Coaches I’ve worked with: I was skeptical about Ted

How many of you, Soccer Laduma readers, remember the late Gabriel Tikkie Khoza? This is one of the Kaizer Chiefs legends who played such an important role in so many of our players’ careers. When I was in the team’s development structure, he was in charge of the senior development team, which was sort of a window through which the senior team coaches could identify future prospects for the team. From Bro Abie Matsheng, I was handed over to Bro Tikkie and he was such a strict coach! Didn’t drink alcohol nor smoke cigarette. I don’t know what was happening with these Chiefs development coaches because they were all the same, ha, ha, ha. No Chiefs development coach I’ve been through touched alcohol or cigarette! I’m telling you, it never happened! Ryder Mofokeng, Abie, Tikkie, Sam Motaung, who recruited me as I mentioned two weeks ago, were all neither drinkers nor smokers! You can’t even lie and think you’ll get away with it because these people never forget, as they are soberminded for 365 days a year, ha, ha, ha. Maybe that’s why they managed to get the best out of all their players. They were just like the Chairman, Dr Kaizer Motaung, who also doesn’t smoke or drink. So, nothing escaped those guys’ eyes because they were always on top of their game. I was with Bro Tikkie for six months before he was roped into the senior team as an assistant coach to the late Ted Dumitru. Coach Ryder replaced him and I was one of the players who would be given a chance to play against the senior team, through the team’s youth programme, which I mentioned in one of my previous columns, and that made it easy for us to transition to the senior team when we got promoted. The supporters already knew about us and we were accustomed to the environment. Bro Tikkie was very close to my dad and they were both defenders during their time and they had a lot in common. Very strict, supportive and hardworking. It was good that Bro Tikkie was in the senior team when I was promoted, which meant continuity in my development. When I was told to stop training with the development team and go to the senior team, I already knew what to expect and having Bro Tikkie there was a big plus for me. My only job was to get to know the senior coach, Ted, and get going. I was a bit skeptical about Ted, only to find that he was such a humble and quiet person who was so passionate about youngsters. Having him and Bro Tikkie, who always emphasized the importance of training and discipline from development and played a father-figure to us, was such a blessing.