24 Sep 2015

Team Central will rely on teachers in its mission to take the first position at the Botswana Games billed for Francistown December 5-13. Speaking in an interview, chef de mission of Team Central, Solomon ‘Taliban’ Dikgang, commended teachers in Central District for a great job. 

“I feel I should commend some schools and teachers for their patriotic approach to these games as they are ever organised,” he said, adding that some teachers went beyond their duties to even care for out of school trialists during team selections. 

Dikgang stated that going forward they would need teachers to drill the young athletes before a camp in November. 

However, Dikgang encouraged schools that had not yet warmed up to sports to expeditiously abandon the habit for the benefit of the youngsters. He said some school heads did not support selections by way of availing transport to the extent that some teachers had to use their resources to avail students for selections.

“Renowned athletes in the mould of Nijel Amos are products of these games and you never know who might be next. This is the beauty of these games,” he said. 

Dikgang, who is also a councilor, said local organising committee was hard at work preparing for camps and trainings. 

He stated that amongst the selected were players and or athletes with special needs and therefore the LOC should be ahead of the game catering for such. Previously, Team Central got a shot in the arm from Debswana with a sponsorship of over P100 000 and were aiming to accumulate even more funds this year as the team seeks the first spot. 

This year, team Central would see a reduced number of players competing at Botswana Games from 270 in 2011 to 188 this year. 

The slash in numbers, according to Dikgang, will hamstring some sporting codes. Some codes like softball will compete without assistant coaches. 

However, Team Central has selected more players for the November camp for contingency ‘since anything could happen between now and the final day of preparations.’ Ends