Ohangwena netball leadership urged to add more teams

The newly elected Ohangwena netball regional leadership has been called on to expand the number of clubs to make the league more attractive and competitive.

Speaking to Desert Radio recently, outgoing Ohangwena netball region chairperson Sedekia Udjombala said the long-awaited elective annual general meeting (AGM) produced the desired results, as all vacant portfolios were filled. “I must admit that the elective AGM was very successful as no problems were experienced.

Elected as chairperson is Erastus Kapenda, with Patricia Kaheka as the secretary general and Basila Namwila as an executive member, said Udjombala.

“When we were elected, we started with six netball club but currently the region has eight clubs.

These teams are ready to compete for top honours, but we urged the new leadership to get additional clubs to the league,” Udjombala said.

Udjombala said the promotion of the Northern Fly Ballers and Fatou netball clubs to the MTC Netball Premier League has demonstrated the growth of netball in the northern regions, and more importantly in Ohangwena. “We are happy and people are now motivated to establish netball clubs.

Those years we did not have clubs, we only started four years back.
The problem is the the towns that are far away from each other.” He said towns in the region such as Helao Nafidi, Engela, Ongenga, Eehnana and Endola, do not have any sport facilities, hence netball is mostly played at schools’ netball facilities.

“The talent in the region is visible, more importantly in the villages, where one sees quality players whose talent can be moulded and nurtured to represent the region at events such as the annual The Namibian Newspaper Cup,” said Udjombala.

He said another challenge faced by the past executive was to get these good players and bring them to one central point, but they managed with the commitment of the regional leadership.

Udjombala said the Ohangwena regional under-20 netball team, which competed at The Namibian Newspaper Cup, will have over 50% of its players for next year’s edition.

“Most of the players we fielded for the newspaper cup are under-17 and are certainly eligible to play. We will keep them and groom them throughout until next year’s newspaper cup in the Omaheke region.”

“It’s a pity that proper and decent infrastructure in the region is non-existent. We do not have proper sport facilities and I sincerely hope that the regional council leadership will address the shortage of sport facilities in the region.”