Being part of the handball team that represented your class was a honour. To be playing for your set, a joy. To play for the school, a privilege. To be called to represent the state, it is beyond our wildest dreams. Kids from different local governments, training at different locations, trying to get into the state team. Akure local Government was no different. Boys from Aquinas, Oyemekun, Army comprehensive and even Omooluorogbo had a skin in the game. We all go to Six infantry brigade (sinsin factory as all know it) to train, under the tutelage of Late Coach Gloria Udofia.
Coach Gloria. Eni ko o moo, eni moo o ko, obinrin bii okunrin, ekun ta giri oko. She was a disciplinarian all through, with her strategy buried in repetition and drilling the process into people until it becomes second nature. You practice the same thing over and over again and as kids it can become boring but we lived with it. Training routines were fixed:
We walk from Aquinas to Six infantry brigade. The obedient ones walk on the main roads from school down to Police headquarters via NEPA, turn right, walk past Adegbemile and the water reservoir on the left and through the Army gates opposite Victabo. For the naughty ones, at Nepa, they turn right and go by Police Mess, walk through the bushes of the governors house to jump into Fiwssaiye girls going home and get mangoes, the instead of staying on the roads. They climb the hills behind Victabo, close the CCC prayer point, down hill and walk through the bushes in Sinsin factory to get to the handball courts at the bottom of the former military base;
We normally arrive at the grounds around 2:40-3pm and we are left to ourselves… Not really. Coach Gloria will have sent her assistants - Eben kukuru, Eben Giga ( as we call them) and Oluro to drop the balls. We normally warm up by practicing jump shots or 7m shots. As we got better, we invented a game to hit the posts. (Jerin master). Whoever hits the post most consecutively, wins. As we got better, we moved to air shots, where someone pretends to shoot but lobs the ball in the air and the other player jumps, catches the ball mid air and finishes. Good exercises..
Then Coach arrives. We start with running around the courts, we do some passes in straight lines and the move into positional passing.
After this, she explains we want to learn. Weaving, short draw, long draw, 2 against 2 , 3 against 3. This is where things requires co-ordination, movement, spatial awareness (grammar po!) and speed. Most of us had 1-2 of these skills horned, some have 2-3 of these skills , a couple have most of them and rarely do you have any more with all.
However Gloria expects everyone to have something - commitment and discipline. And being teenagers, most of us do not have discipline and some don’t have both. Then coach loses her rag Una see them, see them! Dem no dey listen! Omo araye German okuku ju imole lo tori ise omo eniyan buru! This is said in her Ibo accent ; seething through her teeth. Too many mistakes, the punishments roll out:
It starts up with frog jumps from the goal line to the centre line. Depending on the level of the cardinal sin ( wrong pass, lack of vision, inaccurate pass, terrible shots), you repeat the frog jumps;
If she is partially happy, you are made to run round the courts with hands stretched out at different angles whilst other continue the drills;
On her bad day, you get the ultimate punishment. You roll in the mud or static ponds on the court till you are soaked through. This was something anyone wanted to avoid as you stink all the way home, you need to change clothes and most will say they were scarred mentally once you are through the ordeal. We can ask Dimu Ibironke of how he felt after rolling in the mud during our camp in 1986 and still not make cut.. 😢
One thing was clear - once coach is in the mood and the tirades are flying, we all know what we need to do. People like Wale Risky Ogunleye, Toye Alanbos Ibitoye seems to up their game as they cannot bear tosuffer the punishment. Adeoba Iditike Banji will normally get through this more often,and Niyi Patani Akinwale will also go through this due lack of control in relation to his temper and the others were somewhere in between. There were omo coach like me where I escaped all punishment unless it is for the team. Those days in training either makes you either get a brain reset and perform through punishment or gain the courage to deliver under pressure based on what you knew was coining if you don’t step up your game. One thing you don’t deliver - Army tea is waiting for you🥵.
Tope Carl Lewis Oguntuase can testify to this when we were playing Imade College Owo in Ijero ELori. Everything was going in his net like Agbonibasket. It was not that we were losing, ( we were actually winning by 11-6 but Coach Gloria demanded better. Half way in the first half, Tope is substituted and sent to side lines to start the army frogs. Those on the courts saw that coach was in Na your papa go kill your mama mode, everyone stepped up. Even Bisi Adelowo started saving shots with butterfly jumps! Omo! Army tea 😱… everyone steps up.
I am glad I am not a girl… at this point, the girls are getting profanities You no fit move, she don dey carry king size 🥶… Don’t ask me for interpretation.. I leave that to your imaginations ….
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