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Veronica Gwaze, Sports Reporter
NATTIE Junior School are still basking in glory following an impressive performance at the South Africa Under-13 Basketball Tournament in Mafikeng recently.
The tournament had 10 girls teams and an equal number for the boys battling it out for silverware at the three days tournament.
Although they failed to achieve a podium finish, Nattie were crowned the Most Desciplined team and the Most Spirited team of the tournament.
The school also made a mark for fielding the youngest teams in the contest.
Head of Sport at the school, Joel Chiduku paid tribute to his teams for putting up a competitive show at their first international outing.
“I am very happy with the way they performed, I am still short of words because they performed way beyond my expectations,” he said.
“Not taking anything away from my team but considering were we are coming from, even our sporting landscape I personally expected less than what they finally did.
“For me this was a familiarization tour, we wanted to go and get the feel of it and learn as much as we can. Also it was meant to motivate our kids and they gave he a pleasant treat with their performance.”
The team got outstanding performances from Tinotenda Machingauta, Tafara Miradzi, Elvina Mwahave, Nokutenda Mulangizo and Luthando Ndiweni.
Chiduku notes that the team’s participation at an international level comes as a huge in terms of refining his team’s talent.
His plan, he said, is to assemble a formidable side that will dominate local charts.
In turn, this will create an environment for them to part of the main feeder channel into the national teams.
“Participation at that level is huge in terms of refining ourselves both as a team and as a school,” said Chiduku.
“Playing in a different environment in a different country obviously comes with a new perspective in terms of how you view the game and rate your team.
“Most importantly the level of competition was high so children were tested in many ways, patience, determination and discipline.
“We were able to note what we need to do as a team and how to properly invested as a school so in a big way this was a huge eye opener for us.”
Chiduku added that the tournament also meant more than sport for the school.
“Sport transcends cultures and languages so we got the chance to experience and learn all that.
“We have teams coming from all over the region and the common factor being precisely Basketball, Sport and then life in general.
“While we competed for silverware but we needed to make our teams understand that it was not entirely about winning.
“We got the much-needed exposure on the international scene and we will not be the same again but above all, we learnt and created relations.
“Our kids were very happy with the experience so we realised that we should have such programmes more often.”
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