Fund schools to play hockey on pilot bases – GASSA ZONE 4

The Greater Accra Schools Sports Association (GASSA Zone 4) on Friday called on corporate institutions to sponsor second-cycle schools to integrate hockey as a sporting discipline in the school sports curriculum.

The GASSA said the lack of sponsorship remains a challenge, schools could be sponsored to play hockey on a pilot basis to help develop the sports from the grassroots level.

Mr. Kobina Ampiah-Biney, GASSA Zone Four Secretary told the GNA Sports at Tema that the schools needed the right infrastructure to develop hockey.

He revealed that the GASSA Zone Four Schools sports competition was funded through the Capitation Grants from the participating schools, which is inadequate to procure hockey sticks, goalkeeper gears, and shin guards.

Mr. Ampiah-Biney, who doubles as the Physical Education Instructor at the Tema Methodist Senior High, emphasized hockey would improve the financial position of schools if introduce as a mainstream discipline.

Mr. Ebenezer Siomoni Otutey, P. E. Instructor also called on corporate bodies to adopt schools in the metropolis to offer support.

He argued that, providing schools with protective gears, hockey equipment and an available open place would not only make hockey “available and accessible” to students, but would also upgrade the status of hockey from a lesser-known sporting discipline to a popular sporting discipline.

Mr. Frederick Aflakapui, Sports Coordinator at the Tema West Education Office attributed funding as the major challenge crippling sporting activities among schools in the zone.

“When directives from regional coordinators come instructing the introduction of hockey as a mainstream discipline, we will ensure its implemented in the zone,” he said.