Can Police carry home dominance into Zambia?
After a successful Liquid Open, which climaxed in thrilling style at the weekend, local volleyball clubs now turn their attention to a bigger platform: the Zone VI Interclub Championships.
Scheduled to take place in Lusaka, Zambia from 12th-22nd of December, the tournament brings together the best teams in Southern Africa.
Flying the blue, black and white for Botswana will be in-form Police VI and BDF VI in both the ladies and men’s division.
The quartet’s presence marks Bots’ return to the regional extravaganza after a three-year absence.
All four sides qualified by virtue of finishing in the top four at the ‘Return to Play’ event back in April.
For Police’s ladies team, who were only formed in 2018, it represents a first ever taste of international competition.
Despite their relative inexperience, ‘Ditaugadi have swiftly positioned themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the local game.
The cops continued their rise to the top on Saturday, beating Mafolofolo 3-2 in the final to take Liquid Open gold – a result matched by their male counterparts, who stormed to a 3-0 victory over Kutlwano.
Hopefully, the confidence gained from this will flow through to the Zambian capital.
Speaking to Voice Sport this week, Police coach, Shimaka Ngwanaotsile revealed this moment was eight months in the making.
“We never stopped training since April when we knew we had qualified; at some times we had friendly games with BDF VI to gauge ourselves. So this previous tournament came in handy for us since it gave us much match fitness and competition,” he said.
The recent cup competition did come at some cost, however, with key players Merapelo Tshimologo and Lebani Ntelecha picking up knocks during the campaign.
“We are monitoring them and hopefully they will be good to go once we get to the tournament. It might be our first appearance at the tournament but majority of our players are experienced and in previous editions, Botswana teams have shown to be tactically superior to their regional peers. The only advantage that our opponents might have is that they have been actively involved in their respective national leagues while we didn’t have one but that’s not an excuse to not perform. If we take our current form to the championship then we will surely get some positive results,” said Ngwanaotsile, who knows exactly what it takes to win the regional title having led Police men’s side to glory in 2016 and 2018.
Meanwhile, BDF VI ladies coach, Daniel Baoki told Voice Sport he would be taking a relaxed approach to the tournie.
“We don’t want to give ourselves any target because I have a crop of players who are new and it will be their first time to play in a higher standard competition of this sort. My intention is to see them going there to learn, feel free and do what they like. Even if we end up finishing at the quarterfinals or semi-finals I will be happy for the exposure they got,” he said.
Sadly, despite qualifying, Kalavango (ladies), Kutlwano (ladies and men) and Mag-Stimela men will miss out on the event due to financial constraints.
