Try, try and try again until you make it. This phrase easily passes off as the main motivation behind Keta’s success story in Ghana basketball. Keta Senior High Technical School better known as KETASCO can easily pass for the second most successful team in the Sprite Ball Championship following a remarkable run of form in the annual competition. Indeed Ghana’s best and biggest high school basketball championship has since 2007, grown to become the much win hoops title in the West African country. Only Mfantsipim School in the male division stands head and shoulders above Keta in the wake of the former’s four title wins and six finals appearances in all.
Keta checks in with four second placed finishes at the competition finally winning the ultimate in 2014 when the side beat Presbyterian Boys Senior High School (PRESEC-Legon) in the final game. The mixed gender second cycle institution has been front and center of spearheading Ghana’s Volta Region to mainstream conversations. Established on February 27, 1953, the school has over the years entrenched itself as one of the best in the country. But on the basketball court, Keta’s mark is nearly unparallel as year in year out, the school’s male basketball has ranked high among competitors in the competition.
The journey to immortality began in January 2008 at the third edition of Sprite Ball where the side lost the final game against 2007 Champions Achimota School. Keta fell to a talented Armed Technical Senior High School with the likes of Raphael Buchag and Charles Annan in 2009. Heartbreak filled the dressing room after the 2012 finals as the young side with a strong core of Center Ernest Aflakpui, Forward John Teye Okumoh and Sedem Tettevi fell to Mfantsipim’s core of Julian Morgan, George Kofi Pare and Maxwell Mod
At the fourth of asking, the side finally broke the mold of losses by beating PRESEC despite the absence of Aflakpui who checked out of the school after his first year to now star at Temple University. Keta beat PRESEC, Joel Tham and Edwin Appiah- who would later emerge as 2015 High School Male Player of the Year-culminated in wild celebrations as the school finally laid hands on the elusive title and stake its claim as winner of the prestigious championship. Plans of a repeat failed to yield result as old nemesis Mfantsipim, with a new group of young studs including Mishael Jamani Salifu, Kofi Aboagye Acheampong and Elorm Dzissah ensured “Botwe” won an unprecedented fourth national crown.
However, in the year St. Augustine’s College made good on its talent by winning its first ever title, Keta failed to make it out of the regional phase as Mawuli Senior High School and minnows Kadjebi Asato Senior High School bundled the fearsome side out of contention. Keta’s sudden capitulation in last year’s edition might have given rise to questions about its lofty status but like it has shown in past years, one cannot count out Keta in the tenth anniversary celebrations of Sprite Ball. And watch out for the school’s female team for what would be a first ever appearance Sprite Ball.
Believe in KETASCO. Dzo Lali-Fly Now.
