WINDHOEK – Since taking over as General Manager of the Namibia Football Association (NFA) Women’s Desk, Jacqui Shipanga has redoubled her efforts in advocating for the inclusion and participation of more female coaches in the local game.
Shipanga, former head coach of the Brave Gladiators, and her team have in recent weeks been hard at work conducting coaching courses in various towns, with the aim of empowering and granting opportunities to local aspiring gaffers.
In the last two years, the NFA Women’s Desk has made it a point that all coaching courses that are being conducted countrywide should ideally have a female representation of at least 40 percent in order to take place.
The approach, according to Shipanga is mainly to help build capacity and holistically develop women football in the country.
Shipanga conducted a basic coaching course recently in Okahandja that served as an entry level course for aspiring coaches.
‘’Generally, it has been my concern that we neglect the development of our grassroots and youth coaches both men and women, as we tend to focus only on national teams and that is the reason we hardly qualify for major tournaments or takes between eight to 10 to qualify for major continental competitions. Our focus should equally be to improve our regional structures through capacity building of our coaches, administrators, medics, and referees even the empowerment of female leadership in national and regional structures are almost non existent,’’ she expressed.
Shipanga had earlier also hosted another basic coaching course at the coast where they had a total of 15 women in attendance. At the last one held at Okahandja, they had around 25 participants passing the course, including five women making it one of the most successful course she has conducted to date.
Participants included some former Brave Warriors players on the list. Coaches from Otavi, Kamanjab, Gobabis, Swakopmund, and Windhoek travelled to attend the course at Okahandja.
The association’s women’s desk believes that they are on the right track to achieve their dreams, saying their approach and growth was seen in the Skorpion Zinc Women’s Super League as all the 2018/19 best teams were coached by women.