By S. Siapha Mulbah
The 2024 edition of the national handball league in school has kickoff in Monrovia with alarming financial constraints faced by the local handball association in running the program.
On Wednesday, April 24, 2024, students from several schools across Montserrado County gathered at the opened-air sports commission on Broad Street to witness the launched of the new edition of the Handball in school program organized by the Liberia National Handball Association.
Lovers of the game made appearance in the sporting facility to promote the young generation who were in majority by motivating them to pushed handball to a professional level that will help in the development of Liberia.
Despite the colorful scene created at the Corte, the president of the handball association, Aratus Godwin Larkpor, reported that this year’s edition of the national school handball league is being launched by the association in a face of high financial constraints.
Giving an overview of the competition, the leadership of the association noted that there are 16 schools participating in this year’s edition from different parts of Monrovia namely; Sinkor, Caldwell, Bushrod Island and Central Monrovia, among others.
Larkpor said there were several schools that consented to participating in the initiative of taking handball to the different communities through their separate campuses but due to the approaching of the rainy season, they have decided to wait for the next edition.
According to him, the program will be used to promote handball from the schools to the national level where top performing school players will be selected and placed under different national team programs like the Under 12 upward.
He then explained that there are presumptive opportunities for Liberian handball through focusing on the grassroot development of youth players that will be used to represent the country in international competitions.
In the conversation with the media at the sideline of the Sports Commission, Larkpor said up to press time, there is no funding or assistance from any source to enable the Handball association to smoothly progress with the program that is intended to identify hidden potentials and develop young people in the country with the desire to play the game.
According to him, the greatest challenged faced by the Liberia National Handball Association over the years have been, the lack of required budgetary allotment that could stimulate development of key handball facilities and respond to the need of players as well as officials.
He noted that the national budget literarily has nothing to develop programs and projects of the handball association and the government and other partners have to intervene in the process. “Without money we cannot do anything to build these kids that are captured under the school league. The amount in the budget under handball cannot even run a home before we talk about running the association.”
