The Botswana Netball Association (BONA) is planning to engage a resource person to work with the association.
BONA president, Tebogo Lebotse, said the association will do this as they try to improve the fortunes of the sport, both locally and internationally. Speaking in an interview, Lebotse said they have already identified the resource person and are currently in talks with her to come work with local coaches.
“We cannot reveal the name of the resource person at this moment as we are still in negotiations, but all we can say at the moment is that the person we are in contact with is a very highly qualified individual from New Zealand,” Lebotse said.
The BONA chief says the resource person, who was expected in the country immediately after the All Africa Games, is now expected in the country at the beginning of next year.
She says the resource person had to postpone her arrival in the country after she was held by other commitments.
“This person has volunteered to come here to help us and we are not paying her. She has had intentions to come to Africa to help and she identified Botswana as the country she can work with,” Lebotse said, adding that the person, who will work with all local coaches is expected to stay in the country for between six and nine months.
She says, while in the country, the resource person, in her work with local coaches, will identify which coaches can be good for working in grassroots development and which ones can be used in action netball.
Meanwhile, following their recent disappointments at both the Singapore World Netball Championships and the just ended All Africa Games, the Botswana Netball Association is now shifting its focus to qualifying for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Despite the lackluster performance of the national netball team in international competitions with local coaches at the helm, Lebotse says her association has no plans to hire a qualified and experienced expatriate coach to take over the reins.
“We want to keep this post local. We want to empower our local coaches while at the same time keeping our style of play,” the BONA president added.
On whether the duo of Delroy Nkomazane and Ntebogang Mocuminyane will continue being at the helm of the national team, the BONA president says the decision on whether the duo will continue will be decided by the BONA executive when they meet to hold an inquest into the team’s performance at the All Africa Games.
She, however, could not say when the decision will be taken, only saying the focus at the moment will be on the SPAR netball league and the subsequent league finals.
She, however, added that despite the fact that the duo could not achieve the medal target set for them by the Sports Council at the All Africa Games, she was happy with the overall performance of the team. She says the team showed a higher sense of maturity during the games as they played with consistency and discipline in all games.
Concerning their aim to qualify for the Commonwealth Games, Lebotse said the intention will be to play higher ranked teams and win games to increase their rankings to position 11, which is the minimal requirement needed to play in such games.
“We will have to challenge teams like Wales and Scotland, which are ranked above us, and win against them. In Africa, we have South Africa and Malawi but history has shown that winning against these two teams is very difficult for us, hence the need to challenge European countries,” she concluded.
