Football powerhouse St Anthony aim at East Africa elusive title

National Secondary Schools boys’ Under-19 football champions St Anthony’s Kitale have set their eyes on this year’s East Africa crown when the annual competition kicks-off on August 17 to 25 in Arusha, Tanzania.

The five-time national winners reclaimed their national title after a seven-year drought defeating Dagoretti in a post-match shootouts in the finals held in Kisumu a fortnight ago and head coach Peter Mayoyo believes that the gods of football will smile their way in Tanzania.

Seasoned Mayoyo says Kenya is primed for this year’s title which has eluded Kenyan teams since 2016 when Barding downed 12-time champions St. Mary’s Kitende of Uganda to bag their maiden title when Kenya hosted the annual championship.

“Uganda has dominated for long and I think basing on the preparations which we have done we will end their dominance. My squad is very strong and we are raring to go and we will ensure we rule in football and emulate other Kenyan teams who have dominated in other disciplines,” Mayoyo told Citizen Digital while in Kajiado where Team Kenya has pitched camp ahead of the games.

Uganda has proved to be a force to reckon with in boys’ football dominating for many years with only Barding and St. Anthony from Kenya the only sides to have wrestled the title from the neigbouring country.

The Kitale based team clinched the first edition of the competition in 2002 defeating Kibuli of Uganda in the games played in Nairobi and they will be eyeing a second title after a long hiatus.

The national champions are poised to launch Kenya’s assault in the football against defending champions Buddo of Uganda, Standard High School also from Uganda and hosts Lindi Secondary School while fellow Kenyans Dagoretti are paired alongside multiple champions St Mary’s Kitende of Uganda, Malawi’s SLB School and Ruwuiko School from Tanzania.

The other pool has LNL Ngozi School of Burundi, Jinja Secondary School (Uganda), Vwawa Secondary School(Tanzania), Alliance Secondary School( Tanzania) and LDK School (Rwanda).

Team Kenya has pitched camp at Olekajuado and Isinya secondary schools in Kajiado County to acclimatize before flag off to Arusha on Friday.

Schools from six countries including Kenya, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania will compete for titles in volleyball, handball, football, basketball, rugby, swimming, hockey, athletics, netball and racket games. Others are Rwanda and Zanzibar.