Coaches I’ve worked with: Shakes would just collapse

I’m back with Part Two of my time with coach Paul Dolezar. As mentioned last week, we were now preparing for the Soweto Derby Rothmans Cup match against Orlando Pirates, the big animal. Every Tuesday, we all knew that coach Dolezar would make us run around two soccer fields for about 45 minutes, at a pace. Remember we had players like Thembinkosi

Biyela, Isaac “Shakes” Kungoane – may his soul rest in peace – and myself, although I was much better than them in terms of not enjoying running. What a marvelous player and teammate Shakes was! We also had the likes of Humphrey Mlwane, Robson Muchichwa, Martin Zwane and Thabang Lebese, their pace, tjo!, tjo!, tjo! When those guys were on the fifth round, Shakes and Biyela were finishing their second, ha, ha, ha. I never enjoyed endurance capacity training because I didn’t understand its importance back then like I do now. I think the rest of the team was approaching their eighth round with these two at about the fourth. Dolezar stood there and shouted, “Shakes and Biyela, I go to the chairman. I tell the Kaizer, the Motaung, to give you your clearance! This is no good, you finished! You no losing the weight, I killing you. I take you outside!” Ha, ha, ha. After we do about 10 rounds or so, Shakes would just collapse by the corner and we’d go to encourage him and he’d be like, “Eish baf’ethu, le outie lena iyang’ discourage(a) maan, uDolezar une problem nam maan. Ngenzeni uma ku so?” Ha, ha, ha. After the session, coach Dolezar would still not stop, going on and on about Shakes and Biyela’s weight. We then went to camp on Friday and we all know the tension that comes with a Soweto Derby.