Chaos At Student Games

WHILE the Zone 6 under-20 games were taking place in the land of the brave, Namibia, the Tertiary Institution Sports Association of Namibia (Tisan) sent a team of athletes to compete in the fASU Games in Pretoria, South Africa.

These are student games that take part every second year. Now what bothers me is that even though this is something that is known to take place every second year, the people in charge seem not to be ready or maybe they just don’t care about them.I simply do not see what these so called managers and organisers of Tisan are doing.It seems that every time the same problems are experienced, people just turn a blind eye.I am even surprised that nothing was reported on the events of Tisan – everyone is quiet about them.I mean we are an informative country right? And for those athletes who participate in the Tisan events, I was ashamed that some of them have been experiencing problems for as long as we can remember and yet they keep quiet.How can we improve, change and make a difference if we don’t speak out? When I asked some of these athletes why they never say anything, they say that the people in charge claim they will deal with it.This is so lame.These people will just keep quiet because they seemingly don’t care.Some of these so-called managers have no passion for sports whatsoever and to make it worse some were assigned to sports codes that they have no knowledge about.My question is, what are they managing? Because I have not seen them do this – most of the time the athletes are the ones running up and down arranging everything for themselves.And can I advise that female managers be assigned to female sport codes please.Besides that, everything is always done the last minute, the training camp was not on time, and on the night of departure is when the ‘managers’ and ‘organisers’ were rushing to get the tracksuits and uniforms ?nished.While we were waiting in the cold for this and that to be done, we ended up sleeping in the bus at the border because of the delays.As every organised person would know, everything doneeverything done at the last minute never goes well, the uniforms were disastrous.They were either too big or too small.This is really frustrating for us as athletes when we have to wear those things and try to promote our country.It is frustrating especially when one thinks of an event which is supposed to have been planned a year and so in advance.Now since no one informed the Namibian nation of the TISAN events, this is what happened in Pretoria: it was embarrassing and so depressing for me personally that our country did not deliver.The women’s soccer team was lucky to comehome with a medal and that’s because there were only two countries competing.The basketball women had no coach, and although they were trying their best, they lost some easy games because there was no communication.Athletes tried their best but there was an incident where one of our athletes was publicly cheated and no one listened to her because she had no representative.The athletic team had no coach.for the people who watched the games, it was clear that Namibia has great potential but we were just not prepared.Some of the people that were supposed to be representing us were not around when needed and when ?nally found they would come up with lame excuses as always and when one asks a question they try and shut you up.Some of these ‘managers’ were so unprofessional they argued in front of us, it was always a hassle to come to a conclusion.Now can one imagine the stress from the games and from the managers who are supposed to be parenting us as athletes.In part the poor performance was due to the fact that we lack training venues and facilities – Namibia needs to build a sports complex (I think everyone who went to Pretoria would agree with me).We need to assign committed people who will organise these events, because in my opinion, these same people who are and have been in charge have other commitments and they simply have no time for these events.Namibia has a lack of trainers, but we do not need to look very far.We always get people coming to coach here and when their contracts are over we lose out again.We need to train our own people, so that we can keep building on their skills.Let us help one another develop our country.frustrated Athlete Via e-mailNow what bothers me is that even though this is something that is known to take place every second year, the people in charge seem not to be ready or maybe they just don’t care about them.I simply do not see what these so called managers and organisers of Tisan are doing.It seems that every time the same problems are experienced, people just turn a blind eye.I am even surprised that nothing was reported on the events of Tisan – everyone is quiet about them.I mean we are an informative country right? And for those athletes who participate in the Tisan events, I was ashamed that some of them have been experiencing problems for as long as we can remember and yet they keep quiet.How can we improve, change and make a difference if we don’t speak out? When I asked some of these athletes why they never say anything, they say that the people in charge claim they will deal with it.This is so lame.These people will just keep quiet because they seemingly don’t care.Some of these so-called managers have no passion for sports whatsoever and to make it worse some were assigned to sports codes that they have no knowledge about.My question is, what are they managing? Because I have not seen them do this – most of the time the athletes are the ones running up and down arranging everything for themselves.And can I advise that female managers be assigned to female sport codes please.Besides that, everything is always done the last minute, the training camp was not on time, and on the night of departure is when the ‘managers’ and ‘organisers’ were rushing to get the tracksuits and uniforms ?nished.While we were waiting in the cold for this and that to be done, we ended up sleeping in the bus at the border because of the delays.As every organised person would know, everything doneeverything done at the last minute never goes well, the uniforms were disastrous.They were either too big or too small.This is really frustrating for us as athletes when we have to wear those things and try to promote our country.It is frustrating especially when one thinks of an event which is supposed to have been planned a year and so in advance.Now since no one informed the Namibian nation of the TISAN events, this is what happened in Pretoria: it was embarrassing and so depressing for me personally that our country did not deliver.The women’s soccer team was lucky to comehome with a medal and that’s because there were only two countries competing.The basketball women had no coach, and although they were trying their best, they lost some easy games because there was no communication.Athletes tried their best but there was an incident where one of our athletes was publicly cheated and no one listened to her because she had no representative.The athletic team had no coach.for the people who watched the games, it was clear that Namibia has great potential but we were just not prepared.Some of the people that were supposed to be representing us were not around when needed and when ?nally found they would come up with lame excuses as always and when one asks a question they try and shut you up.Some of these ‘managers’ were so unprofessional they argued in front of us, it was always a hassle to come to a conclusion.Now can one imagine the stress from the games and from the managers who are supposed to be parenting us as athletes.In part the poor performance was due to the fact that we lack training venues and facilities – Namibia needs to build a sports complex (I think everyone who went to Pretoria would agree with me).We need to assign committed people who will organise these events, because in my opinion, these same people who are and have been in charge have other commitments and they simply have no time for these events.Namibia has a lack of trainers, but we do not need to look very far.We always get people coming to coach here and when their contracts are over we lose out again.We need to train our own people, so that we can keep building on their skills.Let us help one another develop our country.frustrated Athlete Via e-mail