Priscilla Vande to coach Team Nigeria at 2019 FISU Football Competition

University of Agriculture, Makurdi (UAM) Coach, Priscilla Vande, whose team at the weekend won the maiden Higher Institutions Football League (HIFL), has been appointed Team Nigeria’s coach to the FISU football championship slated for Naples, Italy next year.

She will coach a team made up of the best players from the HIFL to the world universities’ games.

UAM defeated Unical at the Agege Stadium, Lagos on Saturday to become the first school to win the competition meant for all Nigerian universities.

Vande, the only female coach in the league, beat 15 male coaches to win the HIFL Elite Coach of the Season award.

Speaking after receiving the award, Vande, who is a graduate of Physical and Health Education, as well as an alumnus of the Nigerian Institute of Sports, Lagos, thanked HIFL for giving her the opportunity to display her coaching prowess.

She added, “I thank the Vice Chancellor of University of Agriculture, Makurdi for his total support. Coaching youths is not easy because you have to deal with so many issues. But thank God I was able to use my expertise to assemble a disciplined and tactically solid team that won the HIFL. Winning the maiden edition of the HIFL means a lot to me and my players,” she said.

At the award night in Lagos at the weekend tagged, ‘HIFL Elite Awards,’ Ebuka David Odenigbo, captain of University of Makurdi, who emerged as the tournament’s highest goal scorer, also won the Elite Player of the Year Award.

The HIFL Platinum Distinguish Honorary Award was given to the executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Adamu Abubakar, while Ebire Abiodun from OAU Giants won the Best Goalkeeper Award.