In a bid to make sports workable in the state, the Rivers State sports council has posted all the coaches handling various sports in the state to the 23 LGAs of the state.
It would be recalled that some of the sports are not even in existence anymore as they cease to function in the hands of some coaches who do not have anything to contribute to such sports to grow.
Sports like gymnastic ought to be the mother of all sports but suffice it to say that, the sports only exist in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
But there are reasons why some sports are moribund in the state, it might be lack of fund and manpower, who is to be blamed, the government or the sports personnels that made name through such sports?
Like sports, swimming, wrestling, these sports supposed to be Rivers State main traditional sports. Brazil takes football as it main sports and had always produced the best players for the world.
Football to Brazil is like an art. They sleep football, eat it, dream it and trade on it. Why could it not be so with Rivers State with swimming and wrestling?
Afterall, the first Nigerian that turned professional in wrestling was reverend Sokari Soberekon, a true Rivers born from Buguma in Asari-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Rivers State has nine (9) riverine Local government areas, what happened to their coastal advantage to the state in swimming that Rivers State could not produce a seasoned swimmer in one year.
It is therefore a welcome development that coaches are send to all the 23 LGAs to revived all the sports while praying for them to succeed, do the coaches have the manpower to achieve fulfil the task ahead of them? Considering the present Rivers State will fund not be a big challenge for the coaches to achieve their desired result?
Logist may be the greatest challenge that will twarth the programme. Already coaches have started complaining about going to some local government area where they know do not have better accommodation facilities for them.
What of the sports? Are they existing in such LGAs? That automatically means resurrecting that sports from the death. But how willing will the youths support such coaches?
What is worth doing is worth doing well, says an adage, those who conceive this noble idea should also consider the plight of the coaches they are sending to areas where there are no such sports, the coaches are going to resurrect.
Posterity will record all what each and everyone of the Rivers coaches according to their deeds, either in the positive or negative. ###
