Lesotho netball season to get underway on April 1

Lesotho netball league returns on April 1

The Lesotho national netball league will get underway on April 1, the Lesotho Netball Association (LNA) has confirmed.

The LNA said it did not hold a league season last year because of commitments with international tournaments such as the Netball Youth World Cup qualifiers in Botswana last July and African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 Under-20 Games in Angola in December.

Registrations to enter the 2017 league campaign closed last Friday with the action scheduled to kick off on the weekend of April 1 and 2.

LNA public relations officer Matšepo Mohau said several new clubs have registered to compete in this year’s league which is encouraging.

Before the league starts the LNA will host workshops for new umpires and coaches starting next month.

Mohau said the workshops will cater to primary and high school teachers because they are hands-on on the ground with potential netball prospects.

“We planned the workshop before the league start so we can gear up our coaches and referees towards the league. We want to equip them with the new amendments that were recently introduced in our sports code,” Mohau said.

By better equipping coaches, the seminars will also benefit players, Mohau said.

“If our players have a different understanding of the game it becomes a problem for them to unite when we go for international competitions and that results in poor results. It is through our coaches that we can close the gap,” she said.

The LNA hopes the seminar and upcoming league season will help its efforts to build on the national youth set-up.  Lesotho struggled at the Under-21 World Cup qualifiers in Botswana last July losing all its games but the AUSC Under-20 team showed some promise in December.

“We are yet to decide the fate of the team that went to Angola but we would like to keep the core of the team as is and then just add where we might lack as we prepare for next year’s Region 5 Games in Botswana,” Mohau said.