By GWEN CHIPASULA –

COPA Coca-Cola Schools champions Chizongwe have been drawn in the same group with Kaoma in the competition that starts on Wednesday at the Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC) in Lusaka.
Missing from the 23rd edition of the tournament that will run from July 6 to 9 in Lusaka will be the 2014 and 2015 runners-up Chongwe, who lost last year’s final 4-1 to Chizongwe Technical High School.
Other teams joining Chizongwe (Eastern Province) and Kaoma Secondary School (Western Province) in Group A are Ituna Secondary School (Northern Province), Mine Secondary (Central Province) and Nchelenge Secondary School (Luapula).
Lusaka will be represented by a new face in Mwavi Secondary School and make up Group B that also has Solwezi Technical high School (North-Western Province), Muchinga (Muchinga Province), Chifubu Secondary School (Copperbelt Province) and a yet-to-be-selected team from the Southern Province, which will complete the list.
The Southern Province finals got postponed following a tragic road traffic accident that befell Hillcrest Secondary School on their way to compete in the final.
The winners will walk away with K15,000, while the first runners-up will pocket K10,000.
The second runners-up will be K7,000 richer, as the fourth-placed team will get an extra set of jerseys that every participating team will get.
Other prizes to be won include player-of-the-tournament, top scorer and best goalkeeper of the tournament.
Zambia Schools Sports Association (ZASSA) president Chipangano Tembo said the best performers will be picked to compete at the Inter-Africa Stars competition slated for September in South Africa.
Tembo said the girls’ teams would only participate up to the provincial level and receive the awards.
Zambian Breweries Limited marketing director Thomas Kamphuis said the company would continue supporting the development of grassroots football in the country.
Kamphuis said Zambian Breweries had seen great passion for football in Zambia, and that the company was happy to  partner with ZASSA in staging the tournament.