Corporate Nigeria backs DAWN Games, as Lagos sports festival ends on Saturday

The Local Organizing Committee (LOC) of the DAWN Games 2014 has recorded significant success in its marketing drive as more companies continue to sign on as sponsors/partners for the Games.

The DAWN Games (South-West States Secondary Schools Games) will hold in Lagos from May 16 to 24, 2014 with over 2,000 athletes from the six states, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Ekiti and Lagos competing for honours in 12 sports.

Some of the companies that have signed on with the Marketing Subcommittee include Nestle Nigeria Plc, Honeywell Foods, Bingo Foods and Beverages with Vivi Chocolate, GT Bank, First Bank and PZ.

Some of these companies are already very visible at the designated Games venues. According to the Marketing Subcommittee, other companies are expected to come on board before the Games commence.

Chairman of the LOC and Lagos State Commissioner of Sports, Wahid Oshodi, expressed the state government’s appreciation to all the companies that are supporting the DAWN Games, adding that this only goes to confirm that in Lagos State, there is indeed an excellent collaboration between the public and private sectors in all areas, sports inclusive.

He further enjoined other private sector companies to support the state government in its efforts to ensure effective and sustainable sports development.

Meanwhile, Star College of Ikorodu have emerged the winners of the Men’s Volleyball event after defeating Rockford College, Ikorodu at the final played at Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos at the Lagos State Sports Festival tagged Ibile Games which ends on Saturday.

Star College won the final by 3- 0, while United Christian College, Ikorodu settled for the third position. Star College team were also adjudged the best male school in the Volleyball event of the Games.

Davo Patrick of Star College was awarded the tournament’s Most Valuable Player due to his performance.

Rockford College, Ikorodu dominated the women’s category, as the school defeated United Christian Secondary School by 3-0.
Musa Abosede of Rockford was adjudged Volleyball’s Most Valuable Player in the female cadre, while Ajigbada Girls Senior High School, Surulere were the Best Female volleyball school.

DAWN Games will foster unity among youths in South West, says Ibirogba

DAWN Games will foster unity among youths in South West, says Ibirogba • Ogun shapes up for tourney

Chairman of Media and Publicity Subcommittee of the DAWN Games, Mr. Lateef Ibirogba, has said that the tournament would help foster good relationship among the youth of the south-west states of the country

The maiden edition of the DAWN Games, a competition among secondary schools in Oyo, Ogun, Lagos, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti States, will be held in Lagos from May 16 to 24, 2014.

The chairman of the Media Subcommittee, who is also the Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Lagos State said the competition would bring youth in the region together to compete in a healthy environment, adding that the DAWN Games is symbolic because the south-west states want to show the rest of the country the cordial relationship that exists within the people and governments of the region and the need to use youth and sports to preach unity among the people.

Meanwhile, as the kick off date of the Games draws nearer, Team Ogun say they can’t wait for the school sports championship to start.

Director of Sports, Ogun State Sports Council, Mr. Adesola Faleti, said the state’s athletes are ready and are in good sporting form to excel at the competition.

“The athletes have been training for a couple of months. We are going to participate in 12 sports events and in Ogun State, we specialise in more than 33 sports, thus taking 12 out of 33 won’t be a problem for us,” said Faleti during the inspection of facilities and venues for the championship which took place recently in Lagos.

Faleti noted that the Games would enable Ogun State Sports Council to assess its grassroots developmental programmes which has been well supported by Governor Ibikunle Amosun, and more importantly it would assist the sports council the opportunity to replace
its ageing athletes.

”Since inception of Governor Amosun’s administration, we had been mandated to develop sports at the grassroots. I think the DAWN Games will definitely assist us to discover budding talent to replace the older athletes,” he said.

The former national pugilist said the state’s effective grassroots sports programme had earned Ogun a positive result as the National Sports Commission, NSC, invited over 22 athletes from the state to the national team, while six junior football players were also invited to the camp of the national U-13 team.

“DAWN Games can bring positive and better future for the nation as athletes we will discover in the regional championship can be selected for the country’s future international outings.

“I believe the DAWN Games is another opportunity to explain the commitment of the southwest state governments towards building Nigerian future stars who would take over from the ageing national athletes.

The DAWN Games is the needed grassroots developmental programme which we can use to aid the growth of sports and the wellbeing of our athletes,” he said.

He concluded that Ogun State Sports Council is working with the support of the Ministry of Education to place athletes that will excel in the DAWN Games on scholarship for them to continue their education.

The DAWN Games will feature 12 sports, which are athletics, badminton, basketball, chess, football, gymnastics, scrabble, swimming, table tennis, tennis, taekwondo and volleyball with over 2000 athletes and officials expected to participate.

The events will take place at Rowe Park Sports Complex, Yaba, Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere and Agege Stadium. The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Camp in Iyana-Ipaja will serve as the Games Village.

Facilities inspection, technical committee meeting for DAWN Games hold

The Joint Technical Meeting (JTM) and inspection of facilities for the DAWN Games (South West Secondary Schools Games) holding in Lagos, comes up this week from Thursday April 23 to 25, 2014.

The DAWN Games, involving all the southwest states of Nigeria – Ekiti, Lagos, Oyo, Osun, Ogun and Ondo, starts May 16 to 24, this year in Lagos.

According to the Local Organising Committee (LOC), the Director of Sports/ General Manager, Sports Council and the Director in charge of sports in the Ministry of Education will represent each state at the JTM and inspection.

Others expected are representatives from DAWN Commission, National Sports Commission (NSC) South West Zonal Coordinator and LOC members.

The inspection begins on Thursday April 24 and the team is expected to inspect the venues like Rowe Park Sports Complex, Yaba; Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere; and Agege Stadium.

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Camp in Iyana-Ipaja, which will serve as the Games Village will also be inspected.

The Joint Technical Meeting follows the inspection on Friday April 25.

The games will feature 12 sports, which are athletics, badminton, basketball, chess, football, gymnastics, scrabble, swimming, table tennis, tennis, taekwondo and volleyball with over 2000 athletes and officials expected to participate.

Lagos to host maiden DAWN Games

As part of efforts to encourage grassroots sports development in the region, the maiden South-West Secondary School Sports Festival tagged DAWN Games will be hosted by the Lagos State Government in May 2014.
This was revealed at the end of the three-day meeting held in Lagos and attended by stakeholders from the six South West states, National Sports Commission (NSC) and Nigeria School Sports Federation (NSSF) among others.

In a statement by the Public Relations Officer (PRO, Lagos State Sports Council, Bashir Agunloye, DAWN, is an acronym for Development Agenda for Western Nigeria, brings together the government of the six states of South West Nigeria – Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun and Lagos, in a concerted strategic developmental process geared towards social, economic and regional integration and sports is one of the tools being deployed to actualise the agenda.

The DAWN Games are expected to create a forum for youths in the region to harness their sporting talents while also encouraging mass participation in sports at the grassroots level.

Speaking at the event, the Director-General, DAWN Commission, Dipo Famakinwa emphasised the role of sports in the DAWN agenda and assured all of the commitment of the DAWN Commission to work for the success and sustainability of the games.

The Lagos State Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social Development, Wahid Enitan Oshodi stated the commitment of the Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola to hosting a very successful maiden edition of the Games.

“Governor Fashola believes that development of Sports at the grassroots is a major way of taking our youths off the streets”, Oshodi said.

The maiden edition which will hold from 16 to 24 May, 2014, and it will involve athletes in junior secondary schools, (JSS) and senior secondary schools (SSS) in the South-West states and will feature 12 sports -athletics, badminton, basketball, chess, football, gymnastics, scrabble, swimming, table tennis, tennis, taekwondo and volleyball.

Meanwhile the meeting also considered and ratified the rules and regulations for the games, the code of conduct for athletes and officials, the timelines and various other matters bordering on the hosting of a successful games.

The stakeholders, however, lauded the Lagos State Government and Governor Babatunde Fashola in particular, for taking up the hosting of the maiden edition of the DAWN Games.

FCT WIN NATIONAL U13 CHAMPIONSHIP……..AS 41 MAKE NATIONAL CAM……..COACHES COMMEND NFF……….MAIGARI PLEDGES CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR GRASSROOTS FOOTBALL DEVELOPMENT

FCT WIN NATIONAL U13 CHAMPIONSHIP……..AS 41 MAKE NATIONAL CAM……..COACHES COMMEND NFF……….MAIGARI PLEDGES CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR GRASSROOTS FOOTBALL DEVELOPMENT

The FCT U13 team on Tuesday defeated their Lagos state counterparts 5 -1 to emerge the champions of the 2013 NFF National U13 Championship in Abuja.
The match which was played at the FIFA Goal Project Centre of the Abuja National stadium, witnessed quality exchanges from both teams, but it was the FCT team that had the upper hand scoring five and conceding just once.
Mustapha Abubakar, Ebuka Okeke(2x), Abdulsalam Mohamed and Emmeka Samuel were all on the score sheet for FCT while Hadi Haruna scored Lagos state’s only goal in the match.
Both teams met earlier in the preliminary round and Lagos won that encounter 3-2. Niger state picked up bronze after their third place opponents, team Katsina were disqualified for gross indiscipline during their semi final game which they lost 2-0 to team Lagos.
Certificates and medals were also given to the three best placed teams while Lagos state’s Musa Ali emerged the most valuable player of the tournament and Lawal Olayinka of FCT emerged the best goalkeeper.

41 MAKE CAMP

Meanwhile, the National U-13/U-15 team secretary Wale Adeyinka says 41 players have been picked from the just concluded 2013 NFF National U-13 Championship in Abuja. Adeyinka also added that the selected players would be called to the National U-13 & U-15 team camp by March
” We are pleased with what we’ve seen in the last five days, especially with the fact that majority of the states came with players of the right age brackets, which means grassroots football development is striving in these areas.
Also, we’ve been able to pick 41 players that will have the opportunity to come fight for shirts when the national camp opens in March. “ He stated Eight U-13 teams from, Katsina, Kaduna, FCT, Ogun, Niger, Bauchi, Plateau and Lagos participated in the games.

MAIGARI PLEDGES CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR GRASSROOTS FOOTBALL DEVELOPMENT

In his remark at the closing ceremony of the 2013 NFF national U-13 Championship, the President, Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Alhaji Aminu Maigari, who was represented by NFF board member Alhaji Yusuf Ahmed Fresh , promised continued attention to grassroots football development.

“First let me commend the youth committee for a successful competition and also say that we recognize the fact that football development starts from this level that is the U-13.

We are determined to build on the success recorded in UAE where Nigeria won the FIFA U-17 world cup and majority of those players were discovered from this competition.

We’ll also do everything possible to ensure that these players are exposed both locally and also through
international tournaments like we have been doing in the past.”Maigari assured.

COACHES COMMEND NFF

Coaches at the ongoing 2013 NFF National U-13 Championship in Abuja have commended the Aminu Maigari led NFF board for encouraging football development from the grassroots.

Lagos state U-13 team coach, Shakito Giwa, says the Aminu Maigari led NFF board performed tremendously in the year 2013 and advised they aim for even a better 2014.

“Talking about the NFF, last year was a blessed year for Nigeria football, we won the nations cup, qualified for world cup and won the U-17 world cup. No doubt, there is a tremendous improvement in Nigeria football compared to two or three years ago.
I also want to advise that players picked from this tournament be camped during the holidays and also exposed to international matches.” Coach Giwa said.

Niger State U-13 team head coach, El-shaffee Mohammed says the NFF board is on the right part.

“This is a great developmental programme for our football because, it develops football from the
grassroots. I want to tell you that Niger state has already embraced this competition, right now we have some of our players playing in the National U-17 team and it is through the Organization of the National U-13 Championship.” Elshaffe added.
Similarly.

FCT Coach, Usman Haruna Ilerika, praised the NFF board for its consistency in grassroots football development and urged the football house to expose players picked to international championships.
“I think it is commendable that since 2008, the NFF has consistently turned to the grassroots especially children in primary and secondary schools to get young footballers who can in future do this country proud, but majorly I think the NFF should give the boys more international exposure.” Ilerika advised.

The Chief Coach of Ogun state U-13 team, Femi Bamigboye also joined in praising the NFF.
“Let me be factual with you, the Aminu Maigari led NFF board is doing their best in terms of youth sports development and you can see the results, the Golden Eaglets won the FIFA U-17 world cup, our women teams are qualifying for major competitions, the Super Eagles will be at the world Cup in Brazil, what else could you ask for. Coach Femi added.