Coaches at the ongoing All Stars Female Football Championship on Wednesday in Lagos advised parents to encourage their wards to take to sports to enhance their well being.
The coaches said the combination of education with sports was an added advantage to the development of the children and sports.
Rolandson Odeh, President, Amalgamation of Nigeria Female Football Coaches Association (ANFFCA), urged parents not to regard sports as a career meant only for the less privileged and uneducated people.
A former coach of the Super Falcons, Nnenna Etim, said sports developed a child mentally, physically and emotionally.
Etim advised parents and guardians to encourage their children to participate in sports because the country needed them for developing the sports sector.
“Aside of sports being a lucrative avenue to showcase one’s talent, it is also an avenue for a child to develop in all aspects of life, because sports teaches discipline and tolerance.
“Parents should not see sports as an avenue for a child to misbehave or see it as a career only for the destitute and poor in the society; it teaches a child to be disciplined,” she said.
The Vice President of ANFFCA, Oluwole Santana, said that children could combine education with sports.
“We have lots of academies now, if parents are afraid of their wards neglecting education because of sports, they should have a change of heart,” he said.