Story by Carlos Ssebunnya

On Saturday, March 16th, 2024, the 4th Inter-Old School Gala took place. The event was highly anticipated, especially by former handball players from various schools who were looking forward to reuniting, sharing memories, and most importantly, competing on the court to determine who would claim the old-school glory.

This Year’s edition saw the organizing committee make a few changes that are the gala was hosted at the Makerere Bulls handball club court rather than the Makerere University Main grounds which implies that teams were to tassel it out from a tarmac surface rather than the usual grass surface. Also in the classifications, the men’s teams were to go through group stages and women’s teams were to endure a round-robin.

Group A had Gombe S.S, Kibuli S.S, Dynamic S.s Kyambogo College and this was categorized by many as a group of death since it comprised champions of the 3rd and 2nd editions and also two formidable contenders. Group B had Ntare S S, Mbarara High School and Mbogo mixed High School. The women’s teams were Gombe S.S, Bweranyangi S.S Maryhill S.s, and Nabisunsa Girls’School. 

Kibuli S.S blazed out of the group sweeping all its opponents to bag maximum points with 3 wins and emerge as the top seed. Tagging closely behind was dynamic SS who came second with 2 wins.

In group B Ntare School topped the group with an impressive two wins. Mbarara High School emerged 2nd by goal difference as they had a draw against Mbogo.

The stakes even got hig, her in the semi-finals where Ntare put up commendable resistance against Dynamic S.S. who were the favorites, and at the stroke of halftime, they led the game by two goals. The high hopes of an upset were nullified as Dynamic came out in the second half with new energy and managed to salvage themselves from the jaws of defeat by winning the game by 14-12.

In the other semi-final Mbarara High School kicked things off with a strong resolve and by half-time, they were in the lead which sent their fans into a frenzy. The defending champions showed their class in the second half as they approached the game differently most notably Okiria Musa’s heroics in goal and a delicious style of ball movement with Lukwago Sharif in the centreback spot acting as a magnet to draw defenders to himself to create a numerical advantage for his team on the side to which the ball was flowing before releasing the ball to Umar Munadi who worked his magic to further cripple the mbarara high school defense before dishing out tasty-room service passes to the wide open Baba Munyo in the right-wing whose goal-bound shots had the word “sure” written all over them. In the end, the fans of Mbarara were left in a grave-like kind of silence as the defending champions won 16 -14.

In the women’s round robin, Gombe S.S operated like a well-oiled machine thus putting on a masterclass performance and giving all its counterparts a thorough sanitization to deservingly claim the trophy. According to this impeccable display, it’s easy to say that the Gombe S. S. women’s team will be taking this trophy for consecutive editions.

All the action on the men’s end was tantamount to thrilling a final that did not disappoint in the slightest as  Kibuli S.S locked horns with Dynamic S.S. It was a very close contest where the two sides matched each other stride for the entire first half. In the later stages of the second half after a turnover, Umar Munadi gave Anzoreto Ignatius, who had been a thorn in their side, an unsportsmanlike shove in the back in an attempt to stop a fastbreak goal.

It is at this moment that hell broke loose for Kibuli S.S. as in the view of court referee, Piroth Emma, this was sinister enough to warrant a direct red card which he showed to Umar Munadi without any hesitation. After this Dynamic S.S waltzed to the final whistle with an impressive 8-14 win as Kibuli with a man down could not withstand the indomitable force of Dynamic S.S.

As the asphalt on the court cooled having endured an epic day of intensive handball action, the Most Valuable players were selected. For the men, it was Anzoreto Ignatius of Dynamic S.S. who exhibited religious-like discipline as well as dazzling fans with his stellar performance especially in the final where he slithered past defenders creating shooting chances out of nothing for himself and his teammates. On the women’s side, Namutebi Leticia of Gombe S.S. outshone others by showing an unbelievable level of resourcefulness.

After putting up a solid contribution from the goalkeeper position, she looked to advance upfield and orchestrate the offense from the centreback position where she also managed to get goals and also craft shooting opportunities for teammates.