The ManicaPost
Liberty Dube Sport Correspondent
HARARE-BASED junior soccer academy Ajax Academy are this year’s winners of the Mai Hondo Under-15 Soccer Tournament after goring La Sakubva 2-1 in a thrilling boys soccer final match played at Sakubva Stadium last Saturday. The tournament, which brought together people from all walks of life, ended on a high note with Nyamauru High School beating Mutare City in the women soccer finals.
A total of 18 boys’ teams and four girls’ soccer outfits battled for supremacy on the soccer field, while they also got the opportunity to get counselling on HIV and Aids by the National Aids Council of Zimbabwe. All quarter-finalists for the boys tourney received soccer kits. A match pitting boozers’ outfits Protector Rangers and Mutare Legends, who played as curtain-raisers, added glitz to the match. The latter won 2-1.
Organisers of the event paid tribute to sponsors who came aboard with sponsorship in cash and kind, for instance the Rotary Club of Mutare, who handed over 20 balls. Former Eastern Lions chairman Francis Mabika, who was the guest of honour, underscored the importance of discipline and obedience if ever one needs to excel in soccer and in life.
“I have witnessed great talent going to the waste because of lack of self-discipline and it is quite obvious that if you lack that self-discipline you will subsequently fail in obedience too. Use your gifts to the best of your abilities, for wasted talent will yield nothing.
He urged youths to desist from engaging in social ills such as drug abuse and prostitution. The youths participating in this tournament were predominantly from underprivileged areas and suburbs of Mutare where drug and alcohol abuse is rife, noted Blessing Mutsaka, one of the organisers. Soccer can, therefore, occupy and influence the youth to stay away from such vices, he said.
