Goromonzi optimistic

Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
FOLLOWING their recent participation at the 10th Annual St John’s College Invitational Basketball tournament in Johannesburg, South Africa, Goromonzi High School are optimistic of the future as they seek to grow participation by their students in various sporting disciplines.

The tournament is one of the best boys’ high school competitions on the Southern African basketball calendar with players from Southern African countries taking part in the Under-16 and Under-19 events.

Goromonzi were one of the two schools from Zimbabwe which competed this year in the Under-19 event that featured 28 teams from Botswana, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the hosts South Africa.

They finished fourth in the bowl’s category.

Goromonzi coach Tendai Nyagumbo said the fact that they managed to bounce back after losing their first game to win some of the matches made him proud of his charges.

“The team was solid, it actually shook me as a coach because we got there as underdogs. We played our first game, we lost it out of nervousness. But the second game they picked up really well, we got together, we played our game,” Nyagumbo said.

The teams were drawn into four pools of seven.

And Goromonzi finished fourth in Pool A where they were pooled against Waterford Kamhlaba UWC of Southern Africa, St Stithians College, St Alban’s College, Barnato Park High School, Hilton College and St John’s College B.

The top two teams proceeded to the semi-finals of the main cup while third and fourth placed teams were moved to the bowl category.

Fifth and sixth teams also had their own semi-finals for the shield.

“The level of competition was quite high. I personally feel that we have so much talent here in terms of sport even on academics as well because you can’t really separate the two they move along,” said Nyagumbo.

Team vice-captain, Tanaka Manomano, said the tournament was a learning curve for them after their first tour in 2013 where they participated in a different competition.

“What I saw is that the other students that we were competing against, are physically big. There is need for us to start to work on our physical fitness to match up with their standards of play. Otherwise in terms of skills and game intelligence I think we could match up with them,” said Manomano.

The new curriculum by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education embraces sport as an integral part of the education system and Goromonzi headmaster, Abisha Mujeni said it is the right direction to take as it encourages students to pursue their talents in other areas besides academics.

“As headmaster I always feel we need to have sport being very active in the school because sport gives discipline and character to students or to players. It’s very critical that we actually do sport. We try to balance academics and sport for our students. We try to create a balanced atmosphere.

“The tournament opened my eyes wider. I think the new curriculum that the minister (Lazarus Dokora) has been advocating (for) is the right direction for schools, for our education.

“Sport, if managed very well, can make our students live out of it. It’s a business,” said Mujeni.

The school’s participation was sponsored by Africawide Holdings owned by Raymond Chiimba a former student at Goromonzi.

He joined hands with other former students to make the trip possible.

Former Mwana Africa team manager, Milton Nyamadzawo, who is now based in South Africa, also paid a visit to the team during their tour.

Nyamadzawo’s son is a student at the school.

The school is active in quite a number of sporting disciplines with the girls basketball team doing well in the schools national competition where they have been coming second behind Harare’s Girls High School in the past years. They have also been doing well in table tennis, football and chess as well.