Mighty Warriors’ Cinderella story
THE Mighty Warriors are marking 20 years since they qualified for their first Africa Women’s Championships.
And, as the country marks 41 years of independence, it is also important to celebrate their achievements.
They are the only football team in Zimbabwe, to qualify for a global tournament, when they featured at the 2016 Olympic Games.
It helped them to be short-listed for CAF Women National Team of the Year in 2015.
Four years earlier, they had won their first COSAFA Cup and also qualified for the All- Africa Games in Maputo.
Their skipper, Emmaculate Msipa, is plying her trade in the Spanish Second Division after signing a one- year contract, which is performance- based.
Msipa was spotted during the COSAFA finals in Port Elizabeth in 2018.
Doors are slowly opening for local women’s football players.
Former Young Mighty Warriors star, Vanessa Mateko, last year secured a fouryear scholarship, in the United States.
She is studying at Brewton Parker College.
Former Warriors coach Charles Mhlauri facilitated her move.
Women coaches are also making huge strides.
Mighty Warriors coach, Sithetheliwe “Kwinji 15” Sibanda, and the Young Mighty Warriors coach, Rosemary Mugadza, are some of the top coaches who have excelled.
More schools are now playing the sport and more parents have embraced the game.
Black Rhinos are on the verge of becoming the first club to play in the inaugural CAF Champions League this year.
The army, the police and the correctional services are some of the institutions which are supporting the game.
However, the leadership of women’s football remains a concern.
Mugadza, is the Harare City Queens head coach, has been one of the main characters in the game.
She began her career in 1988 in Bulawayo with Zimbabwe Saints.
She was part of the national team which was invited for the Nelson Mandela Challenge Cup in 1995 and played in the first national team’s game.
Part of that squad included the late Yesmore Mutero, Nomsa “Boyz” Moyo, Alive Mutiwekuziva, Annie Konje, Elizabeth Moyo and Esrom Nyandoro’s wife Ruth Banda.
She led a star- studded side at the 2000 Africa Women Championships in South Africa, where they finished fourth.
“It has been a very tough and rough journey, we are moving three steps forward and five steps backwards,’’ she said.
“We qualified for three consecutive years in 2000, 2002 and 2004.
“In 2004, I was assistant coach to the late Shacky Tauro, again in South Africa.
“But, we went back to zero from 2005, I remember we played a match in 2006, and then an Olympic qualifier in 2008 against South Africa, and then there was nothing.
“In 2010, when Mavis Gumbo came in, as women’s football chairperson, there was order, and direction, once again.
“We managed, during that period, to win the COSAFA tournament, for the first time, after beating South Africa at Rufaro in the final.
“We qualified for the All- Africa Games in the same year.
“We improved on the FIFA rankings and we had an annual Unity Cup against Banyana Banyana.
“If you look, from 2010 to 2013, the work put in during that time resulted in the team qualifying for the Olympics because, when Mirriam Sibanda took over in 2014, she continued with the hard work.’’
She said more should be done to help women’s football in the country.
“As women, the Pull- Her- DownSyndrome is our biggest let down,’’ she said. “There is too much gossiping and back- biting, within the game.
“We allow men to come between us, and divide us, so that is our biggest problem.
“Everyone should give support to each other, from the players, coaches, clubs and administrators.
“I believe it is easier to qualify for major tournaments, through the women’s team compared to the men’s team.
“We are yet to reach the level we had reached before 2015.
“However, I believe the women’s clubs have put in a good shift, despite some setbacks, and a lot of positive energy is coming from that end.
“We are on the verge of playing in the Champions League, as a country, it is really commendable, despite the financial challenges.’’