…as they win league title four times in a row
Leemisa Thuseho
LEQELE Queens have once again proven to be Lesotho’s netball giants after winning their fourth consecutive domestic league title at the weekend.
Leqele Queens were crowned the 2022/23 champions after beating rivals LCS 30-23 at the Police Training College (PTC) netball courts.
Following the weekend results, Leqele Queens ended their campaign at the top with 92 points, the same number of points as second placed LCS. However, Leqele Queens clinched the first position due to their superior goal average (goals scored divided by goals conceded).
Leqele Queens goal average is 6.93 while that of LCS is 4.89.
This is Leqele Queens’ fourth league title in a row, cementing their position as the giants of local netball. They first won the league in the 2017/18 season before winning it again in 2018/19 as well as in 2021/22
In the 2020/21 season the league was not played due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Leqele Queens coach, Munyaradzi Shanduka, lamented the fact that her team faced no viable competition locally, something that would disadvantage the national team.
“To be honest there is no competition for us, even though there is a bit of improvement in some clubs,” Shanduka told the Lesotho Times this week.
“We only compete with LCS… I would like to see netball improving in all the clubs so that we can have a huge pool of players to select a national team from.
“We cannot build a national team with players from one team, if we need a strong national team, we must have all the teams doing good, therefore we have to work together as the netball family to share ideas on how we can develop netball together.”
He said the major challenge in the country was in development and coaching.
“What I have seen is that even if we have talent there is still a huge challenge when it comes to coaching. There is still much to be done. Therefore, I think it is high time the association invests more in coaching development through organizing continuous relevant coaching courses,” he said.
“Again, we have to develop players from as early as primary school level, as that way we will have well-groomed and competitive future players.”
Leqele Queens have sister teams; First Number, Leqele Development 1 and Leqele Development 2 which compete in the females’ junior league and which are used to groom talent into the senior team.
In that juniors’ league, First Number became the champions in February this year finishing on top with 112 points. Leqele Development 1 settled for third position with 90 points while Leqele Development 2 finished on eighth position with 52 points.
These teams are all from the Leqele High School in Maseru and are coached by Shanduka.
He attributed the success of all his teams to “hard work, dedication and understating of modern netball”.
“The secret is simple; we just work hard. These are schoolgirls and we groom them as early as when they arrive in the school. Having many teams helps us with transition as it gives players an opportunity to grow within the ranks before playing for the big team (Leqele Queens),” Shanduka said.
“The other thing is that we are enjoying massive support from the school’s principal (‘Mantebele Mahamo).”
On her part, Leqele Queens star player, ‘Mampiti Morai, who doubles as a national team player, also bemoaned the lack of competition for them in the domestic league.
“There is no competition in the country. We only get a bit of challenge when we face LCS. We have a very experienced coach, and he always tries to get us friendly matches outside the country to help us get international exposure,” Morai said.
“The other thing that works for us is determination. We are young manageable players who are hungry for success. Our motto is ‘hard work pays’.”
The lack of viable competition locally, gave them a huge challenge when they played outside the country, both as a club “or even as the national team”.
“The fact that there is not much competition for us in the country, means we face a challenge when going outside because it is during such times that we realise that our competitiveness level is not growing,” Morai said.
LCS coach, Nkabi Mosaase, said they had enjoyed their final game against Leqele Queens, further promising that they would perform better next season.
“We played well in the final game and I am happy with the performance of my players. We missed a lot of chances, but I hope next year we will come out a better side and challenge for the title,” Mosaase said.
