THE Makumbi Old Students reunion match between former students and the school’s first team will be the highlight of sports in the Mashonaland East province this weekend.
Old students’ reunion football matches bring back a lot of memories to a lot of people. One such person is Chartered Accountant and businessman Lewis Madafi.
Today, Madafi returns to the grounds where he dreamt of one day lighting bigger stadiums like Rufaro and Wembley stadium before his career path took a different turn.
He recalls what it was like when he played for Visitation and believed he would be the next big football star to come out of Zimbabwe.
“There was the excitement of stepping out on the field to the roar of the fans, hearing girls yelling, everyone anticipating victory,” Madafi told EnterSportNews.
Many boys from his team wanted to please girls by showing off with their trickery. However, it had its pitfalls as some players started playing to the gallery, trying to please the screaming girls, much to the team’s detriment.
“I’m now a grandfather. I don’t want to talk about girls then. But you know girls are girls. When you play the sport, you always get attention, you know. It was fun, and sometimes pane rataiti bhora re nyengo, you know kumora nyengo. Instead of someone passing the ball, you want to dribble to seek attention and seek to catch a girl’s eye, trying to do the impossible to impress, and that would cost the team a lot.
“So girls used to determine a lot. We won games by trying to impress girls and lost some games by trying to impress girls. They were a huge factor.”
As the adage goes that school days are the best, the 56-year-old Madafi does look back on what might have been during his time. Visitation was more of an academic school, and sports was a pastime.
“Makumbi was more of an academic school than with much emphasis on academics. The career guidance provided by the school pointed more into academics, so there wasn’t really no encouragement or interest in football or sport after school,” he said.
“But we fancied playing football after school, but academics always came first because that’s what we were wired to do. There was a lot of interest in volleyball and swimming.”
Many who attend the match would want to do it all over again, but the body will not give in easily.
Madafi does not talk much about the big games he played in other than say there were many. He did, however, mention one from his high school career. It was not necessarily his best game but among his most memorable ones.
“So we had a lot of memorable games, but the one which I will never forget was one we didn’t win that game. We lost dismally; it was 5-3, if I remember correctly. We were playing against a new upper-town school called N’ava. We went there unprepared and thought we were to walk over,” Madafi added.
“But when we got there, this team had the likes of Colins Kabote and the other guys. Aaah, they hammered us and believed you, me, Mr Useya, and Mr Mugamu (coaches) were unhappy.”
Madafi was happy with how football was structured at Makumbi Mission as it ensured no talent was lost from the junior and up to senior level.
“How football was structured at Makumbi was like every form had their team. Form Ones, we had our Under 14. Form 2s, we had our Under 15s. Form 3, we had our Under 16s. We would compete with other schools like St Ignatius, St Paul’s Musami, and Mazowe’s.
“We would compete at that level. We had a lot of memorable games because we used to play as per group. Things only changed when we were in Form 4s, where you had to qualify for the first team.”
Madafi took time to applaud the organisers of the Legends match in their effort to reunite former and current students in their bid to network and improve their school.
“I really love this initiative. I have done everything in my life, and interacting with youngsters like you is one of the most pleasurable things ever. These relationships don’t end with playing football in a Legends team. This is the beginning of serious networks,” he said.
“We need to continue doing this. The purpose is not to play football. I’m sure everyone’s career in terms of football is no longer there. There are two great things here. The first one is creating the network. The second one is the healthy side of things. When we run, we do these things. There are mental health benefits to it.”
