African Journal of Education and Developmental Studies . Vol. 6., No.

1, September, 2009

STRATEGIES FOR A SUCCESSFUL PARTICIPATION AND ENHANCED

PERFORMANCE IN COLLEGIATE SPORTS – A WAY OF MANAGING

SPORTS IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS

BY

E. O. YELLOWE
&

G. U. A. EKPO, Ph.D.
Department of Human Kinetics, Health and Safety Education
Rivers State College of Education,
Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

ABSTRACT

This paper examines strategies for a successful participation and enhanced performance
in collegiate sports – a way of managing sports in tertiary institutions. The writers
discuss the concept of sport, success as in NICEGA and give incidences of strategies for
successful performance of athletes in sports. This paper identifies ten predictors of
enhancing athletes’ performance in intercollegiate sport. It also discusses how to manage
the success from the sports competition. The writers believe that if the recommendations
made are seriously adhered to, then athletes’ performance would be better improved.

Introduction

Sport as a social agent brings people of different sexes, ages, cultures and religious
settings together as participating athletes and spectators alike, to make use of their free
time to entertain themselves; and being an instrument of promoting unity, understanding
and fostering peace among tertiary institutions. In support of this, Samarach (1996) in
Babalola and Oyeniyi (2003) opines that sport is education, sport is life and sport brings
people together. Ogunmola (2002) opines that sport is a powerful force in uniting racial,

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 STRATEGIES FOR A SUCCESSFUL PARTICIPATION AND ENHANCED PERFORMANCE IN COLLEGIATE SPORTS
– A WAY OF MANAGING SPORTS IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS

tribal or social divisions within a community of a nation, and a unique factor that brings
people together in a meaningful way.
The development of sport in Nigeria through Nigerian Colleges of Education
Games (NICEGA) is no longer news; though it still serves as a medium of promoting
sports in the various participating Colleges of Education - a forum for selecting athletes
for state, national and international competitions. Some colleges have benefited
immensely from hosting NICEGA competitions by having their sports complex
developed and/ or improved upon, as in the case of Rivers State College of Education ,
Port Harcourt tagged RIVSCOE ‘ 94 ; FCE ,Osun State 2005 ; FCE , Obudu 2007 in
Calabar , just to mention but a few .
Successful management and administration of collegiate sports spurs the tertiary
institutions to have their athletes (students) participate in the competitions. This however,
requires the effective effort, ability and application of strategies by knowledgeable
administrators and managers to have a successful and well organized competition that
will bring about a successful participation and enhanced performance, having in mind the
consequences of poor management of sports.

Strategies for Successful and Enhanced Performance in Sports

To facilitate the process of attaining peak performance and enhancing chances of

winning in sports competitions, participating tertiary institutions have to seriously
prepare for the competition by sincerely engaging in the areas discussed as follows:

1. Planning: One of the simplest, but costliest mistakes in sports is the inability to
plan ahead in preparation for a competition. This, no doubt has affected our states
and national teams in both national and international competitions. Tertiary
institutions fail to succeed in collegiate sports because they fail to give enough
attention to long term strategic and corporate planning. Agbato (1999), and
Akanni (1991) in Fason (2003) agreed that planning is necessary; hence it is the
road map which will help the manager to decide for one or more specific courses
of action that will involve establishment of standards.

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2 Training: Sports training for athletes in preparation for competitions is as serious

as the collegiate sport is very essential. Sports training should be well
programmed and thoroughly structured in such a way that it will benefit the
athletes (students) in the tertiary institutions. The training session should not
encroach into the athletes’ academic work/study, having in mind that their major
aim for being in the institution is to study and become graduates. Sports
participation in this case is secondary. Schedule for training periods therefore,
should take cognizance of the holiday periods when athletes could be called
(invited) into camps. It is commonly believed that training has a profound impact
on athletes’ productivity and quality of input (Wodi, 2004).
Athletes’ training must be strengthened in order to improve or enhance their
performance in the competitive games.

3 Health of the athletes: It is quite unfortunate that sports administrators do not

pay attention to the health of athletes. Some affected Nigerian athletes stopped
honouring invitations to represent Nigeria in international competitions, while
some athletes are bedridden today (either at home or in the hospital), and some
already dead. These athletes are left to their fate in pains, penury, agony and
shame, only waiting hopelessly for the miracle of God to change their situations.
Similarly, this incident occurs in tertiary institutions as school administration and
those in- charge of sports do not care for the sportsmen and women. As a result
of inadequate or lack of medical care of sportsmen and women, we have
witnessed many potential athletes retiring prematurely from participation in
sports due to injuries (Ogunmola, 2002).
Care of the athletes’ health would go a long way to enhance their
performance in sports. The work of Ojo (2002) states that non availability of
health services could be dangerous to the health of the athletes during sports
participation hence, the athlete who sustained an injury during sports needs
urgent health services. But where this is not made available, there is the tendency

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– A WAY OF MANAGING SPORTS IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS

that the athlete will perform poorly in sports as a result of the carefulness during
sports and phobia of sustaining injury.

4. Sports Equipment /Facility: This is an essential factor to the enhancement of

sports performance of athletes. Sports performance is aided by good equipment
and facility that are used during training sessions and competitions. Similarly, the
use of faulty equipment or dilapidating facility or non-availability of same may
cause injury to the users and/ or results to poor performance of the athletes (Ojo,
2002). Babalola et al (2003) maintain that the type of facilities and equipment
made available for athletes’ use in competitions may encourage not only injury
but poor performance in sports.

5. Attitude / Knowledge of the Sports Coach: Excellence in sports depends on the

availability of the staff or coach. Good coaching is a tool for success in contests,
and without a knowledgeable and experienced coach, a team is bound to perform
poorly in sports. According to Fasan (2003), victory in sports would only be
achieved through adequate coaching.
Wole and Toro (2003) admitted that poor coaching can contribute to poor sports
performance. The use of harsh words or languages, quarrels, abusive words on the
athletes could upset them during the game /events. The coaches being at war
against themselves could also offset the athletes who may not be given attention
during the games, and as a result may lead to poor performance (Babalola et al,
2003).

6. Attitude and Experience of the Athletes: Crisis among the athletes themselves
could bring about poor performance in any competitive sports. In a situation
where the athletes fight, quarrel in their hostels and extend same into the field of
play could cause one not to co-operate with team mate(s), particularly those
directly involved .Moreover, athletes who are not knowledgeable or experienced
(skillful) in the game/event would perform better.

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7. Poor Knowledge of Rules and Regulations: Lack of in-depth knowledge of rules

and regulations of some games and competitions by coaches and athletes can
bring about poor performance (Babalola et al, 2003).

8. Athletes’ Feeding System: The present study involved diet manipulation and its
effect on the athletes’ performance in competitive sports, such as NICEGA. The
host college or institution regulates the price of food per plate, not minding the
quality of the food sold by the vendors. Same applies to the athletes who as a
result of the feeding allowances approved by their colleges possibly may want to
save some money for their books and other needs, may want to look at the
quantity and not the quality of food, which results to eating ‘junks’. This at the
end brings about health problems that affect athletes’ performance. Agbo and
Alkali (2002) examined nutrition and nutrition education in relation to sports
performance among university athletes and found that a well planned dietary
regiment taken according to specification has a significant positive effect in sports
performance.

9. Finance and Motivation: Higher institutions’ attitude to sponsoring collegiate

sports has been a big problem to both the coaches and athletes in their various
colleges and institutions. The administrators find it difficult to release money to
sponsor athletes and officials to sports competitions, besides athletes paying their
sports fees embedded in the students’ school fees.
Sometimes, the finance is released very late which results to late preparation for
games. In addition, the athletes are not motivated in any way. Take for example,
athletes are not given concession during admission, hostel accommodation, and
sometimes, examinations written by other students during competitions.

10. Weather: This is a factor for poor sports performance. A scheduled sports
competition during rainy season will be too cold for athletes who cannot endure
it. Same is applicable to excessive hot/dry season that can hamper the sports

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performance of athletes. A typical example is Gumel’90 in Kano State which was

excessively hot. It affected the athletes from the South-West, South- East and
South-South. This should be seriously considered while scheduling for sports
competitions such as NICEGA, NIPOGA and NUGA.

Managing the Success in Collegiate Sports

To manage the success in collegiate sports, it must be the responsibility of everybody
including the School Management, the L. O. C (local organizing committee), the coaches,
athletes, the Government (state), the association executives (such as NICEGA), sponsors,
ministries of sports, education and finance.
Managing success in sports competitions should not be seen only in terms of organizing
competitions or winning laurels, but also in terms of stated objectives. However, to
manage the success in NICEGA could be seen as a process or a method of sustaining the
present state or result and improving on it for the future. It could also be seen as
continuous improvement. To manage NICEGA success, we have to consider the under
listed:
- Human resources
- Financial resources
- Material resources
- Physical resources
The human resources do not only have the coach for the athletes to succeed, but
must include everybody such as the School Management, NICEGA executives, the
athletes, medical doctors, public relation officials, protocol, representatives of
government, ministries and many others.
The financial resources require strong financial backing as well as sound financial
management because it is one thing to have the money and another to spread it to meet
the specific needs. In most developed countries, funding of sports has less input from
government and more input from private sector. However, in the case of NICEGA the
opposite is the case. Muller (2000) and Preuss (2000) agree that the Olympic Games

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were entirely financed by private sponsors thereby increasing the number of countries
bidding to host the Olympic Games.
The marketers of NICEGA have never been sincere and faithful to the association
in providing the financial and material resources needed for the competition. Education
Trust Fund (ETF) has done a lot in terms of providing physical structures to the host
colleges. Therefore, to successfully manage NICEGA success, there is the need to
undertake the following:
- Planning
- Organizing
- Co-ordinating
- Motivating
- Communicating
- Monitoring
- Staffing
The management of collegiate sports such as NICEGA should be given adequate and
thorough attention required so that it will not fail in its value and objectives for which it
was established (Oloruntoba & Paschal, 2002).

The Role of Institutionalized Bodies in Managing NICEGA Success

Institutionalized bodies such as the NAPHER-SD, NUGA, NIM, NMA, NICEGA,

Nigeria Coaches Association, Man O’ War can assist to manage the success of NICEGA.
Man O’ War could be used with other students’ union bodies and/or volunteers for
security of lives and properties during the competition. Fine and Applied Arts students in
conjunction with NAPHER-SD could also be used to design the games’ logo.
SWAN’s responsibility is to advertise the games, sell the competition and the athletes
who excel in the competition in the print and electronic media.
The Nigeria Coaches Association should identify and market the champion and skillful
athletes (talents) to clubs both at home and abroad. This group could as well raise funds
to sponsor the competition.

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The NICEGA executives should ensure that the stated objectives of NICEGA are
achieved, be accountable to the members of the association and colleges alike. They
should also seek the opinions of members so as to know their strong and weak points for
possible improvement.

Conclusion
The success of NICEGA competitions and the effective performance of athletes in
the competition depend largely on the strategies applied by the institutions and their
various coaches. Inter-collegiate sports in Nigeria have witnessed successes and
problems, largely with successes that have not been properly or not managed at all.
Consequently, this paper critically analyzes the factors responsible and recommended
ways of managing the success of NICEGA.

REFERENCES

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development: Issues and prospects. JOSMER, 1(1), 126.

Babalola, J. F. & Oyeniyi, P. O. (2003). Curbing sport hooliganism during collegiate

Sport in Nigeria. West Africa Journal of Physical & Health Education
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Fasan, C. O. (Ed.) (2003). Managing Olympic success: the centennial and millennial
Olympic experience. ICHPER-SD, 34-37.

Obiyemi, W. & Abayomi, T. (2003). Players’ exposure to training as antidote for

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Ojo, R.A. (Ed.) (2002). The place of injury prevention in sports development in Nigeria.
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Oloruntoba, I. O. & Paschal, A. (2002). Sports management techniques as a function of

national sports development. JOSMER 1(1), 54.

Preuss, H. (2000). Economics of the Olympic games. South Wales: Walla Walla Press

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