This is how Throwball changed a young Kenyan boy’s life.
Ukao Makalawi, the number five ranked foreign Throwball player, used the sport to go from poor, weak, and sad to being one of the best and strongest young players in the world. Ukao came from a poor family in a poor section of Nairobi, Kenya. He was skinny, hungry, and depressed. Then he had heard about the sport throwball when he was in downtown Nairobi and saw a news report about the sport. ” I saw it on the news, and it looked really fun and you see where that brought me to now.” is what Ukao said about the time he first saw the sport. After that, he asked some friends if they wanted to play. The first time he played, he had so much fun, he and his friends played until the sun went down. He asked his mother if there were any teams of Throwball nearby. After his mother looked, she found Ulaga High School which had the best Throwball team in Kenya out of 15 other high schools with the game. They had tryouts for the young man to see how well he would do with the starters. They played the length of a whole match and he scored 35 of the 86 points scored by him and the starters. He was happily accepted into the high school. He became a starter immediately after being accepted. Has his last year in high school comes to a close, he as lead his team to 4 Kenyan High School Throwball Championships and has been dubbed the “Best Kenyan Throwball Player”. He has said that he has appreciated the experiences and good times that the school and team have given him. At 18 years old, it must be a hard thing to handle knowing you are one of the top in the world. He averages 40.8 points a game and 15 blocks a game. We will just have to see what is in store for the young man and what happens in his future.