Ketabusco basketball team called to GES over its Sprite Ball title

Ketabusco's Sprite Ball title under question

Six days after the final, the trophy won by Ketabusco SHS was no longer a settled matter. On 10 January 2020 the organizers of the Sprite Ball Championship, Rite Sports, said the headmaster and physical education staff of Keta Business College had been asked to report to the headquarters of the Ghana Education Service (GES) in Accra the following week. The subject was the school's participation in the 2020 edition, the tournament it had just won.

The school also goes by the name Keta Business Senior High School, and across the Volta Region it is known by its acronym. For a side with no earlier Sprite Ball silverware, the summons arrived while its students were still celebrating a first national basketball title.

What the allegations were

The complaints began almost as soon as the final whistle went. Some of the schools that had taken part, joined by a section of the public, raised questions about players in the winning squad. Reports at the time described two kinds of allegation: that certain players were not eligible for a schools' competition at all, and that some were impersonating students.

The statement posted on the official Twitter page of Rite Sports set out the next step in one line: "The leadership of the Ghana Education Service has asked the Headmaster and PE Staff of Keta Business College to come to the Headquarters next week for further discussions on the subject."

No finding had been made at that point. The statement announced a meeting, nothing more, and it left the outcome with the education service.

The final that produced the title

The 2020 championship was played over two days, 3 and 4 January, on the courts of the El Wak Stadium in Accra. Ketabusco had come through the Volta Region qualifiers in the boys' division, together with St. Paul's Senior High School.

In the final the Keta side beat Mfantsipim School 48-40. Mfantsipim were the defending champions, holders of the 2019 trophy and the most successful boys' team in the competition's history. Prince Gidisu was named Most Valuable Player of the boys' event, and Senyo Ashiagbor collected a coach of the tournament award.

It was the first time the business college had won the competition. Supporters in Keta had every reason to expect a homecoming, and for a few days that is how the story read.

The Sprite Ball is the biggest stage Ghanaian school basketball has. Schools qualify through their regions, then meet in Accra for a short, crowded tournament where a single good weekend can make a team's name. For Ketabusco, that weekend had gone about as well as it could: two wins over the record champions, the final and the MVP award. The cheating claims put all of it in doubt.

Keta Business College and its basketball

The school has a long history away from the court. It traces its start to 1 January 1939, when Adolphus Egbetor Fiagbedzi founded it as the First Century Gospel Church Industrial School, known as FICEGO. It later took the Keta Business College name and was absorbed into the public school system in 1965. Reports on the school have described it as the only business school at second-cycle level in the Volta Region.

Readers who followed the 2014 tournament will remember a different name from the same town. Keta Senior High Technical School, known as Ketasco, is a separate institution and won the Sprite Ball boys' title that year. The 2020 champions were the business college, a school that had never reached that level before the January final, and the similar acronyms caused confusion in more than one report.

What the GES meeting would decide

The summons placed the decision with the education authorities, who oversee the schools taking part, and not only with the event organizer. That mattered for Ketabusco SHS: any sanction agreed at GES headquarters would carry the weight of the service that runs Ghana's public senior high schools.

Two questions hung over the meeting. The first was whether the players named in the complaints were genuine students of Keta Business Senior High School. The second was what would happen to the trophy, the individual awards and the school's place in future editions if they were not.

The answers came within days. On 14 January the school was banned indefinitely from the Sprite Ball Championship, as the report on the ban set out. On 15 January the organizers confirmed that the 2020 boys' division would have no winner. The format of the competition and its list of past champions are on the Sprite Ball page.