For many years, primary and secondary school games have been a springboard for many budding talents to grow their careers to international levels.
These championships have also been hunting grounds for scouts from different disciplines who identify promising players and recruit them to their respective clubs.
Harambee Stars' all-time top goalscorer Dennis Oliech, Malkia Strikers' Gladys Ekaru, Mercy Moim and Sharon Chepchumba are just a few of the mega names who sprouted out of the school games and shot to stardom.
Which is why the local sports industry is heaving a sigh of relief after the wholesome relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions that had forced the cancellation of last year's and this year's school games.
Michael Malungu, head coach of Kenya Hockey League side Western Jaguars, acknowledges that many young talents have missed out on a critical stage of their development as a result of the two-year hiatus for the games.
"It is in schools where the basics are honed. Without matches at school level, these juniors lose the most important stage of their evolution. Clubs absorbing these players will have a lot more work to do to sharpen them,"Malungu said.
Malungu, who is also the national under-21 head coach and the assistant tactician in the senior team, believes the situation has been complicated by the fact that Kenya lacks comprehensive youth development set-up across many disciplines — save for athletics that has established training camps across the country.
Although he is happy to see the resumption of the school games, Malungu predicts that it will be a slow start as teams gradually work to engage a competitive gear.
"It will be pretty hard for teams to be aggressive when we have had no action. Junior players learn through observation or by taking part in what the senior players are doing. In hockey, it's only Wazalendo that have an academy. That tells you the workload that needs to be done," he says.
Perennial beneficiaries
Western Jaguars are one of the prominent hockey teams, which have over the years relied on school championships to identify and pick out promising talent to join them.
Others include Strathmore University (both Scorpions and Gladiators), USIU Spartans and Mashujaa whose squads consist of high school students.
Additionally, various volleyball clubs, such as Kenya Pipeline, Kenya Prisons, Directorate of Criminal Investigations and Kenya Commercial Bank have benefited from a reliable supply of talent from giant schools, such as Kwathanze, Cheptil, Malava and Lugulu Girls, among others.
Players like Esther Mutinda, Gladys Ekaru (Pipeline), Immaculate Nekesa, and Sharon Chepchumba (KCB) are Kwanthanze alumni who also represented the national team, Malkia Strikers, at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Their talents were spotted at national and East Africa school games.
Based on this rich history of talent progression from high school to professional level, Malkia Strikers' head coach Paul Bitok must be an elated and relieved man that the games are set to return.
In the aftermath of the Tokyo Olympics, Kenya's pioneer professional volleyballer has been on a mission to rebuild the national team for future assignments.
He admits it has been a herculean task owing to the lack of enough opportunities or local championships to scout talent.
"I am happy that school games are resuming. We have had a rough time figuring out how to replace some of the older players because we have scouted no players in the absence of school games," the former Rwandese national coach says.
Bitok adds: "The metamorphosis of players from high school to club level has suffered a big blow since last year. This has even affected the transformation of players to the national team."
Other teams have been compelled to adopt alternative strategies to identify new talent and replace the ageing members of their squads.
For example, Kenya Prisons women's volleyball side will soon call for trials to recruit new players in readiness for the 2021/22 season that commences later next month.
"The only option we are left with is to assemble players for preliminaries. We are going to call for trials very soon to try and identify some players who can reinvigorate our squad. With school games, it was easy to earmark the players but we do not know what to expect now," head coach Josp Barasa says.
The wardresses will be gunning for their fourth Kenya Volleyball Federation League title after winning the past three editions.
Additional benefits
Apart from being a hunting ground for sports teams, school games are also critical to realising a healthy nation.
Considering the benefits of a physically active lifestyle, these games aid in the overall development of students and provide them with important life lessons, such as teamwork, decision-making, critical thinking, accountability, self-confidence, responsibility and self-discipline.
As a sporting activity, school championships prepare students to face the challenges of life and jolt them to the reality that sometimes you win and on other days you lose.
Participants in these games stand a chance of developing values of mutual trust and cooperation.
The feeling of sportsmanship, which develops during such events, teaches students to accept failure and respect for others.
These are life lessons or skills that will not only benefit such students in their future sporting careers but also other aspects of their lives, including relationships with other people.
The way forward
In view of the foregoing, Bitok believes school games are a critical conveyor belt of talent that should never again be left to lie fallow.
He proposes the establishment of more centres of excellence and the incorporation of underage competitions at the national level.
St. Anthony Boys, Kitale is a football centre of excellence while Kisii's Mogonga PAG High School was elevated by governor James Ongwae in 2019 after starring in netball, athletics and volleyball.
"The only way to ensure we are not caught up in this quagmire again is ensuring we have enough centres of excellence spread across the country for easy accessibility. With these centres, talent nurturing becomes easier and transforming players to nationals teams becomes seamless," Bitok says.
On his part, Malungu is calling for increased partnerships between different sports federations and schools to provide modern coaching expertise to the latter.
His Kakamega-based Jaguars, for instance, have their players serving as coaches in schools like Kakamega High School, Mukumu Boys and St. Anthony Boys, Kitale.
"As Jaguars family, we are proud that our players are giving back to the society by helping juniors soar higher in sports. I have spent sometime at Musingu High School and this is one way we can carefully scout for the creme-de-la-creme of the local talent," he explains
Whether stakeholders have learnt harsh lessons in the last 20 months and are prepared to solve the problem once and for all remains to be seen.
For now, we can all look forward to a repeat of entertaining and sumptuous match-ups of the yesteryears, such as Maseno v Laiser Hill Academy (basketball), Kwathanze v Cheptil (volleyball) and St Anthony Boys v Kakamega High School (football), among others.
The glory days are back with us!