“I’m a living testimony to what you can achieve through football. I may not be as educated as Davidson Onwumi but as far as football is concerned I’m a professor.

You have to do your best in combining football and education. With determination you will go places.”
Ovation followed this motivational talk by Austin Jay Jay  Okocha at St Patrick’s College Asaba during the kick off of Governor’s Cup yesterday.

Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State having a handshake with Comprehensive Secondary School, Ogwashi-Uku team during the Kick-Off ceremony  of the 1st Edition of Delta State Governor’s Cup held at the St. Patrick’s College play ground in Asaba yesterday. Photo: Henry Unini

He was addressing players of Comprehensive Secondary School and Adaigbo Secondary School Ogwashi-Uku before the opening match of the Governor’s Cup in Delta State yesterday. Onwumi spoke before Okocha.

He told the players that he read political science at the University of Benin and sees himself as one of the best sports administrators in Nigeria after playing for the national team and top clubs in Nigeria.

But he reminded the players that he started as a player in secondary school and urged them to “grab this opportunity Dr. Uduaghan had created  to develop a career in football”.

Former Eagles captain and Coach Christian Chukwu told the students to be disciplined in all they do and that “if you have discipline you can go far and achieve more than we did.”

Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan who is reviving sports in schools and local communities assured the students that the state government would assist the stars of the competition achieve “the highest level in football career.”

It was a challenge one of the players said they would take up seriously. Governor Uduaghan recalled his days in Government College Warri and the passion  of their principal in sports then and reminded the school principals around that the success of the competition would largely depend on them.

”Our principal was Mr. Davies, an expatriate who made sure we hade mosquito team(junior team) and the senior team in all sports. He watched training sessions of these teams and made sure sports thrived in our school.”

Uduaghan told the story so that the principals would emulate Mr. Davies  and develop sports in schools. Amaju Pinnick, the Executive Chairman of Delta Sports Commission publicly announced that he would sponsor Hussey College, his alma matter in the competition.

Comprehensive school comprehensively beat Adaigbo 3-0 in an entertaining match that saw Felix Oseme scoring a brace and been selected the MVP of the match.

He scored from a brilliant free kick in the first and a superb penalty in the second half. “If I had my way I would sign him on in any junior team of a club right away,” onwunmi said of Oseme whose touches really thrilled.

Nonso Okolo scored the third goal for Comprehensive school who also delighted with their dance-step celebration. A large crowd attemded the match