Ghana’s National High School Basketball Competition is set to return in 2024 after a halt in the tournament due to the COVID-19 Pandemic that hit the nation in 2021.
The tournament which is sponsored by Sprite in collaboration with RiteSports (a sports Management group in Ghana) seeks to unearth talents in Senior High Schools across the country.
The tournament which was first held in 2007 at the Aviation Social Center in Accra began with over thirty Senior High Schools participating in the competition. Since then the tournament has been hosted in eight regions namely, Greater Accra, Ashanti, Western, Eastern, Brong Ahafo, Northern, Central and Volta regions with over 300 Senior High School engagements.
In an exclusive interview with Univers Sports, Head of RiteSports, Mr. Yaw Sakyi revealed that the omicron virus was a main reason for halting the annual Basketball Championships in 2021.
“The Sprite ball Championship has been the catalyst as far as Basketball is concerned Ghana. The tournament has been running since 2nd January 2007. After the Covid-19 virus in December 2021, we launched the Sprite ball championship but unfortunately, the omicron virus showed up. Due to this, we were advised by Coca-Cola to put the tournament on hold to prevent a student from contracting the virus.”
Mr. Yaw Sakyi also hinted that the annual inter-school Basketball tournament will return in 2024 but under a different brand.
Meanwhile, Mfantsipm Senior High School still remains current holders of the tournament after winning the Boy’s edition in 2019. This is because there was no winner for the 2020 edition as the winning school Keta Business College were stripped off the title after they fielded unqualified players for the event.
Shama Senior High School will be looking forward to retaining their title in 2024 after beating Saint Louis SHS to win the 2020 edition.
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Story by: David Kwaku Dzaku | univers.ug.edu.gh
