Its’ been over a week Africa’s only boxing Hall of Fame inductee Azumah Nelson hoisted the green, yellow, red and the famous black star flag of his beloved country, Ghana. Its been over a week the bounce of tensioned rubber on the smooth surface of concrete slabs reverberated throughout the capital, Accra. Its been over a week a young reporter got constantly beat up by turbulent wind trails left behind by mechanical jumbo birds flying over the El-Wak Stadium. Sure, its been over a week St. Augustine’s College won the 2016 Sprite Ball Championship.
Away from the champagne spilling celebratory antics of AUGUSCO following a comprehensive 37-22 win over the eternal nemesis Mfantsipim School, its been over a week OWASS lost to Mfantsipim in the semi final. The fall out from this defeat has stirred a lot of controversy about the championship particularly that of officiating. Throwing some background information around is always welcoming; as such the rundown of went down in that famous semi final went something like this. Opoku Ware School led Mfantsipim 23-22 heading into the final seconds before baseline umpire called in OWASS’ favour only to have it overturned by the referee. The referee conversely called in Mfantsipim’s favour to throw the game away from the clutches of OWASS as Kofi Aboagye converted one of two free throws to tie the score. In overtime, Mfantsipim managed to outlast OWASS who missed out on yet another finals appearance.
The aftermath of the defeat was the inevitable; crestfallen players sulked their sorrow away, technical men went berserk and old students of the school who commuted alongside so many alumni to the competition, threatened to not participate in the future. The decision to hand Mfantsipim free throws late in the game still stings as per report gathered, the Headmaster of OWASS Matthew Oppong Mensah requested to see the game repeated on TV. In all this, over a week has passed and that is enough time for heads to cool and hearts to cease throbbing. As such replaying the situation over and over again makes me question OWASS coach Alexander “KT” Takyi’s failure to have his players keep possession than jack up a lot of three point attempts to see out the game.
Officials will always be at the heart of controversy no matter the sport. Who can forget Swedish referee Martin Hannson’s failure to spot Thierry Henry’s deliberate hand ball which resulted in a William Gallas equalizer that ultimately gave France passage to the 2010 FIFA World Cup. For rugby lovers, the 2015 World Cup will always be remembered for Craig Joubert’s decision to hand Australia a penalty late in the quarter final game against Scotland and immediately sprint off after proceedings ended with Austraia booking a semi final spot.
Every sport, every tournament has elements of controversy ignited by officials but ultimately the ability to change
the outcome of a game, lies with teams. Ireland would have booked a place at the World Cup had they converted chances that fell their way. In OWASS case officials can be blamed for what looks like a dodgy decision but can not be blamed for deciding the final outcome of the game. With both teams in foul trouble, any unlawful contact would put a player at the free throw line with the chance to score.
However, despite having penetrating guards such as Nana Agyei Fritete, Emmanuel Opare and Emmanuel “Ghost” Agyapong, OWASS relied so heavily on the three point shot- with less success-late in the game an allow Mfantsipim to catch up. Ghana, like so many coutries in the world, does not have a shot clock which dictates the number of seconds a team has to score within. The NBA-the world’s best league-teams use up 24 seconds in attackk and the College system employs a 30 seconds attack initiatitve. That gives any school in Ghana’s high school system the time to develop attacks as slowly as they can to maximize the chances of scoring points. Curiously OWASS went against this move and rather focused on extending their lead via three pointers.
Hanging unto the ball would have given OWASS the chance to draw fouls from Mfantsipim that would have sent the lads from Kumasi to shoot freebies from the charity stripe. But therein lies another problem for OWASS throughout the semi final contest. OWASS missed a bevy of freethrows to convince coach Takyi to abandon the route during crunch time. Anyway, the surest way of getting points unchallenged with a high probability of conversion is from the free throw line and the chance to gain second scoring opportunities though rebounds, its just way too tempting to pass.
And who can forget the sudden buttery fingers OWASS big me Harris and Elorm had aginst Mfantsipim. The big guys were consistently found in the paint for what should have been easy buckets but they couldn’t find a way to get their acts together and dominate the one area Mfantsipim was culpable.
Had all these facets worked in an OWASS favoured unison, officials wouldn’t have been questioned, the Sprite Ball competition would have been smooth as usual and Ashanti Region would have had a second representative in the male division final. It all boils down to taking your chances.
