IAPS U9 Hockey Festival

On the 7th of March Miss Barasa and I had the pleasure of taking fourteen of our year three and four students to Nairobi to play hockey at Hillcrests U9 festival. As a festival, it is a fantastic chance for the children to take part in competitive games, where they pit themselves against each school's best players, but without the pressure of winning or losing a tournament. The opposition teams were of a very good standard and we were extremely impressed with our students' level of performances against them. During a festival no games have scores recorded and there is no trophy with each game being played with the children's participation, development and enjoyment as the key focus. This said, there were some excellent matches and performances with our teams doing themselves proud. There were some stand out performers, like Jasmine, who defended stoutly throughout and Alexander whose goalkeeping exploits were incredible, making saves he had no right to make. Etienne captained the boys very well, leading by example and making strong challenges as well as travelling with the ball and putting the opposition under pressure. Adam J was full of energy and grew into each game, gradually becoming more influential as the games progressed. Adam S and David S never stopped running and closing down the opposition, while Otto, like Nydeng, was a defensive wall at the back. Ms Barasa and I are extremely proud of our young performers and look forward to more successes in the future.