Oyo State Government through the State Sports Council, on Saturday, began Hockey Fiesta in Ibadan, the state capital, with about 236 players and 48 teams taking part in the game.
The game, which is in partnership with the Rocket Grassroots Sports Foundation and Summa Food Limited, as a sponsor, was held at Adamasingba Stadium, Ibadan.
The coordinate of the fiesta and the Chairman, Rocket Grassroots Sports Foundations, Oluyemi Siyanbola, said the motive behind the game was to take the youths out of the streets, as well as catch them young.
“The foundation is a non-governmental organisation that is dedicated to using sports, especially hockey to take youths out of the streets.
“As a hockey coach in the state; there was a time hockey was at a topmost level whereby the state employed a foreigner to coach at different tournaments, and at that time, we had up to 10 national players but everything is going down nowadays,” he said.
Siyanbola added that there were four categories in the fiesta.
In his remarks, the General Manager of the state sports council, Tunde Ajibike, also said the motive behind the fiesta that deliberately programmed for this period of Easter was to bring together hockey players.
“It is a sort of reunion. They brought together different categories of hockey players. The Under 12; the Under 16; the Under 21; then we had the Masters and the veterans to create awareness about hockey sports. To bring in new players, especially from the grassroots level, and that is why they targeted under 12, and obviously they believe that at the end of the day, those people from the grassroots level, especially Under 12, will participate in the national game.
“So, it’s a way of discovering new talents among the hockey players, and to create awareness to the entire world that hockey sports is still thriving, still existing and relevant in the scheme of things within the sporting world,” Ajibike said.
In the two against two female category, Treasure team came third while Precious came second. In the male category, Big Boys won while Ronaldo came second and in the junior category, Highfliers came first, Carthage Lions second, while third place went to Academicas.
For the senior female category, Dynamic Babes secured first position, while Olumo Babes got second, while third position went to Kemi Ogundupe Team.
In male, Fire Fire got first position while second position went to Ondo Flicks and Team Baba Jaid came third.
In masters category, God is Good secured first position, while Oluduro Adeyemo, aka Pablo Squad, got second, with third position going to Oyo Maste
