Msiteli wins drum majorettes contest
Five -a-side league round robin continues
MSITELI High School won the 2017 National Association of Secondary School Heads (Nash) Bulawayo province inter-district drum majorettes competition at a colourful event held at White City Stadium on Thursday.
The competition, featuring 12 secondary schools from the Metropolitan province of Bulawayo, was meant to choose the City’s representatives at the national finals that will be held during the upcoming Zimbabwe International Trade Fair next month.
Coming second in the overall winners’ podium was Founders High School while Pumula High came third THE first round of Southern Region Five-A-Side League Independence Cup games will continue today at the Grassroots Soccer Football for Hope Centre in Gwabalanda.
In Pool B, Amabhubesi will lock horns with Street Set at 11AM while Pool A will see the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) facing Cash Money at 12 noon.
In tomorrow’s Pool B matches, Bulawayo Artists will play against Cowdray Park at 10AM while in Pool A, and the trio will be joined by Hamilton, Townsend and Magwegwe High Schools at the national finals. The provincial teams will be under the coordination of Phillis Mapingire and Shamiso Gwinji of Amhlophe High School.
“This is our final competition as a province which we use to select our provincial representatives at the national finals set for the ZITF Grounds. It all started at school level rising to district competitions and we are now here for our provincial finals,” said Thokozile Tshabalala, Amhlophe High School headmistress who is also the head in charge of drum majorettes in Bulawayo.
There were also four other catergories that competitors were judged in, uniform, leader, sub leader and squad. Msiteli were again first in all the categories.
Magwegwe and Pumula High Schools were tied on third in the uniform category, Founders and Pumula came second and third respectively in the leader category as well as the sub leader category. Hamilton and Magwegwe settled for second and third place under the squad category.
“The girls were given a minimum of seven and a maximum of 10 minutes each during the adjudication process where we were looking at a number of things like whether their leader was able to lead and is she able to portray herself and the team well as well as the general etiquette of a girl child in terms of their posture,” said judge Mark Zulu.
The competition was graced by musician Sandra Ndebele Sibindi who called on the young girls to desist from drug abuse. Rome will face Black Stars at 11AM.
The Independence Cup tournament will have teams playing in a round robin format with the best team in each pool booking a place to the final to be played on Uhuru day.
Southern Region Five-A-Side League chairman Philani Banda said the competition will help clubs prepare for the 2017 season which will kick off in the first week of April.
“Clubs must use this competition to gear up for the season which starts next month. Registration of clubs and players for the 2017 season is still open and the deadline is March 30. This year we might see other teams joining the league so that means more competitive matches,” said Banda.
Last year, the league had 10 clubs under its umbrella and these are: Fox, Khalanyoni, FC Amabhubesi, Fog, Nyoro United, Rome, Wangu Wangu, Binga United, Cowdray Park and Nust.
Five-A-Side football, also known as futsal, is played on a smaller field and mainly indoors. It is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is the goalkeeper and unlimited substitutions are permitted.
The game is played with a smaller ball with less bounce than a regular football due to the surface of the field. The surface, ball and rules create an emphasis on improvisation, creativity and technique as well as ball control and passing in small spaces. — @khumzallen