USSSA president Mugisha highlights upon busy 2024

The Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Association (USSSA) remains a vibrant and focal sporting body in Uganda.

Famed for producing sports stars in different games, this body has now gone an extra mile to train officiating officials (judges, referees and umpires), first aiders, administrators and sports media persons.

USSSA’s sound leadership under the supreme Justus Mugisha, his effective executive committee and secretariat have further fostered a transparent lineage and accountable body, enviable by all.

As USSSA prepares for a busy 2024 epoch domestically, in region, on the continent and internationally, Mugisha outlined the bold plans in the pipeline henceforth.

Mugisha’s latest message to the general public was through a press conference at the GNS Plaza in Mengo as he addressed varying issues.

The issues were ranging from the right to play, competition format, rules and regulations, player transfer guidelines, the activity calendar for all events, online registration guidelines, capacity building and training camps, slot allocations, timelines and their deadlines, Special Needs Competitions (under ball games II), screening procedures, names of tournaments, weekend secondary school leagues and the recent partnerships with primary schools.

The USSSA Elite Games in Jinja city opened the competitions local calendar. The other competitions will be the national football championships, ball games II, swimming gala and others.

Full presentation from Justus Mugisha, president of USSSA:

Right to play

1. Every student has a right to play for at least one hour a day.
2. Schools must provide facilities for each child to play for at least one hour a day
3. The new Lower Secondary Curriculum provides enough time for children to play.
4. The new sports law provides for facilities for at least 15 different sports in every school
5. USSSA is advocating for the following.
6. Sports day to be mandatory in every school.
7. Each school to participate in at least 3 interschool competitions
8. Artificial turf for schools to be classified as scholastic material, hence tax-free.

Competition format:

1. All teams are going to play same number of matches (Classification matches will be played). All positions will be competed for

1. Competition Rules and Regulations
   1. The drafted 2024 rules and regulations have been sent out pending the signature of the commissioner
   1. In preparation for 2025, the following rules have been made
      1. Limit on the number of foreign players
      1. Limit the number of athletes who can move from one school to another in the same discipline in the same year
   1. During a tournament, no changing of shirt number
2. Player Transfer guidelines
   1. Ready and released
   1. Schools are required to submit students on sports bursary
   1. Players who are on bursary can only move with consent from the former school
   1. Players not on bursary may move freely
3. Activity Calendar
   1. Released covering the local and international competitions
4. Number of competition days reduced from 14-9

• Online registration guidelines
  • Opened on 1^st January 2024 and closes on 15^th March 2024
  • Any player who has not been enrolled will become a free agent after the 29^th of February 2024
  • Special registration to be done at national level
  • Every student should be registered with a LIN
  • Only players dully registered may take part in USSSA competitions
  • School albums of registered players will be released by the secretariat to the district before kickoff of qualifiers
• Capacity building and training camps
  • Trained 7,524 in the areas of Coaching, Refereeing, Media, First Aid and Injury Management in Football, Netball, Volleyball, Basketball, Handball
  • Trained 108 Level II in Refereeing and Officiation in Football, Netball, Volleyball, and Basketball
  • Already held two training camps in 2024 one in Old Kampala SSS (66) and one in Kapchorwa (72)
  • A bulk of our officiating officials are going to come from our capacity building and this has already started with Elite Games 2024
  • 15 of our capacity building referees have been selected for Confederation of Africa Volleyball training
• Slot allocation
  • Slots have been allocated on merit
    • According to last year’s slot allocation
    • According to last year’s slot utilization
    • According to last year’s level of competition at the zone
    • According to last year’s performance at national championships
    • Considering interest in development of the sport
• Deadline for confirmation

1. Deadlines have been issued for all our competitions
   1. Zones are to monitor the confirmation of their teams for national championships so that they submit replacements
   1. Replacements will be conducted at national level immediately after the expiry of the deadlines
2. Introduction of SNEs
   1. Special Needs Competitions will be introduced in ball games II

• Screening procedures
  • These have been released and will be carried out at all levels of competitions
• Names of tournaments
  • USSSA Elite Games
  • Fresh Dairy Secondary School Games
  • Secondary School National Football Boys Championship
  • Secondary School National Ball Games II
  • Secondary School National Swimming Gala
• Weekend Secondary School Leagues
  • Organized between neighboring schools
  • Administration by the district
• Partnership with primary
  • Strong collaboration between secondary and primary in areas of;
    • Capacity building
    • Training camps
    • Administration and event management
    • Formation of schools’ sports federation