Chronicle Editor
Amanda Mlevu, Sports Reporter
VICTORIA Falls based Shalom Volleyball Club have promised to be the best club in Matabeleland North province.
Vice chairman and manager of the team Simbarashe Chiringa said in an interview that he has assembled the best players to dominate in the sport in the region.
Shalom Volleyball club is an idea that was hatched by school pupils at Learning Centre in 2017 and teachers and parents bought into the idea.
“A few additions to our teams next season will see us dominating volleyball and we will be the flag bearers for sports in Matabeleland North. We have also recently started nurturing talent from kids as young as nine years old.
“A rapid rise saw former volleyball players from high schools around coming to join and a club executive was formed. It is headed by Precious Phiri.
The committee managed to build a competitive team and we started playing against local and Hwange volleyball clubs,” said Chiringa.
He said when they started they were whipping boys and girls of the province.
“We continued to grow in stature which attracted Bulawayo clubs. Hurricanes and Spartans were the two teams which helped us to develop to the next stage. We toured Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Bulawayo,” he said.
In 2019 they decided to join Matabeleland Volleyball association and became an affiliate to Zimbabwe Volleyball Association.
They later joined the Zimbabwe National Premier Volleyball League.
“In the Zimbabwe national league our team finishined fourth on our first season thereby earning a ticket to the Zone VI Championships in Zambia. Our ladies team finished as runners-up in the Zimbabwe Open tournament,” said Chiringa.
He said in their second season the boys’ team qualified for the quarter-finals where they lost to City of Harare.
Chiringa said his club has contributed players to the Under-20 national team and their player Belinda Maseko has captained the Under-20 in Maseru, Lesotho while Alberto Kaunda performed very well in Malawi where Zimbabwe won Gold in the Under-20 category.
The volleyball club is contributing to sports tourism as clubs from other centres and Zambia participate in their events regularly.
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