29 Dec 2013

The organisers of the annual Christmas and New Year tournaments in Nshakashogwe and Sebina villages pride themselves with the quality of players they produced over the years.

This is despite the challenges they face when trying to secure sponsors for the tournaments.  Some of these players are already making a name for themselves in national teams such as the under 20, premier league clubs and other divisions.

Citing a few who started their amateur football careers from such tournaments and now playing for premier league teams, a member of the organising committee for the Sebina/Marapong tourney Best Lesetedi, said such players included Onkabetse Tshosa, a striker at Orapa United and Unabatsha Mbaiwa who stared for the under 20 national team and BMC.

Lesetedi noted that though these tournaments started mainly as a form of entertainment in the villages during the festive holidays, they had  turned out to be breeding grounds for new players.

Also, he added that they were vital for development of young players who could be groomed into well established players because a majority of young players who completed their secondary education remained idle at home without anything to do in the process wasting their talent.

As organisers and team managers, when they  prepared for the games they targeted such players with the aim of nurturing their talent and even go to the extent of recommending them to well established teams.

 This, he noted, also allowed them to create a relationship with such players which results in them coming back to play for their village teams which offered them a platform to expose their talent.

In Nshakashogwe, the chairman of the organising committee, Tambona Keetetswe also shared similar sentiments and noted that they have had so many players, some of whom had since retired from playing the game.

Keetetswe, nonetheless, pointed out that because they realised that they had players with a lot of potential, when they took over as the organising committee in 2010 they were mandated by the seven teams in their village to form a team which consist of the best players from those teams.

The main objective, he explained, was to have one big team which will represent their village during the constituency tournament instead of having many teams registering to compete. “We aim to set up a team that will dominate the constituency tournaments, representing the whole village not just an individual club,” said Keetetswe.

He further stated that though they have had successful tournaments over the years, they are still struggling with sponsors although they have promises for the coming year.

However, he highlighted that if they produce a competitive team, potential sponsors will come on board and in future they might have a team from their village competing in the elite league. ENDS