By Ugo Aliogo
Day Waterman College (DWC) has organised the ninth inter-house sports competition, which is the annual sports day celebration of the college.
At the end of the sports competition, Purple House came first with 922 points; Yellow House came second with 733 points; while Red House was third with 714 points.
Speaking at the event in Abeokuta, Ogun State, the Principal of the college, Mr. Stewart Cowden, said the event provides an opportunity for the school to develop elite athletes and the sporting prowess of every young person who comes to the college,
He said it is important to make the distinction between elite athletes and those who participate for enjoyment, adding that the sports day was beyond creating fun to providing platform for the students to do the best they can as elite athletes.
Cowden explained that the college is in the process of identifying elite athletes that would go for specific programmes, engage in activities within the school, but the athletes would also be challenged against other top performing athletes.
He added that the college is trying to make sure that it challenges every athlete, adding that the college is trying to get students that have sports prowess and give them much opportunity to develop.
“Another initiative which the college does is sports leadership. It uses sports to promote leadership among the students. We are the only college in Nigeria that has been given certification in sports from United Kingdom and we have trained our members of staff to run this programme. What we are trying to do is to promote leadership through sports and it dovetails to the fact that students’ improvement in sports and leadership impacts their academic performances.
“The message here is that while focusing on elite sports men and women, we are also focusing on the general prowess of every single young person; we do that through the sports day. But at the same time we also identify areas where we can challenge the students.”
In his remarks, the Vice-Principal, Joseph Lucas noted that a major improvement the college has achieved in the sports day celebration is time management, “the march past last year was a bit long, but for 2019, the college had to shorten it to finish on time and parents can also have time for their children.”
He stated that the sports programme that the college organises has had a huge impact on the students, adding that the various sports groups create network of leaders from where students are selected to lead others “and this teaches them about leadership, organisation and team work skills.”
