Young Life in Freetown | How Small-town Football Plans to Go Big

Sports help develop skills and are a good way to get physical exercise. In the east end of Freetown, some teenagers and young people say the best sport is football. Not because it's the most popular game in the entire world or the sport they prefer.
It's really the only activity available.

  In Allen Town, a group of boys and girls have played football for about a year.  Their coach, 22-year-old Alhaji Koroma (crouching, front row, in black shirt) said their team is called Sasha Base United. He said they only play football because there are no fields or centers for baseball, volleyball, basketball, tennis and the likes.

Karim Deen, Alhaji's assistant (in a check shirt, back row) said that if he wants to play volleyball or basketball, he would have to go to urban Freetown, or the National Stadium, about six miles away.

  Sometimes Sasha Base is called to take part in local competitions, but Alhaji says they often get disqualified because they don't meet expectations. In December, they were asked to play Derry City, a team from the neighboring community. But they couldn't come up with the required Leones 200, 000 to register, so they were dispatched. He said they felt bad because it was important for them to play in an intra-area football match. He said they needed support with buying outfits, gear, and other football equipment.

Karim said, for the most part, they only play amongst themselves or with other struggling teams.

Alhaji said the team is made up of more girls than boys. Girls are always behind the curve when it comes to soccer games and practices, he said. So they want to make it a point of training girls in their communities, who are willing to become footballers. Alhaji admits it’s a great challenge for the team. He said they often have to cajole the girls by buying them gifts after training so they would come back another day. When there's no money to buy gifts or give incentives, they lose most of the girls.

"When you develop local sports, you stand a chance to generate young people with skills to become representatives for their country and their communities," Alhaji said.

For Young Life in Freetown, I'm Inyilla Borteh Conteh reporting.

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