Handball teams for SA

Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Handball Federation will next month send more than 100 athletes and officials to South Africa for an invitational tournament as they continue with their efforts to develop the sport from the grassroots level. The tournament is pencilled for December 1 to 4 in Johannesburg and the ZHF were invited by the South Africa Handball Federation to take part in the competition.

Participants will take part in the Under-10, Under-14, Under-16 and Under-17 age-groups. Zimbabwe are hoping to field Zengeza 8 Primary School, Moffat Primary School, AM Academy, Alfred Beit, Girls High School, Allan Wilson, Bradley, Victoria Falls Primary and Prospect Primary School.

ZHF president Amon Madzvamuse said the tournament is a platform for development since it is targeting juniors. “We have 150 athletes and officials going to this event. What we did, the selection was done at the national tournament — the Naph tournament held at Houghton Park for the Primary Schools. For the Under-16s and Under-17s we just picked former national champions because of the timeframe as well as resources.

“Schools such as Kwekwe, Chinhoyi and Kuwadzana from Banket, because of time, could not make it. We did not select on merit, we just picked on availability and capability to cater for the expenses. “We want to develop the culture of handball in our schools and for our primary schools this invitational tournament came in handy because they have been participating in national events.

“This is the feeder conduit that has been the missing link in our developmental programme. So we are excited, come 2016 we have more Naph teams competing in regional competitions.

“I believe we are going to win because I think we are the first country to be very serious with junior development in the region. So I believe we are going to win especially Prospect who I think they will come out with a gold medal at this tournament,” said Madzvamuse.

The ZHF boss said preparations have already started with the handball mother body assigning coaches from their Coaches’ Commission to work with the schools. “They have started preparations and what we have done is we have taken to task the ZHF Coaches’ Commission to assist these primary schools in their preparations and assign coaches to the schools because this is a national thing. So you find that there is a ZHF coach in every school assisting.

“Since schools are catering for their expenses we have not given them a budget. As ZHF we are only there to facilitate and give them the platform because we do not want to kill the sport, this is where the future lies and we need to expose them more.

“Competing at national level we could not make the standards of high competition because the countries we would be playing against would have started (development) at the age of 10 so you find that our teams would fail to make it. “But we are now happy we are targeting the 10-year-olds and if we can have that culture at 10 up to 15 then at 16 we would have formidable sides,” said Madzvamuse.