With the total lockdown on sports activities finally lifted after six months, lawn tennis coach John Oduke is making phone calls to his clients in earnest, to make arrangements for the resumption of their coaching programs, JOHN VIANNEY NSIMBE reports..
As he breathed a sigh of relief, John Oduke admits he could have given President Yoweri Museveni a warm embrace, after he finally lifted the lockdown on sport on September 20. Oduke felt a weight off his shoulders.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Oduke, 62, had last held a tennis racquet, to conduct a training session on March 22. It is that action, that he has been yearning for; not only for the thrill he gets from playing tennis but also to get his life back, following its decimation due to the coronavirus.
The image of a locked gate of the Lugogo tennis club, fastened by a chain and a padlock embodies the real situation of Oduke’s life since March. Not being able to access the premises, as Oduke had since 1968, when he was ten, did not only shatter his soul but his livelihood too.
“I became a coach in 1986. That was after I was retrenched from British American Tobacco (BAT), where I had worked since 1976. So, all my life, it is through tennis, that I have put food on the family table and educated my children,” Oduke, who is a father of three boys and four girls, said.
So, when tennis was under lockdown, Oduke’s cash streams were blocked. Previously, every week, he coached for at least eight hours. His work included coaching adults and a number of children between the ages of 10 and 16. It was from this activity, that Oduke paid his bills and maintained an upbeat life.
But with two of his children at the university presently, the situation has been dicey with no fall-back position. It is on his little savings, that Oduke barely made it through the lockdown. He admits, it was not without much sacrifice.
SURVIVAL MODE
“First of all, the family bond was crucial in keeping everything together, and giving us perspective. We agreed that our spending had to be cut tremendously, in order for us to survive. For example, we replaced bread at breakfast with cassava, sweet potatoes and pancakes,” Oduke explained.
This was a move to live within their means. The price of a family loaf of bread is at least Shs 4,000 ($1.08). Considering how awash of foods markets have been during this period of lockdown, the price of bread would buy a family enough cassava or sweet potatoes, add silver cyprinid (mukene) and greens for the vitamins, to last a few more days.
Besides, cassava and potatoes would also cover other meals beyond just breakfast. It was a case of pragmatism bearing on affordability. Although Oduke does not hide the frustration from all this, he has been built for the rough and tumble. Such has been the story of his life.
Born May 15, 1958, Oduke lost his father in 1973, when he was 15 years old, and in senior two at City High School. That marked the end of his dream to get an education, because his mother could not afford to send him and his other six siblings to school.
Earlier on, he had attended school at the Acholi Association School (Naguru Infant School) and Naguru Katale primary school. And without anyone emerging to support them, Oduke decided to spend more time in sport around Lugogo at the National Council of Sports premises, then known as the Uganda Sports Union. Oduke had been introduced to tennis in 1967, starting out as a ball boy, before serious training started in 1968.
Oduke’s passion for tennis was equally matched by football. Oduke did his paces alongside KCCA FC legends Moses Nsereko and Phillip Omondi, both deceased. The fact that Oduke played with those icons as a teenager, one would wonder why he could have preferred tennis to football.
He said: “I used to play as a striker or goalkeeper up to about the age of 21. But one time we were playing a friendly match, and an opponent kicked me in the chest. Being a young man, I got so angry and quit, hence choosing tennis, where such incidents never happened.
Floodgates opened
But to this day, Oduke remains a KCCA FC fan, even though he and tennis are joined at the hip for obvious reasons. In 1970, Oduke played in his first national Junior tournament. And because of what a milestone it was, he has never forgotten, that he reached the semi-finals.
In fact, the floodgates opened thereafter. Oduke represented Uganda at the East Africa Junior Championship in 1971, but lost out at the semifinal stage. Yet, this trajectory Oduke was on, got interfered with, forcing him to stop playing the sport between 1971 and 1975. The courts at Lugogo were inaccessible.
The alternative was Kampala Club near State House Nakasero. But it was a members’ club then, that Oduke could not afford until the Alitalia sponsored singles championship was on the horizon at the tail end of 1975. He won his first career trophy.
Since Oduke was not attending school anywhere, this was a springboard for him to get a job at BAT as a casual labourer, while still pursuing his tennis career. For twenty years, Oduke was Uganda’s top seed having represented the country in two All Africa Games editions, and four Davis Cups.
The 62-year-old, who also professes being Catholic, also took part in seven Uganda Opens, and was once ranked number 800 in the world by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Oduke, who retired from competitive tennis in 2002 without realizing his dream of playing at the top level, because of lack of resources, remains happy nonetheless.
He feels the grace of God has been upon him throughout his life having not completed formal education, yet tennis became his livelihood.
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