By Mzukona Mantshontsho
MANZINI SUPERSTARS BASKETBALL CLUB is a basketball club based in Manzini, Eswatini, established in 2004 by the Eswatini’s under 18 national team on the return trip from the COSASSA ball games held in Lusaka, Zambia.
I was coaching the national team at that time and we decided why not form a team that will compete in the men’s national league. This idea was based on the fact that we wanted to keep the players active, and at that age most of them were not affiliated to any teams hence they were still going to search for teams to play for. At 18 years and under, they were most likely to be bench warmers for those teams.
The name, how did that come about?
Since most of the boys were from Manzini and schooling around Manzini, it made things easier for us to keep them as a team. While we were still scrambling for suitable names, we still had to play tournaments and our rivals started calling us names, mocking us, referring to us as a national side, calling us superstars want to be, little did they know they were empowering us, hence the name MANZINI SUPERSTARS BASKETBALL CLUB. This name came from our rivals.
The tag line ‘Make them Believe’, why?
We were a very young team in the men’s league so all odds were against us in terms of physic and experience. So, we had to find ways to make everyone believe in themselves and where we want to be in life. Once we believed we knew we could achieve anything, even outside our basketball space. Everyone who associated with the brand, had to assure, not only the players and coaches believe in what we do but make sure even other people believe in us and trust in what we do.
Tell us about your early life to your role today
I grew up in Manzini, attended school in the outskirts of Manzini and went on to further my studies in Botswana. I picked up my first basketball at 12 years old and I have never looked back. Though I played other sports but basketball became my number one sport.
Besides being a coach, I am a design and technology teacher by profession, and working with young people has given me so much joy in my life. Bringing in my teaching experiences and coaching has given me balance in leading this club to the power house it has developed to.
As a former player myself, I’ve learnt a lot from my coaches and I have attended some coaching courses in Eswatini and during the time I spent in Botswana, including the ones offered online like the Junior NBA program.
What does your role as Coach, mean to you, besides being the leader?
Besides coaching, you become a teacher and parent, a go-to-person for the players and other club members, it is my responsibility to ensure safety for all the athletes. I have to make sure basketball is viewed as a vehicle to a better life and source of comfort where everyone feels welcomed with zero discrimination. I have to further understand the players as their individual person/personality, every player I unique in their own way. So, I have to ensure that I get through to each and every player in order to get the best out of them on the court.
What are the most critical resources for your successful leadership?
Having more people involved and sharing a common goal. Where we are all each other’s keeper. Not everyone comes as player, people come with different attributes and skills sets. The more we are the better the organisation. These are the qualities we want as we can share them around hence empowering each other one way or the other while we enjoy our basketball.
We have assembled a very good team of administrators, who are knowledgeable and willing to share whatever thoughts that can help us grow and prosper.
Without the basketball venues, we would not say we run basketball without the courts and as it is; we are struggling to secure venues. Manzini for example has no public basketball court, all the courts in the city are privately owned and thus subject to the owners’ conditions for granting permission to utilize the facility. The courts and the activities on the courts are the ones that can help increase the number of participants.
What can we expect from you going forward, 20 years later?
We want to grow the brand and engage as many people as we possibly can. We hope one day we can have our own facilities, where we can also run a school for the under-privileged children and a technical centre where we can teach all technology subjects, while we enjoy our basketball.
It is our dream to see all our athletes succeed. Currently, we have a number of young boys that have achieved good grades from varies institutions and they are on scholarships overseas, which is encouraging and we hope one day, we will see them at a professional level.
What are your words of advice for young people, particularly women to start community projects and small businesses?
God put us all here for a reason and he told us he loves us unconditionally. So, if God loves us, then we should love ourselves more. Let’s find our purpose and live up to it, nobody said it would be easy; neither did anyone say it was going to be hard. If you want rain be prepared to deal with the mud!
Networking is key so the more you involve yourself and surround yourself with people that understand your vision you’re more likely to succeed. As a nation we have high hopes that as the times change, there will be a balance and equal sharing of opportunities, so the little we plant today, tomorrow we will harvest in bulk.
What are your thoughts on Covid-19 in terms of small businesses, what measures should businesses owners to protect their businesses?
From what we experienced with covid-19, it was something none of us expected but the lessons we learned were saving and forming partnerships in communities. We saw businesses exchanging goods at that period and some shops closed because owners could not pay rent; leading to jobs losses.
As a basketball community; we lost sponsorships and member participation dropped. As a club; we opted to go strong on merchandising. We sold team branded merchandice at every opportunity we got so we could be relevant even though there was no basketball.
So, coming together, expanding your network space is one way of staying within your work space and remaining relevant during tough times.
What is the legacy that you would want to leave when you retire?
A healthy and safe environment for everyone, a place where we can live with each other harmoniously. A space where we all feel responsible to ensure peace at all times and share knowledge so that we can all reach our potential. I want us to become custodians of our brand and what it represents to our next generation.
How does your team contribute to the community?
We are a community, we embrace anyone who walks into our space, without segregation. The club has over 120 members, the majority being young people below the age of 25. Within this group; we have privileged and not so privileged members. So, we try and encourage sharing of resources among ourselves.
We also encourage them to pay monthly subscriptions, which we use to supplement school fees for certain players who are members of our club.
The club also pays medical bills for any injuries sustained during club duties. As a club; we also collect used items from families and friends that we forward to the community service initiatives around the outskirts of Manzini.
We have endorsed the Eswatini Biggest Braai as one of our main events to attend as a club. It is an initiative that was established to help the elderly in Eswatini.
Superstars run basketball development camps twice in each calendar year for children and teenagers during the 1st term and 2nd term school holidays. In these clinics; we don’t only coach the game of basketball but we also incorporate life skills’ programs, where we invite motivational speakers, business people and our local municipality to come and share their story and experiences with the campers.
What have been your highs and lows of your Coaching career?
God gave me the biggest gift of all. Spending time with young people and knowing you have contributed to their development is a blessing. As for basketball, winning or losing in my heart I feel I am winning every day because of the number of young people that want to associate themselves with the brand. Like any parent you wish the best of your children, so the more our members succeed the more motivated we are, to keep going.
It is also great to see more of our members who have gone through the same program coming back and assisting wherever they possible can, this makes it very easy to push further.
The only lows would be finances. The club survives on handouts from friends and subscriptions from members. So, most of the things we wish we could do remain just dreams we do not have sponsors, how wish we could have a breakthrough with sponsorships. Then the venue issue too, we do not have a place we can call home, the venues that we could use are not accessible and are too expensive, however we are grateful to the Salesians who constantly open their doors for us to use the school facilities.
When you not at work, what do you get up to, and where can people follow you or your team online?
I am a family man so, if it is not work or basketball, then I am at home spending time with my family. The club has a Facebook and Instagram Page.
Manzini Superstars Basketball Club.
