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Feasssa: Kitende eye number 15
Kitende are accustomed to winning. PHOTO/COURTESY
What you need to know:
The 12-time national champions faulted in Masaka losing to Amus College in the semis before salvaging their pride with a bronze after beating Bukedea Comprehensive 1-0 in the third-place playoff.
St. Marys’ Kitende winning school football at the nationals or East Africa is no longer news; it is news if they don’t win. Such are the standards that the Entebbe Road school has set that they have become a powerful juggernaut to beat.
The 12-time national champions faulted in Masaka losing to Amus College in the semis before salvaging their pride with a bronze after beating Bukedea Comprehensive 1-0 in the third-place playoff.
The school arrived in Bukedea ready for this year’s East Africa schools games that are co-hosted by Bukedea and Amus.
The two host schools have made heavy investments in sports especially football and are threatening Kitende’s dynasty. Amus lost to Kitende in the regional final last year but finished above their nemesis in the Nationals earlier this year.
Kitende have won 14 out of the last 18 in a competition that no other school has managed to win twice!
The defending champions have been pooled in Group A alongside hosts Bukedea, Benjamin Mkapa (Tanzania) and Kenyan duo St. Joseph's Boys and Highway.
Revenge
Kitende will kick off their campaign on Monday against newly-crowned Kenyan champions Highway.
The match will open old scars from back in 2022 when the Kenyans dumped Kitende out in the semis before losing to Kibuli in the final.
Coupled with their loss in Masaka, Kitende are baying for blood.
“The nationals and history are now behind us because as Kitende we learn from the mistakes and focus ahead. We have prepared very well and I expect a better performance in East Africa,” Kitende’s coach Daniel Male told Daily Monitor ahead of today’s openers.
In the other games to be played in the afternoon, Amus College will tussle it out with Musingu from Kenya as APE - Rugunga from Rwanda and Tanzania’s Kalangalala face in the other fixture.
This season’s games will have no quarterfinals due to a low turn-up, meaning that the top two from the two groups advance to the semis as the rest are relegated to classification matches.
2024 Feasssa Games (Bukedea) – boys’ football
Group A -St. Joseph's Boys (Ke), St. Marys Kitende(Ug), Bukedea Comprehensive(Ug), Highway Sec Sch (Ke), Benjamin Mkapa Sec (Tz)
Group B - St Julian (Ug), Amus College(Ug), APE - Rugunga (Rw), Musingu High School (Ke), Kalangalala Sec (Tz)
