A former striker with Confluence Queens of Lokoja and one-time invitee of the female youth national team, Falconets, Kehinde Ogunneye has joined the growing band of soccer stars linking forces with developmental projects at home and abroad, megasportsarena.com reports.
Having spent three years lining out with lower division clubs in England, before a bout with injuries put paid to her career prematurely, the leggy Kehinde is now trying to mentor youths and motivate them to reach the peak of their talents.
This she is now doing through membership of a talent development and empowerment group named Youth Sports Infinitives (YSI), which recently took its growing outreach programme to a school in Ikotun area of Lagos.
She joined the group led by Chinasa Mandy Ukandu, who coordinated the technical angle of the programme that was organized by prefects of Will-B Excellence Secondary School under the theme ‘Empowering The Girl Child Through Business And Sports.’
Led by the head girl, Miracle Innocent (Mimi), the prefects ensured that all students were part of the audience, while a select few of the females from the junior class joined the practicals with Ukandu and Ogunneye, who had previously lived in England for several years before returning to Nigeria.
Ogunneye, who had been in the female cadet national team, Flamingos before travelling to England, where she played for a number of developmental clubs, said she was happy and excited to be among the course instructions from YSI.
The backbone of YSI now happens to be the combination of Oguneye, who also starred for Confluence Queens of Lokoja before travelling out to England, and Ukandu, who recently had a sponsored training programme at Arsenal of England.
Also directing the students alongside Ukandu and Oguneye were Musa Abdulrasaq and Chinedu Ndupu, who introduced the girls to various dimensions of ball games, fitness development, aerobic drills, exciting fillers and other sweat sessions that left the participants and spectators on their toes all through.
A profile of the group reads in part: “Youth Sports Initiatives (YSI) an offshoot of a British Council’s project called Community Action Through Sport (CATS) that was funded and managed by the British Council for six years. Over this time, hundreds of young leaders were trained as exemplary leaders who have evolved to be active and useful citizens.
“YSI is a youth focus organisation that uses the Nigerian passion for sports to bring together young people to improve their game but more importantly develop leadership skills, citizenship and provide opportunity for the development of peer education/coaching and mentoring that will benefit the young people themselves and their communities as a whole.”
