Gombe West Defeats Bauchi DCC to Emerge Winners of 2025 ECWA President’s Championship
Our correspondent
The 2025 edition of the ECWA President’s Under 19 football and volleyball championship has ended in Jos with Gombe West DCC emerging as the overall champions of the weeklong tournament.
In the final match between Gombe West DCC and their neighbouring Bauchi DCC team, the Gombe West boys defeated their Bauchi counterparts 3 – 0 in a closely contested game played at the Zaria Road Stadium on Saturday 31, May 2025.
The tournament which is an annual event saw the Gombe West DCC also emerging as the winner in the game of volleyball followed by the Bukuru DCC team who came second while the Kagoro DCC team clinched the 3rd position.
In this year’s edition of the championship, 8 teams participated in the football championship while 4 teams took part in the game of volleyball.
At a brief ceremony to mark the end of the tourney, ECWA President, Rev. Dr. Job Ayuba Bagat expressed happiness for the success of the championship and congratulated all the teams for the sacrifices they made to ensure full participation in the tournament.
The ECWA President who could not hide his joy said “I am the happiest person on earth today, because my eyes have seen what our young people in ECWA can do through this championship.
“I have seen the players play wonderful football. What I have seen shows that we have a lot of potential that can go places. I want to thank the Chairmen and Secretaries of DCCs who made a lot of sacrifices to ensure that we have the various teams coming to represent their respective DCCs.”
The cleric who was in in company of the ECWA General Secretary, Rev (Dr) Ayuba Asheshe and the ECWA Assistant General Secretary, Rev Dr Sunday Congo encouraged the players that there is room for improvement as the championship progresses.
He urged the winners to do more adding that the skills they displayed were indications that they would go places.
The cleric warned that failure to abide by the rules guiding the tournament would attract sanctions and advised all teams that would want to take part in subsequent championships to always ensure compliance with the rules guiding the competition.
Earlier in his remarks, ECWA Sports Ministry’s Coordinator, Pastor Walshak Habakkuk expressed gratitude to God for seeing them through the weeklong event.
He particularly commended the ECWA leadership for the provisions made to ensure the success of the championship.
While applauding other departments who supported the championship, Pastor Walshak stated that despite the challenges faced in this year’s tournament came with challenges but expressed optimism for a better outing in the future.
On some of the successes recorded during the championship, the Sports Ministry coordinator said “There were 300 players in the camp who had devotions with them every morning. During the devotion, 63 gave their lives to Jesus Christ and to us, that is the biggest achievement of this year’s championship and we are trusting God that we will continue to do follow-up with them which we held devotions with them.”
The grand finale featured the award of medals to players and match officials.
Highpoint of the event was the presentation of cash rewards to the winners of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions by the trio of the ECWA President, General Secretary and Assistant General Secretary respectively.
In the football category, Gombe West received the highest cash reward of One Million naira while Bauchi DCC got Seven Hundred Thousand and Tangale DCC team got Five Hundred Thousand.
For volleyball, the Gombe West DCC team received a cash reward of Five Hundred Thousand naira. Bukuru DCC team which came second received Four Hundred Thousand while Kagoro took home Three Hundred Thousand naira.
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