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UGANDA LITTLE LEAGUE
BASEBALL
HISTORY
The story of Uganda
Little League Baseball starts in August of 2002 and is a story of overcoming
obstacles and doing things that people said could not be done.
Beginning
Richard Stanley was a
volunteer sent to Uganda by ACDI/VOCA to assist the Uganda Vegetable Oil
Development Project in late July 2002. While there, Mr. Christopher
Gashirabake asked him if he would help start baseball in Uganda. He agreed
if the government would help in building fields and not hold up the delivery of
baseball equipment with taxes and duties. On his return to the U.S., he
found that Little League International was willing to donate a starter kit, as
was Major League Baseball, but he had to pay for the shipping from the U.S. to
Uganda. With the help of the Transform Foundation, this was arranged, with
the equipment leaving the U.S. in early January 2003.
Ms. Priscilla Sarah
Nakibuuka, had expressed an interest in baseball to Mr. Stanley in July 2002,
and now volunteered to assist in working to get Uganda Little League Baseball
started. Little League International appointed her as the Country Director
in the fall of 2002, and she then proceeded to convince 4 international schools
in Kampala and the Sir Apollo Kaggwa school to agree to become leagues and play
when the equipment arrived.
With the help of the
ACDI/VOCA office in Kampala, the container with the two kits arrived in Kampala
late in March 2003. The government valued the equipment at $40,000 and
wanted to collect $16,000 in taxes and duties. With the help of many
government officials, especially Mr. Francis Wafula at the Ugandan Mission to
the UN in New York and the people he introduced us to and who we met in Kampala,
Dr. Jotham Musinguzi, Mr. Moses Kaggwa, Peter Malenga, and many others, the
equipment was finally freed of customs in late June 2003 and distributed to the
schools. It was too late to start the schools playing for the tournaments
of 2003, but they promised to start play when the schools returned later in the
year.
Little League
International agreed to supply two more starter kits in the fall of 2003, and
Major league baseball agreed to match what they had given us in the prior year
after some discussion. This time, with the help of U.S. Ambassador James
Kolker and his assistant, Jack Lopinski, the container of equipment was shipped
to the U.S. Embassy and arrived without trouble. Future shipments of
donated baseball equipment from Little League International and Major League
Baseball also were shipped through the U.S. Embassy until Ambassador Kolker and
Mr. Lopinski were rotated out of Uganda in the late summer of 2005 to other
posts as their normal three year assignments were finished.
Tournaments
The schools began to
play baseball for children 12 and under in the latter part of 2003. At the
International School of Uganda, which has a full size, all grass soccer field,
Mr. Evan Bringham, the games master and an American, built the first backstop in
Uganda at one corner of the soccer field. The two people who are most
responsible for Little League Baseball succeeding in Uganda are Ms. Nakibuuka
and Mr. Bringham. Ms. Nakibuuka for convincing the International School of
Uganda to start baseball and Mr. Bringham for building the backstop and giving
the Uganda Little League a place to hold its National tournaments which for the
first time was held in June 2004.
Four leagues
participated in the semifinals held at 9:30AM on opposite corners of the soccer
field. The championship game followed, and the Heritage School defeated
the International School of Uganda for the title. The Kabila School
defeated the Sir Apollo Kaggwa School in the consolation game. The
Heritage School now had the right to play for the European/Middle East/Africa
Little League Regional title which is held in Kutno, Poland each July. The
problem was that they had to pay their way there and for $30,000 in travel cost,
that did not happen.
The success of the
Little League program in 2004, and the arrival of new equipment in 2004, allowed
the program to expand to 11 leagues for the 2005 tournament. More
equipment arriving in 2005, allowed us to expand to 15 leagues for the 2006
season, and for the first time, we held a tournament for 13-14 year olds, in
addition to the third 12 and under tournament. The lack of money to pay
for the travel to play in the European/Middle East/Africa tournaments continues
to keep the championship teams at home. The schedule for the 2007 season
has eight tournaments scheduled for June 2007. We will hold tournaments
for 12 and under, 13-14, 15-16 and 17-18 in baseball and also in softball.
The first half will be played at the International School of Uganda during June
16 and June 17. The latter four tournaments for the older children will be
played in Jinja during June 23 and 24th.
Elimination tournaments
will be played during the early weeks of June to get each tournament to the 4
semifinalists that will be playing on the above dates. Uganda Little
League Baseball has now expanded to 25 leagues covering baseball and softball
from ages 6 to 18. While our goal is to expand to 100 leagues over the
next several years, the major thing holding us back is the lack of equipment and
money to obtain it, ship it and to distribute it. While the equipment is
meant to start leagues, almost all of our leagues need funds to obtain new
equipment to maintain their programs. Baseball equipment is difficult to find
and very expensive to buy in Uganda.
Recent Developments
With the departure of
our helpful contacts in the U.S. Embassy, Uganda Little League Baseball has been
very fortunate to be getting great assistance from several people in the Ugandan
Ministry of Sports, the National Council of Sports, and other Ministries.
We first met Mr. Apitta Omara in 2005. Mr. Okello Oryem and Mr. Jasper
Aligawesa about the same time. It is a result of their efforts and
encouragement that we were able to receive the latest and largest shipment of
donated equipment to ever be shipped to Uganda Little League without
encountering problems with duties and taxes. They have also been most
helpful in allowing Little League Baseball to expand to large schools in Lira,
Luwero and Mbarara this past spring.
In August 2006, Major
League Baseball gave Uganda Little League Baseball $15,000 to help level fields
and install backstops. With that money, we have leveled five fields and
will be installing several backstops. We hope Major League Baseball will
grant additional funds to continue to make playing fields available.
In October 2006, due to
a generous donor, Uganda Little League Baseball purchased 40 acres of land near
Kampala to build a central complex of at least 6 fields to host National and
International Tournaments. We are now in the process of seeking additional
funding to actually build the fields, and then eventually dormitories to house
the visiting teams so that week long tournaments can be held with as many as 12
to 16 teams playing everyday. We expect to finish the fields by the end of
2007. The cost for building the fields is approximately $350,000.
The dormitories needed will cost an additional $300,000.
At the Little League
International Congress held in Houston, Texas in mid April 2007, Uganda Little
League Baseball, joining with South Africa, Ghana and Burkina Faso, formed a
committee to coordinate the development of Little League Baseball in Africa.
Some of the five year goals are to expand into 30 countries and to host All
African Tournaments at all age levels in baseball and softball with the winners
coming to the U.S. every August to play for the World Championships. We
will need large quantities of equipment, corporate sponsorships, many trained
coaches and umpires and many volunteers to make this happen. Uganda Little
League Baseball has over come many obstacles in its short 5 year history, this
is just a few more.
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