Rarely does a high school feature in boys and girls division at the Sprite Ball Championship. Only a few meet this lofty standard; Aggrey Memorial Mount Zion is one with Achimota School featuring in that bracket. Kadjebi-Asato Senior High School is quietly in that bracket after the school’s male side matched up to its female contemporaries in the 2016 Sprite Ball edition.
2014 Sprite Ball Champions Keta Senior High School is yet to have its female side debut at the tournament despite having one of the best basketball programs in the country. As one of Volta Region’s finest high schools, the coed secondary educational institution has been the main threat to established names in the basketball fraternity like Awudome Senior High School and Mawuko Girls Senior High School. KASEC’s female side has been present at the Championship for a while and put the name of the school on the map long before their male counterparts graced the biggest high school basketball championship in Ghana.
After the school recently celebrated its 57th anniversary on October 3, rolls and rolls of achievement have been toothed out including the institution’s starring role in raising the profile of the region through education and sports, particularly through basketball and Sprite Ball Championship.
In 2014, the school featured in the Sprite Ball Championship where it got paired in Group B alongside heavy weights Mfantseman Girls Senior High School, T.I. Ahmadiyya and St. Mary’s Senior High School.
However, the side got outmuscled by the ultra talented teams in the group and it was unsurprising to see two of the teams in the group (Mfantseman and T.I. Ahmadiyya) win third and first place medals. 2015 marked another run in the competition unfortunately with similar results as the side got bundled of the competition at the group stage.
What represented a big blow to the school when the female side failed to qualify to the 2016 edition of Sprite Ball, represented a new opportunity for the male side to step in the spotlight of the nation’s fastest growing sport.
The male side’s journey to the main championship games was a fairy tale run in its own right as the team beat 2014 champions Keta Senior High School to qualify. Aside Keta, Kasec beat the odds to top other top basketball programs at Keta Business School, Bishop Herman Senior High School and St. Paul’s Senior High School.
At the main championship, the team got paired against St. Augustine’s College, former winners RESEC-Legon and Ghana Lebanon Islamic Senior High School in Group D. Augustine’s went all the way to the final and unleashed a 37-22 shellacking on Mfantsipim School as Kasec crashed out in the preliminary round.
With the weight off their shoulders and the tenth anniversary of Sprite Ball coming up in January 2017, the signs are bright for the school to stake a claim in the biggest high school gathering in Ghana.
Helping students become long life learners is the ultimate goal of Kadjebi-Asato Secondary School as the school’s website states boldly and winning Sprite Ball remains the ultimate vision.
