National Volleyball Tournament

Practice in front of our school and administration

Our school shirt, girls were excited that I sported it

Over 2000 students came to Bweranyangi Girls to attend the National Volleyball, Netball and Handball Tournament. The events took place over a week, with schools arriving on Sunday. There were both girls and boys, and be an all girls school, only the girls stayed in our classrooms. Every classroom and building was used to house students. With all the buildings being used, our focus was on the tournament and we did not teach for the week. Our neighboring school housed the boys.

My volleyball girls!

We had all three teams make it to nationals. I was in charge of coaching the girls volleyball team and they looked amazing. We hired two other assistant coaches, Alex and Amos, from the professional men’s volleyball team out of Kamapala to help. We competed against 27 other schools for the national title. Our girls preformed really well, and we placed 6^th in the nation! It was quite a feat for only having a coach for 2 weeks prior to the tournament. Coaching has been the best experience I could have had at the school. I was able to really bound with the girls over the couple weeks working with them, and I was able to take a couple girls under my wing to mentor.

Getting to and from the games

My captains

Unfortunately I was also able to see how poor the communication is at the school, whether it is that I was new and an American, or that I was a women, I will never really be able to know. I also got to see how much money some of these schools really have. I found out that we had recruited a girl from Kenya to play on our team, and she was by far superior from the rest. We paid her to come by paying for her school fees and books. Other schools had a full team of recruits, and they looked unbelievable. That was for all sports as well, not just volleyball. I also got to see first hand how corrupt Uganda could be, even at a secondary school sports even. And last but not least, how Ugandans really work when there are big events… Let’s just say, not well. But all in all, it was an amazing week, and I wish I could have been able to stay until the end. The girls said they lost some of their heart when I had to leave for a wedding, which is why they lost their last games. (We were undefeated before I left, and we were completely dominating. Other schools barely scored on us.) It kind of broke my heart, but now I know how much we have to offer at our school and we will be prepared for next year! The girls had the time of their life having multiple schools and students around them and there was indefinable amount of excitement around our school!