’s said the area MP, George Therui, supports the efforts of this young athletes and he even facilitated them with Umoja Primary’s field according to our sources. The team is hopeful to build a strong base for May tournaments in and the tackle football in September.
TEAMS |
TOUCHDOWN (6) |
1 PAT CONVERSION |
2 POINT CONVERSION |
TOTAL SCORE |
WHITE-RAIDERS |
3 |
1 |
2 |
21 |
BLUE-RECCE |
2 |
– |
2 |
14 |
RAIDERS
Osama- 1 TD
Emmanuel Juma 2 PAT
Fidel odour-1 TD
Juma- 1 TD
Andrew 2 PAT
Recce
Shaban- 1 TD
Jemoy (2)
Dennis (6)
special thanks to our the media person
CATHERINE AWINJA