Coaches I’ve w orked w ith: He valued my input

This week, I will be telling you about a coach I worked with at Kaizer Chiefs. Someone who put a smile on the faces of the team’s supporters and someone I had such a great time working with. We delivered on our mandate and I learned a lot from this gentleman. The manner in which he handled the team, treated and made everyone feel important and part of the team. I’d like to believe, as much as I learned a lot from him, he also learned from me. The guy I am talking about is none other than coach Stuart Baxter! When he arrived at Chiefs, I was already part of the senior team. Coaches sometimes bring their own assistant, but Stuart had to choose between me, Ace Khuse and Arthur Zwane as his assistant.

Fortunately, he chose to work with me, not taking anything away from my two colleagues because they were very instrumental with their input and knowledge of the game. I was over the moon and overwhelmed when it was announced that he had decided to work with me. I was really taken aback because, except for the UEFA A interaction, where he was my instructor, he didn’t really know much about me. Our first training camp was in Potchefstroom and what an experience that preseason was to all of us! Stuart was managing me, the rest of the technical team, backroom staff, the players and everyone around, ensuring that we all understood how he wanted things done and the team to play. Believe it or not, the way he presented his philosophy to everyone was so unbelievable! This was something new to me and everyone, including the players. The chemistry within the team, the way he brought team spirit and took care of the social factor was amazing. The understanding, trust, belief and all those social factors were emphasized and we left the camp having developed so much, as we were all singing from the same hymnbook. I was not surprised at all when the team played so well and won his first league title. The other trophies he won were just an icing on the cake because it was a norm at the club to win trophies, which is something I made clear to him when we started working together. I told him about the time I signed my first contract with the club and the message was clear: Put a smile on the supporters’ faces. He understood what I said and when we started playing in the MTN8, I could see everything we had done in pre-season manifesting itself in our competitive games. The positive energy, the trust and belief that was shared by everyone was unbelievable and something really beautiful to watch and experience. We lost Bernard Parker and Siphiwe Tshabalala through injury, and those were two of our best players. We had to bring in Mandla Masango, George Lebese and George Maluleka. Those boys delivered magnificently and it was such a headache to try and bring Parker and Tshabalala back into the team because of these boys’ top performances. That goes to show that the coach had thoroughly prepared every player signed by Chiefs, not just his regulars. He knew winning the league was a journey, so he had to plan for every eventuality. We were covered for the journey, which was the league, and the short sprints, which were the cup competitions. When injuries and suspensions hit, we were covered because we had two-three quality players in each position. Every one of those players was equal to the task whenever called upon. Stuart always made it clear that he was only the head coach on paper. When it came to preparing the team, he emphasised that I should never be scared or hold anything back because he valued my input.