USSSA End Age cheating, repeaters and impersonation in schools’ games

By Emmanuel Sekago

As we get closer to the end of the year 2023 come Sunday December 31st, the body mandated to oversee activities of secondary schools sports has failed to harmonise its rules especially on age and Repeaters.

We all know that Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Association (USSSA) every start of its activity calendar year, sets up the rules that must be followed by all secondary schools that have registered to compete in its district, zonal and nationals in Ball games-One, USSSA-National boys football, Ball games -Two and USSSA-National swimming competition.

This years coming to an end 2023 with three days to close it, the Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Association (USSSA) revisited the age rule ahead of the sporting period were  the president of USSSA and his entire executive committee convened a meeting after the outcry from the schools sports stakeholders to restore the recently revoked U20 age rule that allowed students who were U21 to feature in games due to Covid-19 pandemic  making the two years they missed .

Looking at one of the close, “All our USSSA senior competitions and tournaments for 2023 be of age category U20. For any student to participate in the games, he/she must be born on or after  January 1st 2003.”

The process of harmonizing the age category of secondary school National championships with that of FEASSSA which is U19 will be done at a later date. And that this process be brought before the general assembly for approval.
This year’s edition of the Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Association (USSSA) Ball Games championships-Fresh Dairy were  hosted in Western Uganda following the rotational basis adopted in 2019 and Ntare School from Mbarara was the host.

In basketball – St Mary’s Boarding School Kitende  walked past St Noah girls school in the finals beating them 65-50 to become the 2023 fresh dairy games national basketball championships while in boys category Buddo secondary school beat Elite High School -Entebbe.

In Football- Amus college school -Bukedea were crowned fresh Dairy games girls football champions after beating holders St Noa girls 1-0 in a final that was at Kakyeka stadium.

For the USSSA – National Ball Games-Two  which had netball, handball, athletics, volleyball, dancesport, Woodball and basketball 3X3 were hosted in St Mary’s College Rushoroza-Kabale, while Nyakasura School in Kabalore  hosted USSSA – National boys’ football.

Qualified teams in both Fresh Diary Games, boy’s football and Ball Games II featured at the East African Secondary Schools Sports Association (FEASSSA) games held in Huye, Rwanda.

It should be noted that during the district and zonal qualifiers there were a lot of petitions on age cheating and repeaters that up to now, as Uganda secondary schools sports association needs to address it quickly before the new year starts 2024.

For Example, The Busoga’s  Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Association-USSSA -Zone committee banned Kamuli Progressive College from participating in their activities for a period of two years, after being found guilty of fronting an overaged non-student as part of their football squad during the Zonal qualifiers in USSSA-Boys football championship. The games teachers of Kamuli progressive were also  banned for two years without participating in any USSSA related activities.

Independent whistleblowers petitioned Busoga zone’s USSSA secretariat, accusing Kamuli progressive of practicing unsporting behavior, by deliberating clearing an overage impostor to feature in a students’ championship.

According to findings by wallnetnews during the qualifiers, Stephen Mugulusi, a striker with Kamuli progressive, was found guilty of using different names to feature in different tournaments, based on the evidence extracted from the 2018 students’ album of St. Henry’s college, Mayuge.

“Mugulusi Stephen’s photo in the Kamuli Progressive album was  the same as that in St. Henry’s college, Mayuge album. The player is referred to as Stephen Mugulusi in the Kamuli progressive album, whereas, the same individual is identified as Michael Kalunda in the St. Henry’s Mayuge, album of 2018.”

The report further revealed that Mugulusi is a time-barred player aged 25 years, contrary to this year’s maximum age limit of 22 years. “On top of being a time-barred player, Mugulusi sat for his Primary Leaving Exams-PLE in 2013, yet they were clearing players with PLE certificates ranging from 2015 onwards.

Looking at our main competitors in Schools games-Kenya, wallnetnews writer was in Kenya researching on how they have managed to fight  age cheating in there games,  The Ministry of Education and the Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association, (KSSSA), have moved in to stem cases of age cheating and impersonation in school games.

The Ministry has now made it a requirement that all students participating in school games’ championships must be first captured in the National Education Management Information System, NEMIS, before they can be allowed to compete. Schools will now be required to enter the student’s Unique Personal Identifier, UPI, onto a special team list/ declaration form alongside other details.

The UPI to be entered must be that assigned to each student on the NEMIS portal. Other details to be provided on the declaration form are: the student’s full name, Form/ Class, admission number, Date of Admission, Date of Birth, KCPE (Kenya Certificate of Primary Education) index number and the KCPE year.

This way, it will now be easier to eliminate cases of age cheating and impersonation as details of the presented players can be easily retrieved from NEMIS including the learner’s photograph were the  coach or games teacher and the Principal must sign the declaration form indicating that the presented players/ participants are bonafide students.

KSSSA, the body that runs secondary schools’ games, has also limited the number of foreign players to be included in a school’s team. Going forward, KSSSA has allowed schools to add a maximum of 4 foreign players to their teams and all these players can be fielded at the same time.

But, for other team games (basketball, hockey, Rugby, volleyball, netball, and handball) schools will be allowed to include a maximum of three foreign players; with only two featuring for the team during a match at a time. KSSSA has also limited the number of players that a school can transfer from another school. Consequently, no school will be allowed to transfer more than 2 players from another (same) school.

The Ministry has also put a ceiling on the number of participants per team as shown below:
Swimming- 15 participants, Badminton- 6, Hockey- 20, Basketball- 12, Cross Country- 6, Volleyball- 12, Netball- 14, Handball- 14, Rugby 7’s- 11, Rugby 15’s- 20, Athletics- 2 per event, Soccer- 20, Table Tennis- 6 and Lawn Tennis- 4.
On other rules; 1-Under 19 rule: Schools will also be expected to field participants who are under 19 years old in all other disciplines apart from soccer under 16.

2. 90 day rule: As has been the norm, only students who have stayed in their respective schools for at least 90 days prior to the official commencement of the term one games (at Zonal level) will be eligible for participation. This rule does not, though, affect form ones, but new students in other forms must have reported to school by 15th November of the preceding year for them to be eligible.

3. Repeaters: Students repeating will not be allowed to participate during the repeating year. Such students can nevertheless be allowed to participate in the following year. This rule bars all form four repeaters from taking on to the fields of play; during the repeating year.

4. The six year rule: According to KSSSA, a student may participate at the secondary schools’ championships for a maximum period of six continuous years.

5. Documentation: For schools presenting teams, the players/ competitors must have:
A copy of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education, KCPE, certificate; forwarded by the Principal. (For form ones, they will be required to have a copy of their result slip).

A group photo with the specified number of players for that event with only the Principal and coach or games teacher posing with the players in the photo, A copy of the birth certificate also forwarded by the principal, A photo Album (Spreadsheet) certified by the Principal and The school Identity Card bearing the student’s details as indicated on the team list.

It is now high time for the Uganda secondary schools sports association (USSSA) to act tough and end age cheating, repeaters and impersonation in schools’ games.