HOMAT Group of Schools, Ikorodu, one of the leading schools in Ikorodu division reputed for its unique excellence both in learning and character, on Tuesday, February 21, 2017, organized its inaugural Inter-School Sports festival for all the four centres of the school spread across the division.
The event, which was held at the Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) sports ground, recorded a massive attendance of dignitaries, parents, sporting personalities, pupils and students from other private schools as well as teaching and non-teaching staff, pupils and students across the four centres of the HOMAT group of schools. This gave the epoch making event a unique sporting atmosphere, which can only be likened to the Olympics Games.
While the pupils and students of the four centres, namely, Comprehensive school (Igbogbo), Pivotal school (Owutu), Unique School (Odogunyan) and HOMAT Academy (Ijede), were looking sportive and smart in their green sport wears with Yellow, Green, Blue and Orange stripes to respectively differentiate the schools, the Founder and Proprietor of the schools, Alhaji M.T. Amusa, his pretty wife, Ajoke, and the entire staff of the four schools looked resplendent in ash colour T-shirts and black track suit trousers.
Although, the event could not commence at the scheduled time, however, when it eventually took off around 12.17p.m, it lived up to its billings as the entire sporting gathering had a fun filled moments all through.
Meanwhile, Mr. Wole Adekoya, the Director of Studies of HOMAT Group of Schools and Chairman, Planning Committee of the sporting event, in a brief welcome address, expressed his gratitude to God for making the event a reality despite the challenges witnessed at the planning stage.
He was full of praises and commendation for the schools’ Proprietor and his wife for agreeing with his committee on the choice of the Chairman for the event, as well as other decision taken by the planning them. He also commended members of the planning committee for cooperating with him to successfully organized the sporting event inspite of various disagreements on some issues at the planning stage.
In the same vein, Mr. Adekoya thanked the invited guests and parents for attending the event despite their busy schedules and wished them happy stay and journey mercy back to their respective destinations.
Alhaji M.T. Amusa, while delivering his own address, explained that although, HOMAT Groups of Schools had been having separate Inter-House Sports for the four schools since their inception, the event was however the first joint sporting event to be held in the history of the school for the four centres.
He said the event, among other things, would promote formidable interaction among the staff, pupils and students of the four centres and also enhance their mental alertness as well as their physical fitness. Alhaji Amusa commended the organizing committee as well as staff, pupils and students of the four schools for their cooperation in ensuring the success of the event despite being the first of its kind.
He equally thanked the management of Lagos State Polytechnic for permitting the school to use the institution’s premises for the sporting event as well as the invited guests and parents for honouring the schools’ invitation.
And while restating the resolve of the HOMAT Group of school to continue to maintain its standard as an excellent educational centre both in learning and character, the Proprietor urged both the existing and prospective parents to continue to patronize the school in order to bequeath quality education to their children for a better future.
Immediately after the addresses, the track and field events, which were the main events of the day, took off with the oath taking by the sports prefects of all the four schools, during which they promised on behalf of their respective athletes to compete fairly and exhibit spirit of sportsmanship towards one another.
For over two and half hours, the competing athletes from the four schools kept the guests on the edge of their seats while their proud parents, most of whom were on their feet all through the event, were busy recording proceedings with their phone cameras as they put up a world class performance.
The level at which the student athletes performed and competed, coupled with the spirit of sportsmanship demonstrated towards one another were exemplary, which raised the bar for the inter house sports event in Ikorodu division.
Among the various track and field events competed for include 100m Junior Boys, 100m Junior Girls, 100m Senior Girls, 100m Senior Boys, 100m Primary Girls, 100m Primary Boys, 50m Primary Girls, 50m Primary Girls, 200m Junior Girls, 200m Junior Boys, 200m Senior Girls, 200m Senior Boys, Bursting the ballons (Pry Boys), Bursting the ballons (Pry Girls), Walking in Daddy’s shoes (K.G Boys) Walking in Daddy’s shoe (K.G Girls) and Tug of War (Male only).
Other event were match past by students of the four participating schools, school Relay race, invited schools relay race (Boys & Girls) staff Race (teaching and non-teaching), old students’ race and parents’race (male and female).
However, at the end of the keenly contested track and field events, comprehensive school (Yellow House) emerged the overall winner with 23 gold, 10 silver and 11 bronze medals, followed by pivotal school (Green House) with 9 gold, 13 silver and 14 bronze medals while Homat Academy (Orange House) and Unique School (Blue House) had 6 gold, 8 silver, 10 bronze and 3 gold, 11 silver and 6 bronze medals respectively to emerge third and fourth.
Also, in the invited schools Relay race (Boys), Jane-Nath College, Ikorodu, emerged first while Hill Top School, Citizen College and Laurel Hall College claimed second, third and fourth position respectively, while in the Girls category, Hill Top School came first while Jane-Nath College and Laure Hall College were second and third respectively.
The high point of the event was the presentation of trophies, medals and prizes to first, second and third winning schools and athletes in the inert schools sport events and other sporting event after which the curtain was drawn at about 5:13pm.
Meanwhile, Otunba Debo Ogunnade, CEO, Destiny Boys Football Club, Ikorodu and the Chairman of the occasion, in a brief interview with Oriwu Sun, commended the management of HOMAT Group of Schools for organizing the sporting events to activate the pupils’ and students’ sporting talents.
He stated that the event would not only make the pupils and students to be mentally alert but also improve their health and general wellbeing.
Otunba Ogunade, while stating that he was impressed by the performances and level of competitiveness of the student athletes, charged other schools to take a cue from the HOMAT Group of schools and organize sporting events for their pupils and students to improve their sporting talents.
Among those at the event were Oba Semiudeen Kasali, Adeboruwa of Igbogbo, who was represented by his wife, Olori Sekinat; Alhaji Lateef Oduguwa, Chairman, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Ikorodu branch; Alhaji Ismail Dare as well as the Nigerian Army Band and Disk Jockey (DJ), both of whom provided musical interludes at the event.