adminSports Correspondent
BULAWAYO Metropolitan Tennis Board chairman Zeb Mawisire has said the association is seeking administrators who will take over the running of the game in order to remove that burden on coaches so that they focus on their duties. Mawisire said he was disappointed by the standard of tennis shown at two tournaments that were recently hosted by the province a development, which he blamed on coaches doubling up as administrators.
In a post-mortem of the Bulawayo Open and Tarry-Leigh De Souza Memorial tournaments which were held in succession from 22 August to 27 August, Mawisire said he was not impressed by the performances of players and felt the blame lay at the hands of the overburdened coaches.
He said it was shocking that younger players proved to be better than older players and managed to win titles in age-groups above their own.
Mawisire cited his daughter, Takudzwa Mawisire, Ethan Sibanda and Clare Machisa who emerged triumphant in the under-18 section and Under 14s respectively in the Tarry-Leigh De Souza Memorial while Machisa had come first in the Under-12s in the Bulawayo Open where Sibanda won the Under-14s section.
Takudzwa competed in the Under-14 age group in the Bulawayo Open and lost to Thabisile Dube.
Takudzwa ordinarily plays in the Under-14 age category while Machisa and Sibanda compete in the Under-10 section but the latter has played in the higher age category for some time and dominates in the section, wherever he plays in the country.
“Parents of the three children realised it was futile for the kids to continue playing in their respective age categories because they saw the youngsters were far better than their peers and elevated them to older players, where they not only played well but beat their older compatriots. I feel the results point to poor performance by coaches and it is a wake-up call to the local coaches to up their game because they are lacking somewhere,” said Mawisire.
Mawisire, a coach himself, was quick, however, to point out that there were few players who had registered for the two competitions but added it was no excuse, as even two players in a higher age category shouldn’t be beaten by someone from a lower age category.
The veteran coach said coaches were being overworked as they had to double up as administrators due to lack of people willing to do office work for tennis.
“We have no administrators hence we have to do double duty but that is unheard of in other sports. Which sport has a coach also being a chairman? None I tell you. I think this is adding to fatigue on the coaches’ part.
“I believe parents with kids playing tennis should take over the role of being administrators because this will give them a leverage to hold the coaches accountable whenever they fail to perform their duties. This will also free up the instructors and give them more time to attend to the youngsters,” he said.
BMTB early this year incorporated two parents, Lander Kadzombe and Clemence Hwata into their board as part of measures to involve more people who are not coaches in the body.
Online Reporter