Over seventy schools battle for 2021 Elite Schools Cup
More than seventy schools have shown interest in participating in the third edition of Elites School Cup Association (ESCACUP) in Lagos State, writes Taofeek Babalola
This was disclosed by the founder and Chief Executive Officer of ESCACUP, Shokoya Olayinka, during a press conference to unveil the programme for the 2021 edition in Lagos.
Olayinka said the vision of ESCACUP was borne out of the desire to create a quality platform for students in Elites Schools in Lagos State to showcase their talents.
“The annual event is meant to showcase young talents from the grassroots and mentor them through standard local and international exposures.
“The tenacity and determination shown by athletes from different schools during the qualifying stages is a great pointer that Nigeria is greatly blessed by raw talents in sports. But we have to annex those talents for the glory of such individuals towards nation-building,” Olayinka said.
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The CEO said the competition will be played in four zones in Lagos state which include Island Zone, Ikeja Zone, Magodo Zone and Ijanikin Zone, while the two qualifiers from each zone would play at a stadium in the semifinals, quarter-finals and finals.
He disclosed further that this year’s edition will feature six sports that will include football, basketball, athletics, scrabble, chess and table tennis which is meant to promote unity, mass participation in sports from the grassroots throughout the country.
Elite Schools Cup, which started in 2018 at Dansol College in Ikeja, Lagos will produce winners and runners up in all events.
One of the success stories of ESCACUP, according to the founder, is Miss Matthew Esther who represented Nigeria at the 2019 Abu Dhabi Special Olympics (after discovering her by the Lagos State Sport Commission in ESCACUP-2018).
He added that the competition would expose participating students to sports scholarship through its foreign network and enable foreign scouts to discover and sign outstanding students and manage them through stardom.
The participating schools in this year’s edition include Chrisland, Evaron High School, Davidhall College Ikoyi, Queens College, Aunty Ayo International School, Whitesands Schools, Dansol High School, Keystone College and Kings College among others.