Green is the colour of victory

The 16 and Under tournament was held on Saturday with both Queen Elizabeth and Girls High playing host to other 25 schools from within and outside Harare.
The tournament saw the winning team walking away US$100 richer, followed by Mufakose, who won US$80 and Tafara High 2 getting the third prize US$60.

All schools braced for the tough tournament at the full capacity venue giving their best in as far as the game was concerned.
The teams were divided into four pools -A, B, C and D – with each pool having seven schools.

Girls High were on tops in Pool A, followed by Queen Elizabeth, while in Pool B, Mufakose High 2 led the group with Zengeza 1 coming next, Pool C had Lord Malvern, followed by Mufakose 1 and while Pool D saw Zengeza 2 battling it out with St John’s and other schools.

Each pool played six games, with the two leading teams exchanging notes in group stages with other winning teams from the other pools.
They clashed in the group stages five minutes per half running time and the winners proceeded to the quarter-finals with 10 minutes allocation per half.

After that, they met into four semi-finals comprising two winning teams from each pool, then to the finals where two teams square off. Judging from this year’s attendance and performance, the tournament organisers applauded other schools for heeding the call to take part in the sport.

Girls High School is still churning out the best players ever in the game after Mary Chawapira scooped the US$20 prize money for the most valuable player.
“It was not a surprise for me to win the prize because I was expecting it due to my play. Having started playing basketball seven years ago whilst doing Grade 4, I believe it is an in-born thing,” she said.

However, it was a different story for Queen Elizabeth School whose team underrated other opponents other than the winners.
Teams captain Irene Mugadzahweta said that her team’s performance was exceptional though they failed to do the miracle.

“We played well, our team was good but it was not our day. I think we made a mistake by underrating other schools that had a better play, for we thought only Girls High can beat us,” said Mugadzahweta.

It seems like schools in the satellite town of Chitungwiza are still lagging behind sports-wise. The tournament was a debut appearance for most of the schools from the town topping the list being Nyatsime College.

Dephin Guyo, who leads the girl’s team at the college, felt that most of the schools were short-changed by age-cheating.
“There is need for the tournament organisers to come up with measures to ensure that there are no age cheats during the games. Again, I think schools in the outskirts are far from providing good players since scouting for talent is done at a slow pace if any at all,” she pointed.

The aim of the tournament was to come up with a provincial team of 30 players for the inter-provincial tournament scheduled for Masvingo province from August 2-4.
Tournament organisers are promising a show of a lifetime with all competing teams preparing to outdo each other.

Last year Girls High School won the tournament in all age groups and only time will tell whether there is going to emerge another challenger to claim the throne.