The Chronicle
Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
THE National University of Science and Technology’s hockey team is making strides in the right direction after having both their males and female sides successfully compete at games at Khumalo Hockey stadium.
The women’s team lost one and won one match against Kanimambo and Midlands State University (MSU) respectively whilst the men’s side played against Kanimambo and Matabeleland which they drew the first match and lost the other one.
Nust Hockey Female TeamThe women’s team won 3-0 against MSU and went on to lose 1-0 against Kanimambo and their male counterparts were thumped 5-0 by the Matabeleland team and shared the spoils with Kanimambo in a 0-0 stalemate.
Nust coach, Lyle George believes both his teams are making progress in the right direction as their way of play has changed. However, the changes made to the learning calendar makes it a bit difficult for the team to blend well together.
“Both teams are still in the building stage but positive strides can be seen in the way they play, just a few tweaks that will be taken back to the drawing board.
“In my time we were lucky to have one semester for all students which meant all players would be available at the same time which has now changed as some faculties learn at some point and then go back home which is away from Bulawayo then other faculties begin so it makes it a bit difficult to get the team gelled together as they are never at one point,” said George.
With the team now training in a proper turf, George is confident that will help his players understand how the game goes about as they are now starting their preparations for next year’s Zimbabwe Universities Sports Association (ZUSA) games.
“Thanks to the university we have our training sessions on turf at the hockey stadium twice a week and that has given us a good boost in terms of understanding the game better.
“There is a schedule in progress, we are working around the clock to tick the boxes before ZUSA games in 2023 as so, I can say a box was definitely ticked in this past tournament, I cannot expose what but we are moving forward at a very good pace,” he said.
Nust women won the silver medal at the previous edition of the university games.
–@brandon_malvin
