adminTHE sweet taste of winning is spurring Hippo Valley on as the defending champions begin their 2018 campaign this weekend. Apart from winning the Harare Field Hockey title, Hippo Valley also swept every trophy on offer last season and their coach Tongai Mukwewa expects another domineering campaign.
“We are looking forward to another good season,” he said.
“Hopefully we can reproduce that winning form from last season. The aim is to win the league and tournaments so that we qualify to represent Zimbabwe at the Africa Club Championship. Hippo Valley are the holders of the Harare Indoor league title, Knockout Trophy, Indoor Inter-provincial trophy and the HAZ cup. And in their quest to defend their trophies, the team has promoted some youngsters into the senior team.
“We have some exciting Under 21 talent in attacking midfielder Phillip Machaya, Gift Chomunorwa and Ishmael Mufandaedza.
“We have the Project 2018 where we want to have 2000 players from across the country to be involved in hockey by the end of the year. The idea is to spread the game in the Hippo Valley Estate and have more players involved.
“We launched the programme last October with 200 odd players, but now we have about 800 players.
“It has not been easy but we are managing. However, we are grateful to the Hockey Dream Fund from whom we have been getting some second hand equipment.
”But why does a team from Chiredzi play in the Harare League? The league in our Masvingo province is far behind in terms of quality, hence we asked to play in the Harare League and they welcomed us with open arms. “We travel every third week to play three games,” explained Mukwewa.
Tinaye Agere
Online Reporter