Schools from across the six counties making up the coast region will be in action this week as Term One games begin Thursday across various venues.
The championships will offer a chance to the officials to select teams ahead of the Coast Region games scheduled for March 13-16 in Mombasa.
In Mombasa County, the qualifiers will be staged at Shimo La Tewa High School and Shanzu Teachers Training College for the two-day games that begin on Thursday to Saturday.
Mombasa County Secondary Schools Sports Association (MCSSSA) secretary Sila Atsulu said they expect to have strong teams from the three-day action to represent their respective counties to the regional and national games.
“Everything is ready and we expect a tough competition from all participants after some weeks of training,” said Atsulu.
According to Atsulu, athletics, handball and hockey games will be played at Shanzu Teachers Training College while basketball, rugby 15s and rugby sevens and athletics will be staged at Shimo La Tewa High School.
Host La Tewa will be aiming to proceed to the regional games in the hockey boys’ category while in rugby, newbies Zimlat and Bububu will also be out to cause some problems to the physically fit Khamis High.
In Kwale, Matuga Girls High School will be the venue for the games that start with assembling of teams Wednesday ahead of the Thursday kick-off.
All sub-counties in Kwale County picked their teams two weeks ago where new champions emerged in different games as Kaya Tiwi, who are the reigning national girls’ basketball champions, will be among the schools expecting to win their matches without stiff opposition as they did at the sub-county level.
Kaya Tiwi Coach Philip Onyango, whose side lost 67-69 to St Mary’s Kitende of Uganda in the East African semi-finals last year, said they are ready to rock again with National Term One Games coming to their backyard.
“I believe in maintaining what I do, we will be at home and we have been winning away for three years so why not now when we will be the hosts?” Onyango posed.
In Kilifi, St John’s Kaloleni will play host for the games that begin tomorrow to Saturday.
In Lamu County, teams will converge at Mpeketoni Secondary School tomorrow with the competition running from Thursday to Saturday.
The hosts have previously dominated in boys’ basketball, handball and are expected to extend the good record this year. In Taita Taveta and Tana River counties the games begin tomorrow.