04 Feb 2020

Botswana Ladies Volleyball assistant coach, Shadrack Modiakgotla has been appointed Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) instructor.

The appointment came after the commission members made a recommendation during the 2020 FIVB Technical and Coaching Commission.

Modiakgotla now qualifies to offer volleyball coaching courses around the world, under the instructions of the volleyball mother body.

He will among other things, teach volleyball to coaches, who aspire to get a qualification from the lowest level of volleyball coaching, or to coaches who have never coached nor played volleyball at the highest level, being levels I, II, III.

“I started attending courses in 2010 with the Volleyball Cooperation (VCP); an introductory coaching level conducted by FIVB and went on to do my level 1 in 2011, level II in 2013 and level III in 2018 until 2019 when the International Federation appointed me as the first volleyball instructor in the country,” he said.

Modiakgotla said he was introduced to coaching in 2001 when he was still a student at the University of Cape Town.

“I always went to training early so that I watch the ladies team train, eventually my coach Matthew Govender asked me to lead the ladies team through their warm up. I literally copied his previous workouts as I did not know how to lead the exercises,” he narrated.

 Surprisingly, he said the coach always delegated him whenever he was late or absent and that is where the love for coaching, especially development of athlete, began.

“I approached the Witwatersrand University coach to work with him and the passion for coaching grew until I completely retired from playing in 2010 and continued with Kutlwano Club as the coach,” he said.

Modiakgotla said he was the club’s head coach in 2009 when it became the African Zone IV Club Champions in Durban, and also bagged the silver medal in the African Zone 6 club championships held in Namibia.

He has also won a few medals with the men’s national team; 2014 CUCSA games Lusaka, Zambia (gold), African Championships qualifiers Maputo Mozambique (silver).

Among his many achievements are the best coach awards in the Volleyball Federation Mascom League 2011 men’s category and Capital BMW volleyball tournament also in 2011.

He said from 2008 to date, he has volunteered to work with Mater Spei in the quest to develop players for his club.

He said having been a national player in 2000 until 2003, where his team became the Zone IV club championships in Mbabane, Swaziland, he was excellence oriented and eager to produce good results.

“This appointment is a great honour, which I am willing to use to bring positive change, as the first ever FIVB Instructor in Botswana, as I will be representing the country at large,” he said. Modiakgotla, born and bred in Borolong, completed HND Sport Management in 2005 at the University of Johannesburg and graduated from the Tshwane University of Technology with a B-Tech Sport Management in 2016 with a distinction in Sport and Recreation.

He has also done the International Coaching Certificate Enrichment Program (ICECP) with the University of Delaware in the United States of America under the Olympic solidarity scholarship facilitated by Botswana National Olympic Committee in 2017 and graduated with honours. ENDS