29 Oct 2013

Parents have been asked to support sporting activities for their children. This was said by Botswana Football Association acting technical director, Philmon Makhwengwe during the launch of the Choppies monthly football clinic in Shoshong recently,

Makhwengwe said parents had an important role in sporting development of their children. “When parents’ involvement is positive, the children are likely to enjoy their sporting experience and would want to do extra and therefore develop their talents,” he said.

He said sports not only assistedwith building physical skill, but also helped to develop self-esteem as children were also motivated to play to impress when they knew that their parents or caregivers were watching.

He said by supporting their children parents would be contributing towards the realisation of dream of the Member of Parliament for Shoshong, Phillip Makgalemele. Makhwengwe hailed Makgalemele for coming up with the initiative for grooming youngsters in the constituency into excelling sports people.

He said Makgalemele, as a former football player, had a passion for development of football in the country, a passion he also carried when he was the president for BFA, as he managed to raise P1 million for the association. The launch was started in three Shoshong schools, namely Shoshong, Kgamane and Mokibe and other schools will be covered next year.

Makhwengwe said the programme would start with children aged between five to 13 years. The clinics will be held on Saturdays between 0800 and 1000hours at the Village Development Community (VDC) grounds. Former local football and goalkeeping star, Mooketsi ‘China’ Mading will conduct the clinic.

Makhwengwe said the monthly Choppies football clinic would be sponsored by Choppies stores for six months. Makhwengwe said schools would walk away with P500, P350, P250 fore positions 1, 2 and 3 respectively.

The best defender, midfielder and goalkeeper will take P100 each. For his part, Makgalemele said the Choppies football clinic was an effort to develop football at grass-root level. He said the clinic would be extended to other villages in the constituency. ENDS