adminNgqwele Dube Sports Correspondent
DEVELOPMENT of young footballers in Bulawayo Province is set to go a gear up after the Zifa leadership entered into a partnership with non-governmental organisation, Orap that will see a juniors’ training programme being rolled out at primary schools starting this month.The programme has already seen 43 school teachers going through an elementary football training course that resulted in the future football coaches being awarded certificates.
Zifa Bulawayo Province board member in charge of development Mkhululi Mthunzi said they had realised the importance of giving the teachers basic football knowledge as they were crucial in grooming players at a young age.
He said the teachers were given certificates on 24 July after undergoing a 10-day course held under the auspices of Zifa.
The course was facilitated by Dumaza Dube and Sakhelene Nxumalo.
“We made a conscious decision to send Dube and Nxumalo to attend a Fifa grassroots development course in 2011 and they aptly qualified to impart knowledge to prospective grassroots coaches.
“Orap has partnered with Chevrolet, who have provided them with balls and in turn Orap will be distributing the balls to schools in Matabeleland which are taking part in the programme,” he said.
Mthunzi said they saw it fit to train teachers first before distributing the balls to the schools as a way of ensuring proper training of the pupils.
He said they are targeting six and eight year olds and because of their age, the young players needed unique training to be groomed adequately.
“At six and eight the players need to have more time with the ball, they have to be taught skills and not just be given the ball to run around with hence the need to first train the teachers, whom we believe now have the basic grasp of how to assist young players learn football skills.
“This will create a solid foundation for the youngsters and in due course we are going to have quality footballers that can compete with the best in the world. In 10 years’ time, the footballers will be playing for the under-17 and we will be reaping the benefits then because it is planned growth,” added Mthunzi.
He said 34 schools in Bulawayo are going to benefit from the programme as they could not reach out to all the primary schools in the province.
The administrator said in the not too distant future they would be twinning schools with football clubs to ensure teachers get continual proper guidance from qualified coaches and pupils also benefit from their expertise.
Mthunzi said: “We intend marrying the schools with junior league clubs as they are intertwined, with clubs getting players from schools. We will also rope in Premier League Soccer Clubs in the future and it would be great to have coaches like Kelvin Kaindu going to schools one day for a training session and I believe this will play into the hands of clubs like Highlanders, who will find it easier to identify local talent and groom it from a young age.”
He said the programme will be spread to other provinces that include Matbeleland North and South and Midlands.
The former chairman of the now disbanded provincial junior league said there was a need to create a uniform youth development programme if there are any hopes of the country playing competitively against other countries.
He said the haphazard development plans, where each province developed its own programmes was retrogressive and unlikely to achieve any meaningful results in the long run.
“Unless we consciously develop a programme to groom youths, we are doomed to failure because we will always zero in on the national team coaches and the results they produce instead of coming up with quality players.
“There should be a national programme either from the national team coach or (Zifa) technical director that would be spread to all parts of the country,” he said.
Online Reporter