Coaches

Coaching Courses

Currently the foundation supports in total 4 coaches, who are responsible for the training sessions in schools and at grassroot level. All the coaches are young players, all of whom have represented Tanzania in junior and senior international competitions.

Elieza Mwankemwa

Coach Elieza is also one of our most experienced coaches. He 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 senior 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. He is now a certified FIH level 2 coach.The highlight of his coaching career was in 2019, when he took two teams to participate in the 19thedition 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.

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.

He is currently in charge of administration and supervision of coaches in Dar es Salaam region. He has also recently been appointed to be the official Tanzania Hockey Association umpire in all THA competitions.

Zuwena Hassan

Zuwena, fondly known as Zuu joined the Twende family in 2015 .She was among the founding group of 15 that Twende initially started with. It was later in 2019 that she started working as a coaching .She passionately advocates for girls’ and women’s’ participation. Apart from coaching in the schools and centres she has formed a team in her neighbourhood. She is one of three female coaches in Tanzania with FIH level 2 coaching certificate.

Through our coach development program, she was first introduced to officiating in 2019 when she was fully sponsored to attend the AFHF /FIH three day introduction level officiating clinic. She was called to official duty as an official to the African Club championship Cup in 2023.She is also the official tournament judge in all tournaments held under the banner of Tanzania Hockey Association.

Mbela Shadidi

Mbela, a former national team player joined our coaching family in 2024. She is a founding member and part of the management team of the Twende Hockey Queens self-help Group.

Mbela,who is also now a mother to one of the U18 players in our youth development program, is a living testament of how deeply hockey has been ingrained in the lives of a typical Tanzanian household.

She is a certified FIH level 1 coach.

Leah Shan

Leah Shan is a veteran hockey player and the eldest female coach. Coach Leah founded 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.

The centre, which was founded on a shared space with a market and a garage has found a new home in one of the neighbouring schools and now caters to two schools and the community team.

The highlight of her coaching career was when she the team manager for the under 21 team in 2015.She is a FIH level 2 certified coach and has been recently appointed as the Head Coach for the Tanzania People’s Defence Force (TPDF)Ladies‘ hockey team.

She is also the matron of the Twende Hockey Queens self-help group. The self-help group is an officially registered group, with the aim of running income generating activities, through which the income supports girls’ and women participation in hockey.

Mentee Coaches

The coach program also mentors junior coaches. The mentees are selected from the lot of fresh high graduates, who have a gap 8 months before transitioning to the next level of education. The aim of this is to keep them still active in hockey and prepare them to be future coaches. They are tasked with part time session’s rotational basis in the schools. 90% of the coaches, including the experienced ones have passed through this.

This year 2024, the following coaches, majority drawn from our 2017 lot of U14 players, are in our mentorship program.

Omary Mohammed - 22 years old
Rosemary Mustapha - 22 years old
Adam Salum –18 years old
Steven Mnonjela - 22 years old
Rajabu Shafii - 22 years old

OUR SUCCESS STORIES

Rosemary Uwandameno

Leah Shan is an experienced 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.

One of the youngest female coaches at that time, Rose was only 23 years and started coaching in 2017. As a former under 21 captain and national team player, she is also a role model to many of the upcoming young female players.

As a beneficiary of the coach development program, she attended the 3 days FIH/AFHF coaching clinic in Kenya in 2019, after which she also attained her FIH level 1 certificate in 2021.

As part of the economic empowerment programme, through her salary and support from the Twende Foundation, she achieved her personal development goal of a college diploma.

She continues to volunteer as a coach, especially to the girls and is still an active member of the Twende Coaching family.

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.

Elizabeth George
(Dar es Salaam)

Elizabeth started coaching in 2017.Coach Elizabeth has worked passionately and with a lot of zeal to improve her players’ situations, both on and off the pitch. She is a FIH Level 1 certified coach.

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.

Elizabeth still nurtures, inspires and mentors the young players, most of whom she started working with 7years ago.

Edfonce Msemwa

Coach Msemwa 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 and is now a certified FIH level 2 coaches.

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.

He is currently a development coach in one of the local clubs.

Ally Nshoro
(Dar es Salaam)

Ally started coaching in 2018 and is also still active as a national team player.

He is a FIH level 1 certified coach and is currently drafted in one of the disciplined forces. As a player who grew up and went full circle with Twende he is one of the best players that Twende has ever produced.

Ally still volunteers his time to coach and mentor the young players.

Sultan Kondo

Coach Sultan, nicknamed Sulu, is one of our pioneer coaches. He started coaching in 2015 in Dar es Salaam at the KM centre before relocating to Arusha in 2017 with the sole aim of starting school hockey in the Northern region of Arusha, where he coached a total 9 schools.

As a beneficiary of our coach development program, he took part in a three day coaching clinic conducted by The International Hockey Federation and the Africa Hockey Federation in Nairobi (Kenya) in 2019.

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 also founded a community club called the Black Tigersfor 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.

In 2022 and 2023, the secondary schools sports secretariat appointed him as coach to the hockey teams that took part in the Federation of East African Secondary Schools Games. The 2022 team, who finished in second place, made history by winning the first ever team medal for Tanzania in the 22 year history of these games.

Due to his vast experience while at Twende, he is now working as a coach to one of the top senior clubs in Tanzania.