Jacob Marengo, Centaurus crowned Khomas kings

The Jacob Marengo High School boys’ team and the Centaurus HS girls’ team are winners of the 2015 Khomas School Sports Region (KSSR) High School Basketball League. The playoff games took place at the Augustineum Secondary School (SSS) in the capital last Saturday. In the final matches, Jacob Marengo defeated defending champions Immanuel Shifidi 91- 79, while the Centaurus girls beat Dawid Bezuidenhout HS 'Divas' 50-20. The Immanuel Shifidi HS girls’ team won the 2014 edition of this basketball league. In the third-place playoff, Khomas HS girls beat David Bezuidenhout 'Wildcats' 20-0, while Academia HS boys suffered a 18-45 defeat to Khomas HS. The top-performing teams and individuals, including top academic performers, were awarded trophies. The day started with a march by players, students, teachers and other members of the community from a shop along Kanna Street to Augustineum SSS in a stand against gender-based violence (GBV). As part of their campaign against GBV, a memorial match took place between the Augustineum SSS and Dawid Bezuidenhout HS boys’ teams in honour of two girls from those two schools who had been murdered. Dawid Bezuidenhout HS learner Magdalena Stoffels, 17, was murdered in a riverbed near the school some five years ago, while 18-year-old Jacqueline Kauseua, a learner of Augustineum, was killed in a riverbed about a month ago. Jacqueline's 30-year-old sister, Cecilia, was also murdered in the same incident. Dawid Bezuidenhout won the match 79-59. The KSSR High School Basketball League started in 2009 with five boys’ teams and five girls’ teams. The league now has 15 boys’ teams and 10 girls’ teams. The High School Basketball League will resume in June next year. In this year's event, which attracted a large number of spectators, all participating teams wore black ribbons as a stand against GBV. Speaking to Nampa at the event, KSSR vice-president Titus Mwahafa said: “This year we decided to incorporate the fight against gender-based violence in sports to sensitise the society about this evil deed, hence the theme ‘No to Gender-Based Violence’. The top five boys’ teams: Jacob Marengo High School Immanuel Shifidi High School Khomas High School Academia High School Concordia High School The top five girls’ teams: Centaurus High School Dawid Bezuidenhout High School Immanuel Shifidi High School St Georges High School Windhoek International School NAMPA