The coach who created a machine

THERE are a number of success stories that have come out of the Copa CocaCola football tournament — both on and off the field over the years.

For former Copa Coca-Cola champions Chemhanza’s coach, Never Mhandu, his involvement in the tournament where he led his team to backto-back titles in 2013 and 2014, was a defining moment in his life.

A teacher by profession, Mhandu has been with the school since 2005 and is in charge of the Under-16 and under15s team at the school.

But yesterday, the ZIFA Level Four certificate holder, revealed that at some point he wanted to quit coaching at school level.

“As a coach, I think that tournament encouraged me and inspired me to work hard every day. You know the work we do as coaches at schools is voluntary,’’ he said.

“And I wanted to leave coaching schools at that time.

“But after that experience with Copa Coca-Cola I decided to continue because now I was seeing the fruits of my labour, I am seeing my fruits now.’’

In 2013, Chemhanza’s victory coincided with the tournament’s Silver Jubilee celebrations and they beat Howard High 3-1 at Sakubva to be crowned champions.

They went on to beat Oriel Boys High 2-0 at Gwanzura in the 2014 final to retain the championship.

Mhandu had the previous year also led Zimbabwe’s select side to a successful campaign in the Copa Coca-Cola International Camp in South Africa when they emerged the best.

Zimbabwe beat Uganda 3-0 in the final in Pretoria.

Not only did they win the trophy, three players from that team - Tatenda Tumba and Learnmore Muyambo both with Harare City - now as well as Tatenda Munditi, who is at Ngezi Platinum, made it into the All-Stars Copa Coca-Cola African team.

The trio were from Chemhanza and Muyambo captained that Dream Team.

“On Sunday I was actually at Rufaro watching Tatenda Tumba when they played Dynamos,’’ he said.

‘’Seeing my fruits made me realise that there are some people making a living because of the work I do and the platform offered by the Copa CocaCola tournament.

“Our clubs have no vibrant junior systems in place and so they are now coming to schools and the Copa CocaCola is playing a part in junior development.

‘’Learnmore Muyambo is now at Harare City as well as Tatenda Tumba and Tatenda Munditi is at Ngezi. Those are the guys I took to South Africa.

“I think for us as Chemhanza, winning the tournament was because of the unity within the school. We are under the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe. They have been supportive of our programme.

‘’Without the church and the school administration we cannot do these programmes.

“So it’s the church and the school administration coming together.’’

With such positive stories that impact lives of many coming out of the Copa Coca-Cola tournament, it’s only fair to acknowledge the contribution the schools football extravaganza has made for three decades now in the sport.