She Cranes netball fallen hero Harriet Apako, 43 has today been laid to rest in her home Village of Napyanga, Kaberamaido District.
On Thursday 15th October, the nation woke up to the sad news of the passing of National Insurance Corporation (NIC) netball club Star Harriet Apako after losing the battle against a severe malaria.
Indeed the sports fraternity has lost a multi-talented personality in the making, having been player in Handball, Netball, basketball and at times beach volleyball at both club and National team level although her major spotlight was in netball.
It’s true what they say that ‘age is just a number’, at 43, Apako was still fully active in all her sports fields and was part of the playing squad that participated in the 2015 Netball World Cup in Sydney, Australia where Uganda finished 8th out of the 16teams that took part in the competition.
Apako, a mother of two started her playing career at very tender age at Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) netball team having been a student at Uganda Railways primary school where her mother featured as a teacher. Training with URC put her at the forefront of Coach Fred Mugerwa given her natural talent and it wasn’t long after that she was recruited as full time player. She quickly managed to penetrate into the club’s first team before impressing at the National Netball Novice championships that were played in Entebbe in 1991 where she caught the attention of many.
She featured for both the URC Netball (from 1986-2000) and Handball teams.
As a student at Old Kampala SS, Apako helped the school to win a couple competitions. She also played for Cresent High School.
In 1992, she was voted the USPA Netballer of the Year. In the same year, Apako joined Posta netball club before featuring at the Regional club championships in Nairobi.
In 1993, She Cranes head coach Margaret Bisereko summoned Apako to the national team for the regional netball campaign in Nairobi. Three years later, she was part of the side that won the regional title in Kampala.
The collapse of URC netball club in 2002 opened bigger opportunities and doors for Apako as she signed for National Insurance Corporation (NIC) netball club before joining Police netball club, a side has she played for until the time of her demise.
At NIC, she guided the team to ten league titles and five Regional titles trophies. During such successful spells at the club, she scooped a back-to-back Netballer of the Year awards in 2004 and 2005.
All her struggles and efforts paid off the highest dividends of her netball career in 2011 when the She Cranes won a gold medal at the All Africa Games that were held in Mozambique but Uganda’s qualification for the Netball world Cup during the qualifiers in 2014 in Botswana topped it all.
As a handball player, Apako was part of the URC handball side that topped Tanzania’s Magereza in 1994 to be crowned the Regional Handball tournament winners.
In the same tournament, she was voted as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) besides being the top scorer and most disciplined player.
In 1995, Apako with her URC handball team won the Commonwealth club title before its collapse in 2002. Recently she has been playing for Police in the handball national league.
Major Honors:
In Netball:
Part of the She Cranes at the 2015 Netball World Cup
Won Gold at 2011 All Africa Games
UPSA Netballer of the Year 1992, 2004 and 2005
In Handball: USPA Handball Player of the Year 2013 with UPDF
By Our Reporter
