I’ve also set my own targets

management rewarded him with a three-year contract extension at a time when countless coaches are getting fired. In this interview with

“We all know that in football, nothing is ever guaranteed, but…”

Soccer Laduma’s Thomas Kwenaite, the modest mentor reveals how and where he cut his teeth in coaching, who the trickiest player he has ever had the misfortune of meeting on the field of play is, as well as the most important advice his uncle, the inimitable Clive Barker, has ever given him.

“He would send you left, right and then tie you in knots! He had good trickery.”

Steve Barker was not the kind of player that stood head and shoulders above his peers during his playing days, but it is in coaching that he has carved his name in gold letters within the South African football space. And as reward for turning Stellenbosch FC into a formidable force in domestic football,

Thomas Kwenaite: Congratulations on receiving a three-year extension on your contract.

Steve Barker: Obviously a huge sense of gratitude to management and the board of Stellenbosch FC for entrusting me with the task to continue the journey that we started so many years ago. I am very grateful for that. When you have stability and continuity, that does give one confidence to keep pushing. We all know that in football, nothing is ever guaranteed, but for them to show the faith and confidence in me is something that I don’t take for granted. Without being complacent, I think the club is treading in the right direction. We have achieved a lot of short-term objectives long before we had set them out, so now we really have to go t o the next phase of the club, which is to become a competitive and successful team.

TK: Did they, in any way, give you a mandate?

SB: No, they did not! Look, the mandate obviously is to continue developing the club going forward. They never sort of said, “If you don’t win this or if you don’t achieve this, we will do that,” you know. Obviously, we want to be a team that finishes in the Top Eight on a regular basis. But on a personal level, I’ve also set my own targets, which is to finish higher and in those top four or five positions on a regular basis. Hopefully we can build something special in the notcan too-distance future where we start challenging to win the league chamtournaments pionship, go far in cup and be successful as a club.

TK: Go on. SB:

I think a very big part of our success is the backroom staff. We’ve got, really, a high-calibre coaching staff, assistant coaches, conditioning coaches, match analysts, physio therapists, you know. I think we are a strong unit and everybody understands their role and everybody plays their roles. Everyone is putting in a good shift every single day and I think once you have good consistency at training and good consistency in preparation, good consistency in what you do on a daily basis, that transfers to good consistency on the field of play a little bit. That we must keep improving, consistency on the field, you know. We started quite well in the first three, four games against some really big teams, then we suffered back-to-back losses against Mamelodi Sundowns and Richards Bay FC and went on a bit of a run where we secured seven out of nine points before (the game against) Kaizer Chiefs. Obviously against them (Chiefs) things didn’t go according to plan.

TK: Talking about Chiefs, you are considered one of the last gentlemen of the game, but you were certainly not amused by some of the officiating on the day, it seems.

SB:

Ja, look, as I said, you work hard every day at training, you prepare the team, you know… I don’t think we played that well, especially in the first 20 minutes. I think we could have possibly been two or three goals down, but we managed not to and we took the lead and then a decision goes against us just before half-time, which just changes the complexion of the game. Going 1-0 in the lead and then you go 1-1. So, in hindsight, having watched everything closely, I believe the second and third penalties were legitimate. But the key one was the first. So, yeah, that sometimes frustrates you. Even the red card in addition to the penalty! According to the rules, you shouldn’t get a red card. And it wasn’t a red card offence and ja, I got a bit frustrated. I think it just boiled over from our MTN8 fixture where we had a 97th-minute penalty disallowed, which, according to the ref, was… ja, anyway, we got to keep cool, be a bit calm.

TK: You seem to have a lot of belief in Sibongiseni “Ox” Mthethwa.

SB: Yes, I do, and I see him every day at training, week in and week out and him playing matches. He is a consistently good performer. He’s got all the attributes of a player who plays in his position (defensive midfield). He plays with immense energy, doesn’t stop trying and working for the full 90 minutes. He is a really good player and a good person, hard-working and committed. He is still developing and growing in the PSL, so I still believe there is more to come from him.

TK: How do you keep him grounded when there are reports swirling around that Gauteng’s top sides are circling him?

SB: It’s a difficult one and it’s never easy, you know, when the rumours start happening and interest starts growing, but we remind the player about that which got you here in the first place and into the media and into the Bafana squad. You need to show it every week because if you don’t continue doing that, as much as interest can happen, it can also wane. It’s about achieving consistently good performances and, you know, things will open up and things will happen. He’s key to us and we don’t wanna lose him, but you can’t stop people from talking about him. You can’t stop the interest. But ja, we just try to keep the player humble and remind him where he comes from … you know, don’t get ahead of yourself too soon.

TK: You guys hammered Sundowns towards the end of last season and literally denied them breathing space in that match. SB: Obviously, we all know their quality, and I just think that if you sit back too often and too deep and just hope that you can defend against them, it will never happen and eventually they will weigh you down. You sometimes gotta be brave, sometimes commit players and put pressure on the ball and not allow them time and space to do what they want to. We were a very good transition team last year, with players like Ashley Du Preez in the squad. We always knew that in transition and with space behind them, we could harm them as long as we defended well, and I thought that we did that extremely well on the day. We defended well and denied them time on the ball, which frustrated them and we won the ball and on transition we caught them cold.

TK: You’ve lost Du Preez, Zitha Kwinika and Stanley Dimgba…

SB: Obviously, these things don’t just happen by chance. We plan ahead and work on a kind of three-year plan cycle. The first three years came and passed and obviously we planned for the eventuality of players like Ashley, Robyn Johannes, Granwald Scott etc. leaving. Our planning and recruitment started a while back before the close of last season. So, we knew this would be a transitional year in terms of player exodus and incoming (players) and we consciously knew what we needed and how we were gonna go about it. So, consciously we have been building a team of players of the right age where they are coming into their peak and young players in the ages of 24 and down, players like Sihle Nduli, Nhlanhla Mgaga, Sinethemba Mngomezulu. Now the next phase is to build a team that is strong and competitive.

TK: You must have felt proud when the DStv Diski Challenge side won the Next Generation Cup in England, hammering Leicester City 7-2 in the final!

SB: That was a very proud moment for us as a club. I mean, we have a special bunch of players, you know. They won the Diski Challenge and a lot of them have gone on to become first-team players, U20 national team players. Some have received U23 callups and I repeat that we have assembled a really special group of talented footballers. They showed their true abilities in the UK and we weren’t expecting those type of results, but it just shows the talent that they have. We were very, very proud indeed.

TK: Let’s change focus now. How did you cut your teeth in coaching?

SB: I was in the SA Air Force for many years and I’ve played for the SA Air Force and the SA National Defence Force teams in many tournaments. We ended up playing against other countries and gradually I became player-coach of both the Defence and Air Force teams and that was in the early 2000s. I was in the education, training development, which, as you know, is a passion of mine – to develop and provide opportunities for people to reach their potential. In 2006, I was already working and coaching at Tuks in the junior divisions and that year I joined them on a permanent basis. That was the year Sammy Troughton was head coach and persuaded me to coach with him the first team. We went to the play-offs and lost to AmaZulu FC. Sammy moved to Durban and I took over the team – that’s basically where my coaching career started.

TK: What’s the best advice your uncle Clive Barker has ever given you?

SB: He basically told me that, “Enjoy what you do, take the highs and the lows and when you lose, don’t be too hard on yourself! When you win, celebrate, but don’t overdo it. You’ve got to get yourself back down to zero. Don’t be too hard on yourself when you lose and don’t over-celebrate when you win!”

TK: Who was your favourite player during your playing days?

SB:

It’s probably not an answer you would expect, but I had the greatest respect for Peter Gordon. I played with him for many years. He was versatile, he never missed matches, was fit, consistent and played as a striker, defender and left back! His character and personality were of the highest order and as a teammate he was the one that I really respected. By the same token, my most difficult opponent was Helman Mkhalele with his energy. He would send you left, right and then tie you in knots! He had good trickery, good pace, and obviously having played against players like Ace Khuse, Doctor Khumalo… they were all of a high level and I had great respect for them.

TK: Thank you very much, coach. SB: You are most welcome. ❐