Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Association (USSSA) have a reason to stage the best Fresh Diary Secondary schools Games (Ball games 1) this year after landing a mega Shs3.8bn sponsorship from Fresh Diary Limited. The five-year deal was unveiled on Thursday at Fresh Diary offices in Industrial area. According to Fresh Diary Marketing Manager, Vincent Omoth, the sponsorship will go much in kitting all the teams with each player getting two sets of kits during the national finals, branding venues, activation in regions, administrative costs among others. “We are humbled to partner with USSSA to grow the stature of Uganda’s secondary schools games. Fresh Diary’s sponsorship essentially serves to nurture the sporting talent of our youth while highlighting the need for health nutrition using our products like milk, yogurt, butter, ghee and cream,” he noted. Christopher Mugisha, the USSSA General Secretary, who was in company of the association’s treasurer Justus Mugisha and other officials, applauded Fresh Diary for the sponsorship which he said will go long way in saving schools from paying for kits and other costs that will be done away with. “After getting the sponsorship, we are lessening on the number of participants in certain sports at the national level to increase on competition. Before, we were looking at participation numbers to raise money for logistics which we have been saved from,” he said. Over 2500 secondary schools students across the country are expected to partake in the 2019 edition and will participate in seven games including; Basketball (Boys and Girls), Football Girls U20, Rugby 15s (Boys), Hockey (Boys and Girls), Table Tennis (Boys and Girls), Badminton (Boys and Girls) and Tennis (Boys and Girls). Grace Abalo, a senior education officer (physical education) in the ministry of education and sports, who was the guest of honor at the sponsorship unveiling, said that: “Sponsorship for schools is rare and we thank Fresh Diary. I urge the beneficiaries to put the sponsorship into proper use and ensure accountability on top of transparency.” The games have already commenced with district qualifiers ongoing till March 31 before the regional qualifiers start on April 1 till April 27. The national finals will be held on May 4-11 in Mbale district at Mbale SSS