Senior Secondary Schools 3rd annual basketball competition held

The 3rd Annual Basketball Competitions organised by Scholar Athletes for Change (SAC), in collaboration with the Secondary Schools Sports Association (SSSA), was recently concluded at the Serrekunda Mini Stadium with Saint Augustine’s Senior Secondary School emerging as winners of the boys’ teams and Saint Peter’s Technical Senior Secondary School for the girls.

Each year since 2009 SAC collaborates with SSSA to organize this competition. The aim is mainly to provide an opportunity for the students that attend the basketball summer camps run by Pierre Jallow, founder and president of SAC and a former professional basketball player, to put into practice the skills that they have learnt from the camps.  In fact this year the girls’ teams were organized by their respective schools and they played in the competition for the first time.

The Competition was scheduled in two rounds.  The first rounds started on 23 January and ended on 3 February 2012.  The second rounds and finals were held between 9 and 14 April 2012.  Games were played at the Serrekunda Mini Stadium and the YMCA Basketball Courts.  Eleven schools of both boys and girls participated in the first rounds; in the second and final rounds a total of 8 schools competed for the boys teams and 6 schools for the girls teams.

Trophies awarded to the winning schools are as follows:                                                                                 

Girls Teams:

Championship Trophy was won by St Peters Technical Senior Secondary School                                                                                                 
Most Disciplined Team was won by Muslim Senior Secondary School                                                                                                                                            
Most Valued Player was Mariam Bojang of Methodist Academy                                                                                    
(Trophies donated by Scholar Athletes for Change SAC)

Boys Teams:                                                                                                                                             

Championship Trophy was won by St Augustine’s Senior Secondary School (Trophy donated by Trust Bank Ltd. The Gambia) and a Cash prize of D10,000

Most Disciplined Team was won by Kotu Senior Secondary School (Trophy donated by the YMCA) 

Runners-up: Girls – Methodist Academy, Cash prize of D4,000; Boys – Gambia Senior Secondary School, Cash prize of D6,000.

The SAC Board of Directors and the SSSA Executive Committee is grateful to the following sponsors of the competition since it started in 2009: SAC Finland, Fr Joseph Gough, University of Helsinki Students Fund, Trust Bank Ltd, YMCA The Gambia and Serrekunda West Mini Stadium Management Committee, Independence Stadium, and Plymouth Banjul Challenge.  With their support basketball is gradually gaining its momentum with the organizing of competitions amongst the school children. The next major activity from SAC is the upcoming SUMMER CAMP scheduled for 30 July to 4 August 2012.

Prepared by:  SAC Director