The just concluded 6th National Youth Games (NYG) held in Ilorin recorded over 3000 athletes. One of the sensational that this year had on its list as an athlete was a six-year-old Saviour Onazi who represented Niger State to play scrabble. In an interview with sportxvibe.com.ng, he and his coach shared their experiences.
Our reporter while roving in search for stories in Ilorin met this young athlete who played his scrabble game on standing because his height could not allow sit and play which he won 5 rounds out 9 rounds. Join us in conservation with Onazi who could barely give answers to question because of his age. Thanks to his coach Bala Ibrahim who gave details of the making of Nigeria future.
Rep: What is your name?
Athlete: My name is Savior Onazi.
Rep: What state are you from?
Athlete: Niger state.
Rep: How old are you?
Athlete: 6 years.
Rep: What class are you in?
Athlete: I am in primary 3 in Trophy International School.
Rep: Who introduced you to Scrabble game?
Athlete: My daddy introduced scrabble game to me.
Rep: Who told to come for this National Youth Games (NYG)?
Athlete: I came to this National Youths Games (NYG) because my daddy said I should come.
Rep: What have been your experiences in this National Youths Games (NYG)?
Athlete: Some of the experiences I got in this competition is that everybody can beat me. I see that I cannot win everybody here, only some.
Rep: What do want to become in future?
Athlete: I want to become a doctor in the future.
Rep: Who taught you scrabble?
Athlete: My daddy taught me scrabble.
Rep: How often do you train?
Athlete: I used to do two to three training in a day
Onazi’s Coach spoke with our correspondent
Rep: Can kindly introduce yourself?
Coach: My name is Coach Bala Ibrahim, scrabble coach for Niger state
Rep: What do see in that young lad that made you picked him?
Coach: Of course, he has the talent but like we all know that talent is not enough. You have to work more, you have to train more, so that he needs to learn the nitty-gritty of the game so that when next he has the opportunity, he will play better.
Rep: What made him won 5 rounds out of 9 rounds?
Coach: His confidence and the passion that he has for the game because even at the time we were training, the rudiments of the training did not made him run away. He kept on coming, he insists of daily basis that his father bring him for training.
Even when his father introduced him to school lesson, he makes sure that if is just two hours that he has after lesson, he must come out to play scrabble. So that has help him to build him to attain the height he was able to get in this competition.
Rep: What where the things that made him lose at the six round?
Coach: He is a very young boy, in sports, there are factors that affect performance; one of it is age, so age kind of work against him because he just six.
Rep: Going forward, what will be the next line of action for this young chap?
Coach: Just go back home and work more. We need to more, work than harder than we did before because he is getting older, from this competition, he has gotten experiences. So, we need to put the experience, knowledge and hard work together and see what will be the outcome in the next edition.
Rep: What is the synergy between his parents’ commitment and the young boy performance. Does it robs on his performance?
Coach: Of course, when you committed to something that every distraction that come your way you will be able to sheer them because you are focus and when you are focus, every other person that will come around you God will send people that help you to achieve your goal, you find out that your like mind and every one that come around you will want to favor you because of your level of commitment.
So most of the scrabble players that come around the young man want to make one input or the other and it has shown in his play.
Rep: So, what is the state government role to nurture this talent?
Coach: I will like to first of all appreciate my chairman Niger state he has been very supportive and I know that by the time we go will this results, he will not hesitate to do more. He has the potential in this young lad, his son is part of the team so with the two of them working together at this very tender age, with good exposure and good support, the stars will definitely be or be beyond their limit.
This is future for the country, even the president of the federation has told me to not relax on this young boy that the talent is there, the gift is there, that all he need is how to put him on straight line you know to stay focus on what he wants to do.