ACTIVITY REPORT 2019-2020

OBJECTIVES AND RESULTS ACHIEVED

Currently the spread of hockey at grassroot level in Tanzania has developed to the extension that the sport has been played in 6 Regions (Dar Es Salaam, Tanga, Lindi, Moshi, Arusha) with around 2.500 kids from 8 to 18 years old playing hockey in around 50 primary and secondary schools.

About 100 Local players and sport teachers have been trained in the last years to be hockey coaches at grassroot level and many of them are now coaching hockey in schools and community level.

The Twende foundation is supporting locally young and motivated coaches to teach hockey at youth level by providing them technical support and material. Moreover, there are some coaches who are economically supported by the Foundation. Indeed, the coaches are all former players who have started to play hockey when the hockey project started in 2014. Those players who were more motivated than others, after receiving training, became our first coaches and started to go in schools to teach hockey.

In February 2019, we managed to bring 4 coaches, the most experienced, from Tanzania (2 boys and 2 girls, namely Sultan Kondo, Elieza Mwakamwema, Alice Ongoro and Rosemary Renatus) to attend the FIH coaching course organized in Nairobi by the Africa Hockey Federation in order to increase their knowledge, getting international exposure and use what they have learnt back home with their kids. We are building the future generation of hockey players in Tanzania by providing trained coaches.

At the same time, in collaboration with the Tanzania Hockey Association, we organized locally run youth leagues whereby the kids can play competing by each other in form of schools’ leagues, but also make friends.

Currently the main school league is played in Dar Es Salaam (the biggest city in Tanzania, where also the core of the activities are) with two main categories played, the primary schools league, both girls and boys, and the secondary school league, where teams from secondary schools play together with community based teams of young players between 15 to 20 years old. The primary schools league (under 15) involves both boys girls teams playing a 5-aside hockey, while the Under 20 league involves boys’ and girls’ teams playing 11 aside hockey.

2019 saw also the participation of four teams from two Tanzanian Secondary Schools at the East Africa Secondary School Competition: Juhudi Secondary School from Dar Es Salaam and Lindi Secondary School from Lindi. This event represents a great achievement for the development of hockey within the country.

OUR COACHES

Currently the foundation supports in total there are 6 coaches, who are responsible for the trainings in schools and at grassroot level. All the coaches are young players, all of whom have represented Tanzania in junior and senior international competitions.

Arusha and Lindi have one coach each but Dar es Salaam region, the cradle of hockey in Tanzania has 4 coaches because of the high number of schools and players involved in the project. Below is a brief introduction of our coaches:

1.Sultan Kondo (Arusha Region)

Coach Sultan, nicknamed Sulu, is 30 years old and is one of the pioneer coaches. He started coaching in 2015 in Dar es Salaam at the KM centre, in Gongolamboto area at the suburbs of the city. He started with 3 schools before relocating to Arusha in 2017 with the sole aim of starting school hockey in the Northern region of Arusha, where he currently teaches hockey in 9 schools. Due to lack of pitches in some of the schools, the training sessions are carried in four centres namely Ngarenaro, Unga limited, Sombetini and Moshono.

 He holds a coaching certificate up to experienced level and was one of the selected coaches who took part in a three day coaching clinic conducted by The International Hockey Federation and the Africa Hockey Federation in Nairobi (Kenya) in 2019. As a coach, he has developed many players who have represented Tanzania in the junior and senior international competitions.

The highlight of his career to date is as assistant coach of the Under 21 national that represented Tanzania in Namibia in 2015.

In Arusha, other than the schools’ program, Coach Sulu has also started a community club called the Black Tigers for the players who are out of the school system, with the aim of preventing them to engage in risky behaviours through engagement in sports activities.

2.Elieza Mwankemwa (Lindi Region)

Coach Elieza is also one of the most experienced coaches. He is 22 years old and first got exposed to hockey in 2011 while still in high school. Despite being a multi-talented player in various sports, he finally settled for hockey. He is a former under 21 and a current national team player.

He started coaching in Dar es salaam in 2016 with 3 schools under his charge. When the opportunity to expand hockey to other regions, he stepped up and opted to go Lindi, a coastal town about 450 km south of Dar es Salaam.

Similarly, he also attended the 3 day FIH/AFHF coaching clinic in 2019. The highlight of his coaching career was in 2019, when he took two teams to participate in the 19^th edition of the Federation of East Africa Secondary School games. This was the second time that Tanzania was participating but the first time for Elieza as a coach, the first being 2011, when he participated as a player.

Through his efforts and hard work, currently there are 554 players in Lindi (u14 boys 202, U18 boys 78, U18 Girls 124, U14 girls 150), ranging from average age of 10 to 18 years of age. He also started a community club for the players outside of the school system. Part of his after school programs include mentoring of the old players into transitioning as coaches. The ‘junior’ coaches assist in the running of the training sessions.

3.Rosemary Uwandameno (Dar es Salaam)

One of the youngest female coaches, Rose is 23 years and started coaching in 2017. As a former under 21 captain and current national team player, she is also a role model to many of the upcoming young female players. She has steadily improved, not only as a player but as a coach as well.

She teaches hockey in 4 schools in Dar es Salaam and the sport centre Jakaya Kikwete Youth Park. She has produced many good players from her centre.

She also attended the 3 days FIH/AFHF coaching clinic in Kenya in 2019 and has managed to put her acquired knowledge to good use.

4.Elizabeth George (Dar es Salaam)

Elizabeth started coaching in 2017. She has a total of 4 schools (3primary,1 secondary) under her charge. At a young age of 25 years, Coach Elizabeth has worked passionately and with a lot of zeal to improve her players situations, both on and off the pitch. She is also in charge of the KM centre, in Gongolamboto area, at the Suburbs of Dar es Salaam, which is open to all players 7 days a week.

Her team, Juhudi Secondary School, won the Regional under 18 league in 2019 in both the boys’ and girls’ categories, to earn themselves a slot in the EAST African secondary school games. The East African secondary school is the biggest sporting competition for secondary schools Games. It was the second time that Tanzania was represented in hockey, the first being in 2011.

5. Leah Shan (Dar es Salaam)

Leah Shan is a veteran hockey player and the oldest female coach. She is 34 years of age. Coach Leah runs the Kigamboni Hockey Centre, which is an initiative she started to give children in her home area access to hockey. The centre has been active since 2014.

What makes the centre unique is that it is open to all the children around the area and it is not within the school set up. The center is currently the only unbeaten team in the regional under 14 league,a title they have held since 2016.

The children’s passion for the game is also unrivalled, despite having challenges regarding the training ground, which doubles as a market two days a week and on the other days, the little space is shared  with a garage.

The highlight of her coaching career was when she the team manager for the under 21 team in 2015.

 6.Edfonce Msemwa (Dar es Salaam)

At 26 years of age, Coach Msemwa has 4 primary schools in his charge. He started coaching in 2013, as a coach to his former high school before joining the Twende family in 2017. At the time in 2013, he was a player and coach, despite having no prior training. Over the years, he has attended several training courses conducted by Twende Foundation and Tanzania Hockey Association.

The highlight of his coaching career was in 2017, when he was appointed as the Dar es Salaam teams’ coach that participated in the National league in 2017, that brought together 6 regions and over 600 junior players for a week long competition.

7.Ally Nshoro (Dar es Salaam)

At age 21, is by far the youngest coach. He started coaching in 2018 and currently has 5 schools in Dar es Salaam that he is working with. Despite being a coach, he is also still active as a national team player. Coach Ally is one of the players, who started playing in 2013 in primary school through high school and is now one of the coaches. A former student of coach Sulu, Ally has also been in the under 21 team and the senior team.

HOCKEY TRAINING IN SCHOOLS

Currently we reach around 1500 boys and girls through our school program. Below is a list of schools where we teach divided by Regions, number of kids involved in each school divided by age and gender.

ARUSHA REGION

LINDI REGION

DAR ES SALAAM REGION

YOUTH HOCKEY TOURNAMENTS

In 2019 we managed to realize the following youth tournaments, thanks to the support of local and international support.

1.Dar es Salaam Regional Schools League and Senior Men’s league

The annual schools’ league Dar es salaam region took place from January to April 2019.It attracted a total of 12 teams (6 boys and 6 girls teams) from 8 secondary schools  in the under 18 category  and a total of  28 teams (17 boys and 11 girls teams) in under 14 category from 12 primary schools . The total number of players involved was 406.

 The under 14 boys and the girls league was in 5 aside formats whereas the under 18 boys matches were played in the 11 aside format. The total number of players involved was 238 in under 14 (170 boys, 69 girls) and 168 players in under 18(60 girls, 108 boys).

Also organised alongside the junior league was the men’s senior league, which registered a total of 6 teams, including two secondary schools teams, Juhudi Secondary school and the JMK Park Combined Team.

Dar Stars, one of the community teams founded by the pioneer coaches .The community teams such as this keep the youth in the sport, even after they complete high school.

2. 19^th Edition Federation of East Africa Secondary schools games

This is the biggest sporting competition involving schools in the East African region. It was the second time that Tanzania was participating. Tanzania was represented by two schools, Juhudi Secondary School from Dar es salaam and Lindi Secondary School from Lindi. Each of the schools had a boys and a girls team and all four teams gave an excellent account of themselves. The teams coaches were Elizabeth George (for Juhudi Secondary School) and Elieza Mwankwemwa (Lindi).

The Most Valuable Player award in hockey was awarded to our very own Shakira Ally, from Juhudi Secondary. Shakira Ally started playing hockey in 2013 while she was in primary school under Coach Elieza Mwankemwa .Despite her tender age, she has represented the country in two under 21 competitions  and 3 senior women’s competitions .

Lindi and Dar es Salaam Teams group photo at the FEASSA Games

Lindi Girls’ team

Juhudi  Secondary  Boys’ Team at the FEASSA Games

Lindi Secondary Boys’ Team

Match between Lindi Boys against Uganda Boys team

Juhudi Secondary Girls’ team line up before match against Kenya’s Kaloleni Girls

3. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete (JMK) Park Open Youth Tournament

The JMK Park 5 aside Junior tournament which took place from 11th to 14th October in Dar es Salaam attracted a total of 44 teams, with each team registering 7 players. The teams came from 8 secondary and 12 primary schools within the Dar es Salaam schools hockey program run by Twende foundation.

Under 18 Boys: 15 teams (105 players)

Under 18 girls:    5 teams (35 players)

Under 14 Boys: 15 teams (168 players)

Under 14 girls:    9 teams (63 players)

The tournament brought together 140 under 18 (105 boys,35 girls) and 168 under 14 (105 boys,63 girls).

Alongside the tournament, a 3 day coaches’ refresher course was conducted in Dar es Salaam involving 8 coaches (intermediate and advanced level) and a two day introduction coaching course in Lindi involving 50 beginner level coaches by expert coaches Valentina Quaranta and Nick Isbouts from Twende Foundation.