06 Oct 2015

The establishment of a girls centre of excellence in Mochudi has given hope to the development of women football both in the region and in Botswana.  Established through the Kgatleng Regional Football Association, Kgatleng grassroots centre for girls is still in its infancy stage, and was established in October 2014.

Lesang Seabelo, who is one of the project initiators, said they were motivated to establish the centre in order to nurture girls’ talent within the region, which would also develop women’s league in Kgatleng.

“We have brought different girls together from all over the district in order to infuse excitement and interest in football, and so far we are impressed about their motivation and willingness to learn,” he said.

Currently, he said there were about 75 girls who converge at Lady Mitcheson primary school every Saturday.

“It is not easy to get all the players in one place. This is our pilot project, and we want to start similar centres in other areas like Oodi, Artesia and Mmathubudukwane to mention a few. We would also like to encourage parents to bring their children in order for them to get fitness, and also possibly develop their future through football,” he said.

He explained that they had shortage of manpower, especially volunteer coaches, saying those they had, were also engaged with the boy’s teams, which were very active throughout the year with their youth league.

He said the large number of players means a lot of people need to be involved in order to make the centre a success.

Therefore, he appealed to people to volunteer their services. 

He said they keep the girls busy through a series of games in order to gauge their level of understanding. He further acknowledged that they participated in the Builders World Independence Youth Tournament this year.

“There are not many women teams in Kgatleng, so far we have only two participating in the women’s first division that is Oodi United and Mochudi Blackburn, and this is for senior players.”

The girls, he said were left behind as they were not ready to participate in such a league. 

“We managed to divide our girls into two teams, centres A and B who played with other new under 15 teams in Malotwane Young Hawks and Umlilo Soccer Academy, though they both lost,” he said.

He said he hoped that the teams would continue to keep such development teams as it would help the region in women football for the future. 

He said the players were excited to take part in the tournament.

However, he said they were struggling to get as much support as they want from the region. With more teams coming on board, he said interest from the mother body would probably increase. Ends