30 Aug 2022

Former footballer, Letlhogonolo Moamerika, has decided to venture into coaching.

The former Cups Ladies Football Club player has decided to join the few female coaches in the country.

As a result, Moamerika was among t 20 coaches who recently completed an intermediate course (B licence) organised by Nhabe Regional Football Association in collaboration with Botswana Football Association (BFA).

“I am very proud that I will be the first woman to acquire the BFA B license which is equivalent to B license of Confederation of African Football (CAF),” said Moamerika in an interview noting that her transition to coaching would add value as women were lacking in the coaching department.

After being a soccer player since 2001, the 36-year-old incredibly and aspiring woman has to make a tough decision to transit from being coached to become a coach.

She played for several clubs such as Maun Terrors before joining Cups, which has been performing exceptionally in Nhabe women football league.

Moamerika explained that she had long wanted to graduate from playing to coaching but lacked confidence, adding that the recent training helped to restore her confidence and shaped her dream.

Female coaches, she said, were hard to come by even at schools and believed that with the knowledge and information acquired from the training would help her in a male dominated field.

She attributed scarcity of women in coaching due to their choices, lack of competencies and failing to apply.

Moamerika said she was proud to pronounce that she would impart the knowledge she acquired to meaningfully contribute to the development and growth of women football in her region.

Football clubs, she said, needed to work towards getting more girls involved in football and it was her dream to help make other girls and fellow women fall in love with the game.

Her dream was to coach women teams in premier leagues locally with a hope to catch the eyes of the international clubs.

But since she was a new kid on the block, her focus would be in Nhabe region to help in development of women football.

Her plan was to contribute to the development of the girl child in football as she believed that a lot was needed to be done to grow the game.  

“The training has helped develop my personality to become a better coach and mentor my players. I have also learnt that football is a very good medium to communicate social issues,” she added.

Moamerika urged other women to come forth and participate in sports especially women football adding that they should take positions and become role models to young girls.

Women football, she said could be appealing to young girls if they were female officials at the forefront adding that they could easily connect with young girls and be able to relate to them.

Her intention was to work with schools with her notion that introducing football at an early age could have a positive effect on girl’s uptake and participation in the sport. ENDS