All is set for Nigeria’s maiden Wheelchair American Football exhibition, with four teams expected to battle for honours on Thursday at the National Institute for Sports (NIS), National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.
The exhibition, organised by American Football Elite Development (AFEDEV), will feature Lagos Dynamos, Iron Invicta, Liberty Pioneers and Atlantic Chargers in a knockout format, with the winners of the semi-finals advancing to the final.
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The event follows more than two months of training by the participating athletes and is expected to provide an opportunity to showcase wheelchair American football to a wider Nigerian audience.
AFEDEV said the exhibition is not only about competition but also represents the beginning of efforts to establish a structured pathway for athletes with disabilities to participate, develop their talents and pursue careers through the sport.
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Speaking during an orientation for journalists in Lagos, AFEDEV founder, Lawrence Ojaide, said the decision to begin with wheelchair American football was driven by the need to create opportunities for athletes with disabilities.
“There are so many disabled athletes, there are many people out there who are looking for these opportunities and many people who fall into these categories and life seemed very hopeless to them because there’s no opportunity to showcase what they have,” Mr Ojaide stated.
“This is a platform we believe that you as journalists, the media, can help us to be able to bring these people out of their hiding, to bring them out of their shells, to be able to take this opportunity because there’s room for them to make a better life, not only in a sport that tends to be one of the richest spots in the world, but also in a country where this has never happened before or in a country continent where this is a new terrain.”
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The Executive Director of AFEDEV, Nina Agwuna, said the organisation is seeking partnerships to give athletes who have been overlooked in sports an opportunity to develop their talents.
“We are looking forward to synergizing, we’re looking forward to partnering with different communities out there who are willing to be part of this amazing thing for people who have been neglected, especially in the sports field,” she said.
“I believe that we have amazing athletes who are very brilliant, are also entrepreneurs, who are amazing in different fields of what their own natural gifts are. Of course, they have their own little stories while they’re on the wheelchair. Me and my partners have decided that we can actually bring out the best talent out of these people.”
Beyond Thursday’s exhibition
While the immediate focus is on the four-team exhibition, AFEDEV said it has broader plans to develop American football in Nigeria.
The organisation is working towards establishing a structured wheelchair league as well as an academy and tackle football programme for able-bodied athletes. It also plans to introduce E-AIDS, the Elite Athlete Identification and Development System, to manage player data from identification and development through to drafting.
Josiah Orie, a board member of AFEDEV, said the tackle football project would focus on technical development, international competitiveness and player safety.
“So when they wear protective gear, the helmet, the pants, and all those other uniforms, it becomes a tackle. That is a tackle football. And their sole aim is physically interfere with that man carrying the ball, right, and progressing towards the opponent’s touchdown area. So that is the essence of tackle league. So AFEDEV is bringing that into not just Nigeria,” Mr Josiah explained.
“So our focus with the tackle league is actually of threefold. One, rigorous technical execution so that these players can actually understand the techniques of the game and not only to understand it, they can actually play by those rules. And then when they get drafted, they can compete internationally with other superstars. Secondly, uncompromising player safety and that is very very very important to us.
“At this point, I would also like to mention that AFRDEV has even gone a step further to deploy a multi-millionaire solution, software solution that is called E-AIDS, Elite Athlete Identification and Development System. And the purpose for this system is to help identify or take players, manage data, data management of players from identification up to the level of drafting. So as players get identified, get developed, perform in different camps, activities, match performances, okay, get evaluated by our coaches and also evaluators and even scouts that will be invited. All of these data are duly captured.”
With the four teams now set for Thursday’s showdown, the exhibition is expected to provide the first major public demonstration of wheelchair American football in Nigeria and potentially lay the foundation for a structured adaptive league.
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