Zimbabwe: Siyachitema Positive About the Future

By Ellina Mhlanga

FORMER Gems captain Perpetua Siyachitema is looking into the future with a positive mindset after winning the Rainbow Amateur Netball League title with Glow Petroleum recently.

It was her first title as a full-time coach and second title with the team having won another title in 2016 when she was doubling as a player-coach.

In 2016, they won the Netball Super League, run by the Zimbabwe Netball Association.

The former Zimbabwe national senior team skipper seems to be settling well in her coaching career and is delighted with the progress she is making.

"I once won in 2016 as a player-coach for Glow Petroleum. This is the first time as a full-time coach. I think each and every year I am learning something. When I was a player-coach, it was difficult, I would miss some important aspects but now I am focused on my coaching and not playing. I have seen that I am capable as a coach.

"Being the only female (head) coach, I am really working hard. I think I am still learning, of course. But I think I have a better future. I think I am going to have a better future as a coach than as a player," said Siyachitema.

Glow Petroleum finished tops with 18 points, losing only one match in their campaign.

Siyachitema, who expressed concern over the level of competition at the beginning of games, said there were some improvements along the way and praised her players for winning the title.

"I can say it was a fifty-fifty situation... We lost our game against Tenax, so you couldn't underrate any of the teams in our league. At first it appeared as some of the teams were not competitive but as competition went on you couldn't underrate any team.

"I can say as a coach I was impressed, I was so happy with the win. I give praises to my girls as well.

"2021 was not easy considering that we were close to 18 months without training. We just went for training for three days before the opening season tournament and a week before the league.

"We won silver for the pre-season tournament, then we started league games. I had two of my goal attackers -- Paidamoyo Tinoza and Ursula Ndlovu -- on national duty and I had to reshuffle my team. It was a bit tough but we managed to pull through," said Siyachitema.

Shifting her focus to next year, Siyachitema is looking at beefing-up her side, particularly on the mid-court.

"I need to beef-up my team, help my girls psychologically because it's not easy when everyone is against you, sometimes it affects the team. I realised that when playing netball, it's not just about the physical fitness but you need to be psychologically fit as well.

"I think I told my girls that we need to win all games, we don't need to wait for other games to help decide our fate. We just want to start on fire until the end," said Siyachitema.

The Glow Petroleum coach said she would want to see more female coaches in the local leagues and also involved in the national teams' technical set-ups.

This article originally appeared on The Herald

Photo: The Herald