U12 Festival and CAF 'B' Course module one for Wachisa

The end of April saw a fantastic U12 festival at the Jomba Jomba ground. 9 boys teams attended but this time 6 girls teams stole the show. Wachisa had stayed in Chitipa to organise the festival instead of travelling with Chitipa Utd for an away game in Dedza. More of the clubs are starting girls teams now and the news is that the next festival planned is an all girls affair with both football and netball. We are planning a young coaches training course and festival to be delivered by a FAM qualified female coach soon. This will really help inspire girls football in Chitipa.  Albert Chihana said 'With Energy, Zeal and Excitement we will keep on matching your efforts to our end. Thanks Andy and thanks CSLA. Inspired to Aspire'. 

Chitipa football coach and our U12 project coordinator Wachisa Munkhondijah was selected by FAM to attend a CAF 'B' football coaching course and we paid for his course registration fee of 200,000 MK. In 2024 he had successfully completed his CAF 'C' award. It is the next step in his coaching journey. In early May he set off for Blantyre to take part in the first of three modules. The knowledge and skills he acquires will be passed on to the future generation in Chitipa and beyond without a doubt. On the course is the female football coach that Wachisa wants to visit Chitipa and deliver a female young coaches course. Hopefully this will be organised soon. Unfortunately, at the end of May after the first module was complete the only qualified female coach in Northern Malawi was attached to the Malawi Women's national team so not available at the moment. This would be great to see during my visit in August.  

At the end of May Chitipa was visited by some senior figures in the Malawi Olympic Commitee. The President, the Honourable Jappie Mhango and Cossam Mphande, a 'sports consultant' and previous Divisional Education Manager in both Karonga and Chitipa arrived to deliver a 4 day Sports Administration course. Rowland had got together 30 participants. Albert Chihana and Gibson Simbeye who organise the Chitipa District Youth League were there. Wachisa attended for 3 days. Senior Coaches Ovis Siame, Gift Chilonga, Innocent Munthali and Wakisa 'Warrior' Mbale attended. Young Female Coach Chifundo Jere also attended. Albert told me that the course was very useful and touched upon many areas but most useful to the ongoing leagues and U12 project were managing resources, talent identification, organising a sports event, communication and leadership. This immediately took me back to 1999 when the Deputy Sports Director plus one other came north to Mzuzu to explain to the Regional Committee how to organise a 'round robin' football event. I just remember thinking of the 'allowances' they had made. I hope this was different.      

After a few questions about his actual job, the Chitipa District Education Office Sports Officer Patrick Simwayi sent me the 2025 MASSA 'Calendar of Youth Games'. Through May and June in Chitipa all 14 zones will hold events to select winners for the district final on June 13th. Kawale zone games were due to start on Saturday 7th June. It sounded like schools were grouped into 'clusters' of four schools to compete to find winners at U15 primary and U17 secondary level. Eventually a zone winner would be found. According to the calendar the 'zone finals' are due next week, so things look a bit behind schedule. I proudly remembered that as a VSO back in 1999/2000 I was the Northern Region Sports Development Officer and challenged to set up a system of school sports in the Northern Region that developed into MASSA. Twenty five years on, our legacy is that committee's of teachers are still meeting and organising schools at both primary and secondary level at zone, district, division and national level. The District Education Office Sports Officers are the relatively new piece in the jigsaw that makes organising at zone and district level easier. It was one of my early suggestions back in 1999. I remember asking that question to Education and Sports Minister Moses Dossi at Katoto Secondary School back in 2000 and not really getting much of an answer as I recall. Those VSO years are never far from my mind and lots of memories have been revisited recently as I plan for this visit in 2025. The day in 2016 when I walked in to the Mzuzu Distict MASSA meeting at Katoto Secondary School while looking for my old friend Jomo Ngonga and told the teachers who I was and how it all started was a great moment.