Alumni and Ghana’s sports development

 Schools have become targets for almost every sports federation in Ghana that aims to broaden the base of their various sports disciplines.

Even football, which is believed to have the biggest numbers in terms of followership, is still hovering around the schools, combing every corner to identify and harness new talent at tender ages.

Phrases like ‘Catch them young’ have perfectly been coined to give credence to this practice.

Boxing, athletics and others follow similar trends; going lower than talent identification at the Senior High School level.

That speaks of the importance of this struggle to look for talented performers at their very youthful stages with the hope of grooming them to become world beaters.

Sadly, these young chaps develop up to a certain level, only for the progress to be curbed dues to factors like nonexistence of infrastructure.

Once again, football leads the pack of sports disciplines with the largest infrastructure. Perhaps, it may be so because in our part of the world, all one needs to show prowess in football is an open space.

But it is not so with the others.

Those that suffer most in this regard are the disciplines considered indoor sport.

In the advanced countries, disciplines like netball, handball, volleyball, judo, taekwondo, badminton, basketball, table tennis and others are considered indoor sports; and they are mostly played within.

This is different in our part of the world. In Ghana, playing these sports indoors are considered luxury because there are very few facilities to accommodate them.

Aware of this challenge, most of the sports courts in the country have been constructed in such a manner that can accommodate more than one discipline.

It is common, therefore, to see one court with markings for tennis, volleyball, handball and basketball. The aim is to use them as a multi-sport facility and be used from morning to evening.

The story about the circumstances under which the Aburi Girls SHS basketball team plays was a pathetic one. This is a school with a good history in basketball, dating back to the 2000s.

However, it lacks a good basketball court, compelling the children to play on a poor surface car park which exposes the children to varying degrees of injuries.

The unfortunate situation facing such federations eventually hinders the development of these rising stars because they lack the facilities to be active.

Madam Aurora Commodore-Toppar, a basketball enthusiast and Treasurer of the Ghana Basketball Federation (GBF) came through for the Aburi Girls School basketball team last weekend, donating an amount of Gh₵100,000 to support the construction of a multi-purpose sports court for the school.

The money would finance the initial phase of the project, which is the construction of the court.

The second phase of the project, which is the sitting area, is expected to be financed with proceeds from a fundraising exercise launched by the basketball aficionado.

Clearly, subsequent governments have all in a way reneged on that responsibility to provide adequate infrastructure for the respective sports to thrive.

But with that support not forthcoming, especially with the least financed sports, the support from corporate institutions and individuals like Madam Commodore-Toppar remains key in the sports development agenda.

Through the effort of Madam Commodore-Toppar supported by her 2000 year group, ABUGISS will boast of a modern sports court. This is an example the various year groups of the schools can follow in addition to the provision of boreholes and other facilities

 By Andrew Nortey