HPERSSA HEROES JOURNAL caught up with one of the heroes within the department and he had these to say about himself.
My name is Hillary Mills; I had my basic education at Ministry of Health basic school at Korle-bu in the Greater Accra region, and my secondary education at Sacred Heart Technical Institute also in Greater Accra.
In 2002 Handball was introduced into the second circle institutions and played for exhibition purposes. We fell deeply in love with the game and determined to play it for gains and pleasure to the highest level. A year later, handball was played at the Zonals and Super Zonals level of the second cycle inter-schools sports competitionnationwide which gave the opportunity to players to be selected to represent their respective regions. I can proudly boost that the Greater Accra handball teams, won all coveted trophies that were in contention for the male and female categories.
This drew the attention of the security services who then scouted for athletes in my school. I was lucky to have been enlisted into the Ghana Prisons Service as a handball player in 2004. We won the first league tournament for the Ghana Prisons service in the 2006 national handball league. I was then selected into the Under 18 Juniors team of Ghana to play in the African Cup of Nations in Cote d'Ivoire and later, we represented Ghana in the African Clubs Championship in Benin in 2007.
The peak of my carrier was when I represented Ghana in Kaduna, Nigeria in the African Juniors Commonwealth Games. A tournament I remember always due to the experience and the exposure I gained. The nostalgic feeling spreads goosebumps on me anytime I cast my mind back to that tournament. Again I was part of the under 23 team that played in the Zone 3 challenge trophy in Togo in which Ghana won silver for the first time in handball. The ecstasy of playing handball came in 2010 when we won gold in the first ECOWAS games in Abuja and we successfully defended thetrophy in 2012 here in Ghana. Immediately after that tournament I was invited to play in the senior handball national team which qualified to play the All African Games in Mozambique. And that isthe biggest tournament on the African Soil. I captained the Senior National team that played in Niger to play qualifiers for Zone 3 All African Games in 2014.
The joy of playing the game led me into coaching the youth handball club in the prisons service since 2015. I attained my firsthandball coaching license in Cote d'Ivoire in 2015.
Currently I am a student of the University of Education Winneba to upgrade myself in Sports Coaching. Aside schooling I am the Greater Accra Handball Organizing Secretary.
I have always remained grateful to the almighty God for how far he has brought me and also the physical education teachers who introduced handball to us in secondary school.
SOURCE: HPERSSA HEROES JOURNAL
