School Games: Butere Girls basketball coach Odoro dreams of historic three-peat

 Butere Girls basketball 5x5 head coach Sylvester Odoro is confident they will be able to defend their national title in the upcoming Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association (KSSSA) national school games slated for April 7-12, 2025 at Shanzu TTC in Mombasa.

The Kakamega-based school, who defended their title last year in Machakos, are eyeing a historic three-peat, a week after their triumph in Western region school games.

Odoro has attributed their hard work and determination as their key reason for thumping perennial western rivals Tigoi 79-29 to book their national ticket a week ago in Busia.

“We trained hard and we were determined to qualify for the nationals. Our opponents were good but we just had one goal in mind, to get the ticket to defend our national title and that’s what we exactly did,” Odoro told Citizen Digital.

Despite losing seven key players who completed their studies last year, Odoro believes he has assembled a team that would lift the national title for the third year in a row.

Awino, last year’s most valuable player, is one of the players from the title-winning squad who left and is already plying her trade at Kenya Ports Authority.

At the same time, Odoro has sounded a warning to his rivals saying they should expect an even better Butere side in this year’s championships.

“We will even play better than last season. We know our opponents have also prepared well and we are ready for them. Our aim is lifting the title once again,” noted Odoro.

Butere Girls had to rally from behind to stun Buruburu Girls 49-43 in last year’s thrilling final clash to ascend to the crown.

They have their work cut out in this year’s show as Coast giants Kayatiwi, their bitter rivals whom they trounced  65-61 in last year’s semi-final, await them, breathing fire and ready to revenge.

Olympic, Nairobi region’s champions, are also in contention, to stop the reigning champions, this year, after edging last year’s runners up Buruburu, in Nairobi region’s final clash.

Butere have been pooled in Group 'B', with Central region’s giants, M-pesa Academy, Rift Valley’s St. Joseph’s Kitale, and Nyanza’s Asumbi Girls.

Pool ‘A’ consists of newly crowned Nyanza Nairobi region champions Olympic, Coastal giants Kaya Tiwi, Eastern's Ikutha Girls and a representative from the North Eastern region.