18 Nov 2019

Tsodilo Junior Secondary School boys and girls softball teams are the champions of the inaugural softball development tournament held in Maun over the weekend.

Both teams defeated their counterparts from Oodima Junior Secondary School in Oodi during the final lap.

In the boys’ category, Tsodilo boys’ team walloped Oodima 13-3, while the girls’ team sailed through by 16-0.

Oodima settled for position two while Maun’s Maitlamo got position three.

The champions walked away with a trophy, gold medals and kit, while Oodima got silver medals and a trophy and Maitlamo got bronze medals.

Tsodilo teams proved the Setswana idiom, ga e latelwe mosimeng as they did all in their power to protect their championship status because they are rated the best school in the country.

The school has been crowned the national torunament championships for the past 10 years.

Tsodilo boys’ team was also crowned the champions in the just ended 2019 Botswana Integrated Sports Association (BISA) competition.

The two-day tournament attracted five teams from across the country instead of the expected eight.

The schools expected were, Oodima, Shanganani, Moeti,  Maitlamo, Shakawe, Popagano, Sedibelo and Tsodilo but only Shakawe, Maitlamo, Moeti, Oodima and the hosts, Tsodilo showed up.

In an interview, the winning coach, who was also the tournament organiser, Basiame Molathiwa expressed happiness for the teams that showed up appreciating that some had transport challenges.

He said since the tournament was the first of its kind, it was bound to encounter problems in terms of resources.

 Despite the none attendance by other teams, he said the tournament was exceptional as the main objective was to bring students together and develop their skills.

The organiser said he expected teams such as Letlole, Patikwane and Kgalemang among others, to take part in the tournament, as he believed that it was better to play against the best teams in order to gauge themselves well.

Molathiwa gave credit to his teams, saying they performed well in all their games since the beginning of the tournament.

He said the girls’ team displayed bravery as they outclassed their opponents with a big margin, adding that ‘we have a strong team as the girls stopped their rivals from scoring throughout the entire game’.

He said the boys’ team played well even though the pitcher struggled as he had an injury.

Molathiwa also hailed the visiting teams for participating and encouraged them to keep on training to improve their skills.

He said the intention was to have the tournament annually and promised to mobilise more teams and sponsors next year, to make it bigger and better.

Oodima coach, Mpho Tsele said the tournament was well organised and also commended his teams for reaching the finals.

He said they did their best, more so that they were playing the best teams (Tsodilo teams) in the country.

He said although the girls’ team had stage fright and there was too much respect for Tsodilo, they were able to adjust.

The boys’ team, he said committed a lot of errors in the first round, which he attributed to high temperatures.

“We are happy with the results, because we lost to a superior opponent,” he added. Ends