Coaching for the love of football

EDWARD BULE
Correspondent | Friday April 16, 2010 00:00

He later played for Wankie FC as a right-winger. After a nasty tackle from a goalkeeper during a Castle Cup quarter-final in 1967 broke his leg, Moyo simply changed roles and became a coach in 1971. He attended several coaching courses in Zimbabwe and abroad. Besides Wankie, he coached Gwai River Mines football team, Alaska Mine football team, KB Rockets and ZISCO Steel. Among his charges were Ezekiel Mpofu and Godfrey Tamirepi who would, like their mentor, later work in Botswana as coaches. At ZISCO, Moyo reached the Chibuku Cup finals and at Wankie, he won the Castle Cup twice.

In 1994, he received what he calls a surprise call from Philip Makgalemele, the then manager of Notwane Football Club. By then Toronto had not won a single cup for 18 years. In 1994 and 1995, Notwane won the Independence Cup and Coca- Cola Cup respectively. Between 1994 and 2000, Toronto won almost everything on offer except Kabelano Charity Cup. Then Moyo left Notwane to coach a lower division side, Magosi of Ramotswa then Nico United and Gaborone United (GU). From GU, he rejoined Wankie. In 2007, he retraced his footsteps to Notwane where he won the Kabelano Charity Cup.

Considering the challenges faced by coaches in Botswana, it is easy to believe the versatile Moyo when he says that what sustains him in this thankless job is the love of working with young people and transforming them into national team material as he did with the Moloi brothers Pontsho and Dirang. At struggling TAFIC, Moyo has his job clearly cut out for him less than two months in the job. He must save the club from relegation. With the conducive environment created by the TAFIC management and supporters, the quality players in his squad, his own wealth of experience, passion for the game, commitment and eternal optimism, Moyo is sure that TAFIC will survive relegation.

Though Moyo he is not always in agreement with decisions made by referees, he believes that it is a waste of time arguing with them. His approach is that for the duration of any game, the referee is the central controller and it is up to whoever does not agree with the referee to contain their anger. He says the biggest challenge for a player is to score goals and not argue with the referee. In the 33 years he has been a coach, he has never been sent-off.

Moyo believes that in the 16 years that he has been in Botswana, the country has made great strides in football and local coaches have come of age. He says that the poor performance of the Zebras should not be blamed solely on the head coach, Stan Tshosane. He says coaches at club level also share the blame. He says it is imperative for clubs to have a development side, an idea he is currently selling to the TAFIC management.