Tanzania needs to invest heavily in training schools sports teachers for it to turn around its sports fortunes.
Makongo Secondary School Headmaster Lieutenant Colonel Celestine Mwangasi believes that the country will prosper if sports teachers acquire sufficient skills on training youngsters and moulding winning teams. Lt. Col Mwangasi was commenting on the just-ended East Africa Secondary School Games in which Tanzania faired poorly, winning only one top prize — the boys’ basketball trophy through Lord Baden Powell Secondary School.
The annual Games are organised by the Federation of East Africa Secondary Schools Sports Associations (FEASSSA). “We’ve learnt a lot from the Games … Our neighbours have invested heavily in schools sports teachers and that’s why they excelled.
We need to emulate them,” he said in an exclusive interview with ‘Daily News’ after the closing ceremony graced by Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda.
Being a member of the Local Organising Committee, Mwangasi said Tanzania should sustain sports in schools to build capacity and enable the youth to gain experience.
“We should continue to develop sports in schools by exposing our youth to big competitions like this so as to gain experience,” he said. He further said the other good things he has learnt in the Games are focus and specialisation. He noted that a certain school can focus on a particular game and become the best.
“My advice to those who are dealing with sports in schools is to be flexible. It’s not compulsory for a school to have all games. but it can concentrate on some of them and yield good results,” he said.
He continued: “We have seen there are schools that have invested in training only two athletes and they have performed extremely well.”
Under Mwangasi’s leadership, Makongo Secondary School has produced several prominent players and at the EA Games they won silver medals in the boys’ basketball and girls’ soccer.
Some youth and officials from different East African countries and South Sudan interviewed by this paper have expressed their sincere gratitude to Tanzania for hosting the Games, saying they enjoyed a peaceful stay in the ‘Haven of Peace’.
FEASSSA President Justus Mugisha said the Games will next year be staged in Rwanda under the same Brookside Milk Company sponsorship.
By FRANK KIMARO, Tanzania Daily News