TY and the Making of a Royal Championship

 

TY Omujuma are royal champions. Two years of being an “almost team” – while playing the most scintillating football, our medals finally have that extra shine of gold. It did take a while but that is what makes it savourable. Here is the story of how the stars finally aligned for us on that evening of 12^th April in Fortportal.

Rewind back to a year ago in March 2024, and it is the Ntare Lions League final in Kigali, Rwanda. One specific scene comes to mind. The final whistle has just been blown, and the TY players are huddled together in one of the corners of the IPRC Stadium in Kigali. It isn’t a celebratory huddle but one of disappointment. Most are holding back tears with their faces sullen. Another final, the second on the bounce had just slipped through their fingers, and this time by the faintest of margins; spot kicks. Whoever said that men are not emotional lied a great deal. Football does things to their emotions that can’t be rationally explained. The players that missed their penalties are understandably more distraught. There is a sense that they have let down the entire team. Such is the ignominy of being on the losing side of a team sport. A season that had promised so much for us had come to naught.

The day after, we prepare to leave Kigali. Overnight, the players looked to have gone through all the stages of grief and by morning had fully accepted what had happened. The mood had greatly improved, and we started our journey back to Kampala. While on our way, it was then that our Exco Chairman, Nuwagira Steven, first notified me that they had decided to reshuffle the entire committee and have new leadership for the team, both on and off the pitch. Steven and Mugerwa Brian Paul (famously known as MBP) had served as our inaugural Chairman and Captain respectively. Both had helped with getting the team off the ground. They had gotten it a name, registered it in the league, led it through its non-competitive times and had now brought it to the brink of the shield, twice. However, they were “running out of energy”, to borrow Jurgen Klopp’s phrase. They needed a new team that would replenish the energy, one that was baggage-less, that would skip that one last hurdle. In that brief chat with Steven, he informally told me that his Exco was tipping me for the Chairmanship position and Kagezi Noel was to take over as Captain.  

A month later, when we had fully recollected ourselves, we met at one of the hangout places in Kampala where the new leadership of the team was announced. With a small team, I was to lead TY from the boardroom while Kagezi would lead it on the pitch. I remember as part of my acceptance speech, having already known that we would have our next final in Fortportal, I mentioned that the universe was communicating something by us having both a Chairman and Captain from Fortportal. There wouldn’t be a better script than us winning the shield in our home backyard.

There were 3 issues in my in-tray. The first was how do we build a financial war chest to make another shot to the final, the second was on how to grow the cohort’s cohesion considering that football was just what brought us together. And there was that small matter of a skirmish that had happened in Kigali involving one of the players, who some thought shouldn’t play for TY again. I preferred to start with the third because that needed a one-off decision, while the rest were block-by-block continuous building that would last the distance. One of my first acts as Chairman was to visit the said player. I needed to discuss his behavior in Kigali and set out what the new leadership expected of him. We spoke for close to 2 hours, disagreed on some things but reached a middle ground on what was most important. Human beings like to be listened to and everyone loves to feel valued. The key is always to make them feel that way and they will do anything you ask. At the end of our discussion as I left, he said to me, “Mr. President (as he likes to refer to me) you can always count on me for this team, and I won’t let you down.”

Given that this was pre-season, it was also a time to bolster the squad. The Technical Director, Henry Twinomujuni, was fully on top of that and did a very fantastic job with the signings. The league allows for a small number of players who were not in your year to play for your team, provided you reach an agreement with them. And then came our very first test. The Crichton Cup. This was an inaugural tournament and was introduced in remembrance of the founder of Ntare School. It was played by the top 8 teams from the previous season on a knockout phase. Our preparation wasn’t that meticulous, and we trailed our first game by 2 goals. We pulled back one in the second half and played until the last minute. And then came that famous throw-in from MBP that was deflected into the goal to tie the game to 2-2. Many people won’t remember this, but if you asked me about the one moment that I can point to as the fulcrum on which my entire administration turned, it was that one. We lose that game, and our confidence is completely shattered. Luckily, the game went to penalties which we won and then steamrolled through the tournament with two comfortable wins in the semi-final and final. TY Omujuma 2.0 had announced itself to the world. That Crichton Cup win buoyed the mood within the camp. Finally, we felt that we could win finals too.

Our very hardworking mobiliser, Ainomugisha Joshua (Joshman) ensured he moved “heaven and earth” for the team to have enough resources to start the season.  We were bouncing as we started the season, raked up the most points in the first two months, everything was looking up, and then tragedy hit. We lost our boy Allan Ategyeka. From then on, it was just an emotional rollercoaster. The season became Allan’s and every ball we kicked from then on became for him. We had to win the shield for this boy from Bugashe who was the glue that had held us together for so long. We agreed to make a memorial jersey (with his face on it) and win our final in it.

When we confirmed our place in the final, together with my Exco, we set in motion the plans for the final. We planned and executed everything so well that I was sure even before the kick of the ball, that our opponents in the final stood no chance. When the game started, it was clear that our opponent’s tactic was to take the game to penalties. By the end of the first half, their medical team had covered more ground than most of their players. They used every touch to drop down and break the rhythm of play but also run down the clock. This was a team that had the meanest defence in the league during the season, and it was the only one we hadn’t scored against during the season. They knew they wouldn’t go toe to toe with us because of the gulf in quality, so they played to their strength, which is to defend. They almost succeeded until the referee raised his two fingers to indicate the additional time. Then a mistake from their most dependable defender, a moment of magic from our own Jose, and then that fabulous strike from Allan Dziz won us the game. When that ball hit the back of the net, we completely lost ourselves, we had never experienced anything like that. Two finals and we had never scored in any, here we were in dreamland and who else to score the winner but Allan’s namesake. Rewind back to 10 months ago, and the player who had famously told me, “Mr. President you can always count on me for this team, and I won’t let you down” had just scored a goal to win us the holy grail. Vindication if ever there was one.

We laughed, cried in joy, and celebrated into the evening, we danced in the drizzle and prostrated before the King of Tooro. This was a poetic moment for Kagezi and I, but for the bigger TY family, there will never be a more perfect script. As the shield was handed to us by the Omukama of Tooro, I couldn’t help but think that we shall win many more in future, but this one will always be the most special.