NAIROBI, Kenya, June 26, 2026 – As a player who has featured at the highest levels of the game, Jacob Ojee is undoubtedly a rich repository of knowledge and experience as far as rugby is concerned.
When he is not lining up in the green and blue of Kenya Cup record champions KCB Rugby, Ojee is busy nurturing the next crop of talents at Hillcrest School, to continue the country’s tradition as a powerhouse on the continent.
While the expectation is that the children are reaping priceless knowledge and skills from the experienced player, Ojee reveals he has also acquired a lot from his interaction with the young ones.
“I learn every day. Since they are kids and it’s a group of different kids coming from different backgrounds, you keep learning from them. You keep even learning rugby from them because maybe you get to see it. When you watch how we play this age group rugby, some of the rules are not the same as the senior rugby.
Ojee boasts a colourful resume, having played the game for many years, with varied degrees of success.
With the bankers, he has lifted the Kenya Cup thrice whereas he was part of the national 7s team that clinched the 2019 Africa Men’s title — a feat that earned them a direct ticket to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
For all his achievements, Ojee is confident that the kids under his tutelage can surpass the heights he has scaled in his career.
“You adapt and the kids will help you adapt to understand this is not done this way, this is not done this way. So you keep learning every day and you keep seeing the kids grow and evolve in the game at a very high pace and at a very technically better pace than some of us did. And that’s the challenge, you keep learning and you even pick the same aspects of the game and you move on when you’re coaching the adults too,” he says.
Working with the little ones brings him so much joy, more than money could ever buy.
He confesses his desire to see the students reach the highest level of the game and bring a lot of success and honour to the country, to add to what he and his peers have been able to do thus far.
“First of all, it’s very nostalgic because being a player who started at a very young age, I never got these opportunities. Giving back and impacting the young boys and having them grip some of these technicalities of the game at a very young age is actually like a challenge and something that you’d want to do. Seeing them showcase the same skills and the level of intensity they play rugby at 11 years of age, it’s amazing to watch,” Ojee notes.
His belief is that tapping talents at a young age is the future of Kenyan rugby, if the sport is to flourish across the country.
“I think if we keep running such kind of programmes, we can only get better and technical players moving up the ladder who will even surpass some of the things that we did as ourselves in the senior rugby. I think it’s just good giving back and seeing the growth coming through,” Ojee says.
Silverware at last
Last Saturday was an ecstatic moment for Ojee and the boys as they clinched the under 11 category at the annual Ndume 7s at the Pembroke School, beating Braeburn Garden Estate 30-5 in a one-sided final.
Oozing with joy, Ojee says the win was a perfect reward for the incremental growth the team have made from the previous year when they fell at the semis of the same competition.
“I think it’s an amazing experience. We’ve been working towards it the last few years. We came up short last year where we lost in the semi-finals and we keep building and teaching the boys the right way to play rugby, the right way to grow as adults. Just using rugby to make them improve in terms of life and everything and so them coming full circle this year was an amazing experience. I think it goes a long way to show how much they’ve grown,” he notes.
Two areas that Ojee has worked on to great effect is the players’ self-belief and collective effort in all phases of the game.
“I teach my boys to believe in the team and the aspect of working together. Also, that not all the time you’re going to dominate the game. In the tough moments when you need to defend, you need to defend as a team. In the tough moments when you need to look for that elusive try, you need to work together as a team. So for us the biggest word this year was teamwork,” he explains.
As some of his players transition to the under 13 level, Ojee is looking forward to working with new players who will be joining them.
It is a challenge that he is relishing as he continues to learn from his interactions with the little ones.
“The thing about it is growth and continuity. It’s a programme we’ve been working on at Hillcrest for quite a while now. I think last year we failed at the quarter-semifinals, the other year we just barely missed the semifinals. The only thing you can hope is we continue doing the same thing and continue keeping the same consistency whereby as the Year 6s transition to Year 7, they impact the under-13s and as the Year 4s come into Year 6 and Year 5, they keep the same trajectory moving forward,” Ojee says.
Blips along the way
Expectedly, the journey to the top has encountered potholes along the way.
As someone who has faced disappointments in his longstanding career, Ojee’s fatherly figure has often proven crucial in helping the little ones absorb the heartbreak and bounce back stronger.
“Rugby just teaches you what life teaches you. At times things won’t go your way, at times you’ll come up short, but how do you bounce back? Last weekend we lost the Guinea tournament. We won it last year, but last weekend we lost to the same team that we beat today in the finals. So, seeing how the boys bounced back just a week after the Guinea tournament shows you that we’re doing quite a good job with growing them mentally,” he explains.
As the old adage goes, ‘experience is the best teacher;’ the many years spent in the game stand Ojee in good stead as he wears his hat as Hillcrest Under 11 boys’ head coach.
It further speaks volumes of his open mindedness that he has drawn crucial lessons from his experience with the little ones.
Truly, ‘rugby teaches you about life’ and on the strength of his testimony, Jacob Ojee is an archetypal student of the game of life and rugby.
