The Sunday Mail
Langton Nyakwenda
THEY walk for more than seven kilometres to get to school. Some of them see football as a gateway to a better life and play barefooted on uneven pitches that are sometimes littered with stones.
This is the plight of budding footballers from Buhera North. Last Friday, they converged for the Taranhike Annual Sports tournament at Mukondomi Primary School, near the famous Murambinda Growth Point.
While Zifa president Felton Kamambo has presented his plans to revive junior football in the country, it seems like the football supremo has a long way to go if the situation in Buhera North is anything to go by. All the junior players from the five schools that converged at Mukondomi Primary had no football boots, most of their coaches are detached from current football trends and the match officials made some terrible calls that disturbed the flow of the game.Mombeyarara Primary School won the boy’s football competition after shrugging off challenges from hosts Mukondomi, Chawatama, Neshava and Chiturike. Mukondomi won the netball competition.
Former Soccer Star of the Year Stewart “Shutto” Murisa, who was the guest of honour for the football event, lamented the lack of technical expertise amongst most of the junior coaches who were present. “You can see these boys have the energy, zeal and determination. There isn’t much difference between them and those young footballers you find in Mbare or Chitungwiza, but these boys here in Buhera lack some of the basics.
“I think they are not being taught the right things which are supposed to be taught junior footballers. Junior football is about three basic things, that is ball control, passing and movement. I didn’t see it here,” bemoaned Murisa. Murisa won the 1996 Soccer Star of the Year award after helping a trailblazing CAPS United to a league and cup double. “I would like to urge Zifa to send their technical guys to places like Buhera North so that they impart the latest coaching techniques to junior football coaches.” Tournament sponsor Christina Taranhike, who funds this annual event through her cross boarder bus company King Lion, pledged to facilitate coaching clinics in Buhera.
“I am pledging to continue supporting sport because I believe it can be a source of living for most of these disadvantaged boys.
“However, I have also noticed that we need technical expertise if we are to develop football. As a result, I would want, in conjunction with Zifa and the National Association of Primary Heads (NAPH) in charge of football, to facilitate coaching courses in this area,” said Taranhike.
The Taranhike Annual Sports tournament has grown in popularity in Buhera North.
