ZAFF to host American football camp

Ronald Mashinga, Sports Reporter

ZIMBABWE American Football Federation (ZAFF) is hosting the Biggest American Football Camp today at Belvedere Teachers’ College in Harare.

ZAFF is the governing board of American football in Zimbabwe and its aim is to promote the game locally since it was introduced two years ago.

The camp will be held under the theme ‘Promoting safe American football programmes to youths’.

As part of ZAFF’s strategic investment across the country, chief executive officer Abednigo Mashuka said the camp is for players between the ages of 15 and 30 years.

“Africa is a promising dominant continent in American football, with most players in the National Football League being black. American football landed in Zimbabwe in 2018, but we are now strategically expanding the game to all corners of the country with this football camp,” Mashuka said.

Mashuka also said Farai Hoko, who plays for Shanghai Titans in the China Elite League, will train and teach players at the camp basic rules of the game.

“He is committed to driving forward football programmes which allow more people to participate as a way of enhancing the quality of the athletes, coaches and referees,” he said.

American football is about carrying the ball with the hands and is a physical sport with lots of pushing and shoving.

It’s played by two teams of 11 players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The objective is to take the oval-shaped ball into the opposing team’s end zone for a touchdown, or kicking the ball through the opponent’s goalpost.