Bayelsa Maintains Dominance of Nestlé MILO Basketball Championship
Written By Dedeigbo Ayodeji Samson
Posted By Town Crier News Nigeria
Published By Fitness Network Communications
For the 10th time in the last 10 editions, St. Jude’s Girls Secondary School, Amarata,
Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, has qualified for the finals of the MILO Secondary Schools
Basketball Championship now in its 23rd edition.
The school has dominated the
Championship since 2010, emerging as winners seven times in the last eight years.
At the Atlantic Conference in Asaba recently, where St. Jude’s Girls defeated DomDomingos College, Warri, Delta State, by 14 points to 12 points to secure their place in the finals, Coach Tony Nelson let us into the secret of his school’s success.
According to him, the secret is continuous improvement.
“We have been working so hard back in Bayelsa to build this team for the last two years. Although we won the Conference, we believe there are still lots of things we need to put together to get to the national standard. That is what we will do when we go
back home.
“We are defending champions, and most of these players are just coming up, so we really thank God that we could get to this level. We are going to Lagos, a place we always go to every year, where we have
been named champions seven-times. The team will go back home to Bayelsa to correct our mistakes during the Atlantic Conference to enable us to triumph again at the national finals in Lagos,” the coach said.
Coach Nelson has worked with three different teams over the last thirteen years. They are, St. Jude’s Girls Secondary School, Belary Schools and Bishop Dimieari Grammar
School all in Bayelsa State. During this time, he also trained over 100,000 basketballers for competitions and camps, working for the Bayelsa State Sports Council. He believes that praying to God and hard work are the two most important
factors to success.
‘What really drives me to do what I do is that I enjoy working with children and teaching. I enjoy making an impact on young people. I like seeing young people become something. I go to schools to get these children, bring them to the sports complex and begin to teach them. The drive in it is
to see them succeed, to see them become champions and to see them become leaders,” he added.
In the boys’ category of the Atlantic Conference, Urhobo Model College, Effurun, Delta State triumphed over the boys from Bishop Dimieari Grammar School, Ovom, also from
Bayelsa State, by 28 points to 24.
Both St. Jude’s Girls Secondary School, Amarata, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State and Urhobo Model College, Effurun, Delta State, will now represent the Atlantic Conference at
the national finals of the 23rd MILO Basketball Championship in Lagos in July.
Other teams, which will be in Lagos for the national finals are winners from the Savannah Conference held in Kano from the 3rd to the 10th of May and the Central Conference held at the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja from the 12th to 19th of May as well as the Western Conference in Ibadan from May 30 to June 6, 2023.
Picture 1: Category Manager for Beverages, Nestlé Nigeria, Mr. Olutayo Olatunji (middle) performing the ceremonial jump-ball at the start of the game between Urhobo Model College Effurun Delta State and Bishop Dimieari Grammar School Ovom Bayelsa State at the Indoor Sports Hall of the Stephen Keshi Stadium Asaba recently.
Picture 2: Category Manager for Beverages, Nestlé Nigeria, Mr. Olutayo Olatunji (middle) presenting the winner’s trophy to the girls from St. Jude’s Girls Secondary School Amarata Yenagoa, Bayelsa State at the Indoor Sports Hall of the Stephen Keshi Stadium Asaba recently after the girls won the girls category of the Atlantic Conference of the 23rd MILO Secondary Schools Basketball Championship
Category Manager for Beverages, Nestlé Nigeria, Mr. Olutayo Olatunji, reiterated Nestle’s commitment to developing talents, promoting healthier lifestyles, and
instilling values for success in life through sports.
He said: “MILO firmly believes that through participation in sports, children learn enduring values to help them achieve success
in life. We are, therefore, pleased to have this opportunity to provide a platform where young talents find expression through the MILO Secondary School Basketball Championship.
“On the field of play, the teams depend on the discipline,
perseverance, courage, self-belief, and respect that they imbibe during practice and through their interactions with one another. These life skills are not only for basketball;
they equip the players to navigate their careers and to be productive in society. This is grit, learned from sports but useful in every area of life.”
Nestlé Nigeria’s MILO Secondary School Basketball Championship has been promoting the value of grit for over 23 years, helping schoolchildren learn essential life skills such as resilience, persistence, stamina, cooperation, and self-belief. These
values enable them to overcome challenges and achieve their goals in life. Nestlé continues to lead grassroot sports development in Nigeria through its MILO
Basketball Championship, contributing to the development of the Nigerian national
teams, and notable clubs across the world today.
States that competed in the Atlantic Conference of the MILO Basketball
Championship at the Indoor Sports Hall of the Stephen Keshi Stadium Asaba, from the 20th to 27th of May, 2023 are Bayelsa, Imo, Enugu and host Delta.
Others are Ebonyi, Rivers, Cross River, Akwa-Ibom and Abia.
The MILO Basketball Championship has grown tremendously from about 500 schools at its commencement in 1999. It now reaches over 150,000 individual players from over 10,000 schools across Nigeria every year.
