Newly introduced baseball is expected to make an exciting debut at the Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association (KSSSA) regional championships, with fierce competition anticipated in the western and eastern regions where the sport has gained the strongest foothold.
The regional championships begin next week, marking baseball’s first appearance on the KSSSA calendar. Baseball Kenya Federation (BKF) president Titus Mutwiri said western and eastern regions have recorded the highest number of participating schools.
In western region, the boys’ competition will see St. Emmanuel Miruri Secondary School (Bungoma), Emanyinya School (Vihiga), FSS Kongoni and Musingu High School (both Kakamega) battle for the sole ticket to the national championships.
The girls’ competition will feature St. Emmanuel Miruri Secondary School (Bungoma), Emanyinya Secondary School (Vihiga), and Kakamega representatives St. Anne’s Musoli Girls and St. Agnes Shibuye Secondary School.
Eastern region will see Mully Children’s Family face Kivani Girls, while the boys’ title race will feature Mully Children’s Family, Kilungu Boys, Kivani Boys and Holyghost Schools, Makueni. In Nairobi, Dagoretti Mixed Secondary School and Olympic High School will contest both the boys’ and girls’ regional titles.
In central region, Alliance High School from Kiambu County will face All Sports Academy-Africa in the boys’ competition. Bomu Secondary School from the coast and Nkaimurunya Senior School from the Rift Valley have already secured qualification to the national championships in both the boys’ and girls’ categories after emerging unopposed in their respective regions.
Mutwiri welcomed the strong turnout of schools for the inaugural regional championships.
“Being the first time we are having the sport in the KSSSA calendar, I’m happy with the number of teams which have registered for the regional championships. We expect to have the sport played from the lowest levels from next year,” said Mutwiri.
However, he expressed disappointment that the sport will not feature in the Nyanza and north eastern regional competitions.
“In Nyanza, we had the sport in some schools in Migori, but they abandoned it. We want to revive the sport in the schools,” he said.
