Mathias Haimbodi, a former- basketball-player turned football coach, is giving back to the community by mentoring the Physically Active Youth (PAY) teams.
Haimbodi, who initially played as a goalkeeper during his primary and high school years, discovered his passion for basketball early on.
However, his journey took an unexpected turn when he found his niche in football, stepping in to coach one of the PAY teams in 2016. His transition from basketball to football coaching highlights his dedication to youth development and sportsmanship. “I was a student at PAY at the time, they needed someone to take the children to play a match because their coach was not available that day, and from there, I fell in love with the game,” he said.
PAY is a dynamic after-school programme that delivers quality services in education, sports, and life skills to young people, building a more equal Namibia.
The PAY programme is a community-based strategy to help support and facilitate the healthy development of youth in a risky context in low-income neighbourhoods in Namibia. Using a holistic approach, the programme endeavours to address the physical health, academic status, personal development and community involvement of today’s youth, with a commitment to empowering them.
Haimbodi also serves as an assistant coach for Beauties Football Club in the First National Bank Women’s Super League (WSL). “As we speak, we only have one
team competing in the MTC HopSol Youth League, which is the U/11.
This season, we played five games and only won one match. So, the performance is not good, but we are adjusting, as the kids are coming from U/9 level straight to U/11,” he added. Haimbodi, who is also a former 2019 U/17 Khomas regional team coach, also mentors the U/9 to U/19 age groups.
“Last season, our Futsal football girls team performed very well, as they took gold, and the boys were in third place. The senior team came in third, and the U/11 made it to the quarterfinals,” he said.
The coach highlighted that the training ground is the most important challenge, which is not sufficient for his players with a lot of time constraints.
“The challenge is the fields; we do not
have fields. We share the fields with everyone. So when the field is not available, we hardly train, or we will train at a smaller pitch, which does not suit the football style that we run here at PAY.”
In the WSL, he started coaching a fairly young Girls Football Academy in 2018.
“Now, I am the assistant coach of Beauties
FC. In the 2022–2023 season, we ended in third place and second place for the just-ended 2023–2024 season this past weekend.
Beauties usually train late in the
afternoon from 15h00, while I bring the younger squad earlier on from 14h00 since it’s school holiday at the moment,” he said.
Haimbodi feels that modern-day coaches must lead by example, and be able to communicate better with players as this will enable players to excel well on the field.
“We must lead by example behaviour-wise, and communicate better with
players.
We should also be dedicated because if the coach is not dedicated, the players won’t be dedicated on the pitch,” he said.
Moving forward, he wants to further his coaching credentials to be able to coach at a higher level.
“I only have an NFA C licence and a D CAF licence. So, I need to go all the way and obtain a Pro-CAF licence so that I can one day manage a team in the Premier League,” he said. -slunyangwe@nepc.com.na