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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
BN ACADEMY director Bhekimpilo Nyoni says they would want to create as many opportunities as they can for their soccer coaches and players to improve their game as they prepare for another coaching course in Harare next month.

The course will be conducted by top Irish coach Alan Nixon, a Uefa Pro Licence holder, from December 10 to 14, with both the academy’s players and coaches set to benefit from the five-day programme.

Nyoni said the main objective was to ensure their coaches keep up with the latest coaching trends.

“The main thrust in camp, especially for my coaches, is a situation whereby I want these coaches from Europe to help them improve their technical and tactical coaching so that they have the modern trends of coaching. So what will be happening is for the first day, that will be on a Monday when he (Nixon) comes, we are going to have training where the coaches will be doing the coaching, while he will be going round seeing how they do their things. Then at the end of the day, he will sit down and discuss with the coaches, evaluating the day.

“Then from Tuesday to Friday, the external coach from Ireland will be the one who will be in charge of all training sessions, which will be run during that week . . . He will also be trying to show them some of the small aspects, which are seen as very important in developed countries in developing players,” said Nyoni.

Nyoni said this is a chance for the academy to showcase some of the talent they have and see if the visiting coach can assist in opening doors for them to break through to the next level of their game.

“Another idea is trying to show this coach that this is the quality which we have in Zimbabwe, can you try opening opportunities for the boys? In August, we went to UK, now we have an Irish coach coming and in January we have got boys who are going to Germany.

“So in a way we are trying to open as many opportunities as we can, and also in December, some of our boys who have got good academic grades will be going to Bantu Rovers, where there is an American coach who is scouting for American scholarships,” Nyoni added.

Nixon has been to Zimbabwe before, and in 2009, he conducted a youth coaching course and goalkeepers’ clinic for the Zimbabwe Soccer Coaches Association.

The BN Academy is also expecting to send four players to Germany in January for trials at Lubeck under the GeBe Foundation. The four players that will be travelling to Germany are Elson Mweha (18), Tyrone Matongorere (17), Matthew Chukwuma (17) and Nigel Mutsonziwa (16).

They will be there from January 10 to 17.

“They are almost my top talented boys whom I think if given an opportunity, they have the chance to breakthrough because the idea is to have one or two players breaking through. So I believe they have got the quality in terms of technique, tactical awareness and everything,” said Nyoni.