‎ 60 coaches at the Coast undergo baseball 5 training in Mombasa

A total of 60 coaches from Kenya’s coastal counties are taking part in an official Baseball5 training course at the Technical University of Mombasa.

The three-day training program is being conducted by officials from the national federation of softball, with support from international instructors.

According to Cynthia Mutei, a coach from Kivukoni International School, the sport is simple to learn and can easily be played in different environments.

“The good thing about this sport is that you can play it anywhere without the need of having many tools. You only need a ball and a small field,” said Mutei.

She also urged the federation to intensify grassroots development to help the sport grow across the country.

“We call upon the federation to go deeper in the mashinani[grassroots] to make sure this sport is played in all the areas, it does not need any big spending,” Mutei added.

Her remarks were supported by Buru Godana, captain of the Baseball5 team at Kenyatta University Mombasa branch, who said the game has great potential to grow and benefit many young people in Kenya.

“So far, we have enjoyed the game — it is very efficient for countries like Kenya. In world spectrum we are ranked position 5 worldwide and number 2 in Africa as per youth Baseball5. It is good for the youth because it involves much of healthy exercise and I can say it is going well in Kenya,” said Godana.

Meanwhile, Lewis Tekei, Vice President of the Kenya Softball Federation, said the federation has already put in place plans to expand the sport at the grassroots level to attract and nurture more talent.

“So far so good since we started the sport in 2022, in East Africa we are ranked number one and in world we are number 8 — that tells you that something is happening, we have 10 universities playing and now we are going deeper Mashinani to make the sport grow,” said Tekei.

Tekei also acknowledged the support the federation has received from the government and other partners during international competitions.

“Government has been very supportive in our journey. We had the best support in Italy and recently in Zambia during the World Cup qualifiers and also NOC has been very supportive to our federation,” Tekei added.

He further encouraged the young generation to embrace the sport, saying it offers promising opportunities for growth.

“I call upon GenZs to take this sport seriously. We have been playing soccer for many years with no growth — this sport is new plus softball you can prosper well and faster, you can learn easily and master it,” he said.

During the recent World Cup qualifiers held in Zambia, Kenya finished third behind South Africa and Cape Verde, missing out on qualification for the world championship.

The training session will conclude tomorrow, when the participating coaches will receive special certification.