U19 ISAZ Girls Netball

Saturday, the fourth of March, brought us to Mpelembe to take part in the Netball Northern Region Championships [Qualifiers for the National ISAZ event]. There were nine teams that were competing which were divided into two pools. In our pool were Nsansa, Trident, Mpelembe, and Chengelo.

Our first game was against Nsansa. Half of us were still waking up but we played hard, scoring most of our points in the second half. We won the game 17 to 0. In future, I think that we need to be more aroused before we play our first game (although this is not saying that we did not play well).

Our next game was against Trident. It was not as well played as our previous game. We were not moving into space as much as we should have been. We still won the game 11 to 4. I think that we could have easily kept them at zero if our defence was tighter as well.

Facing Chengelo's giants!

 We then had a 'back to back' game against Mpelembe. We knew that we would have to work harder to beat them as they had almost beaten us in a previous competition. There was quite a bit of physical contact in this game which resulted in the whistle being blown quite a lot. Mpelembe was not marked as tightly as they should have been and again, we were not moving into space. As a result of this, at half time, they were ahead of us by one point. As we went back onto the court, I would say that we were still not as organised as we should have been. They therefore scored the next four goals quite quickly although they did have to work harder for them. Because they were now working harder and we had finally gotten our act together more, they were getting tired. We used this to our advantage as we were fitter than them, and scored eight more goals. The resulting score was 13 to 9 for us.

We were thankful for a break before we played against our next competitors, Chengelo. We seem to hyperventilate and have a mental meltdown when we see them on the court. It seemed like everything we learned went out of our heads. It was just tall Chengelo people and so we lost to them 9 to 3.

Although we lost the previous match, it put us into the semi-final which was against Ndola Trust. We actually played quite well considering that we lost everything when playing against Chengelo. We beat them 13 to 6.

Josiah passing to centre Diana

Our younger players working hard

We were then in for the finals…against Chengelo. Mental meltdown. Kathleen was not feeling well so we took her off and then put Natasha in her place to shoot with Naomi. Kathleen was put back on at half time and a couple other changes were made. We again lost to them with the scores being 8 to 2. Looking back on these two Chengelo games, it was sort of like a David and Goliath scenario, most of us were in the shadows. However the results were the opposite and Goliath won!

Faith contributing to the team effort

I would like to say a big thank you to the team for playing very well, coming out second in regional qualifiers. To the brilliant attackers, you fought well. And to the superb defenders, one would consider it foolish to leave a castle unguarded. Another big 'thank you' to Mrs Grove for the work and effort taken to coach us. We also thank God for His protecting hand and keeping the rain at bay. 

Report by S. Ronald

U19 Rugby 7's

Ilunga winning the lineout

On Saturday 25 February Amano took an U19 rugby team to go play Rugby 7's at Simba International School.
 

We played our first game against a local district school - Masaiti Secondary School. We were a bit unprepared for that game and so we were met with quite a fierce opponent. Yarel collected a hard knock on his head, and we were rather disappointed to have lost one of our faster players. We did not have a rhythm or proper ‘output’ of our game plan yet. So we lost that game 14-7.

Captain Philip off loading in the tackle

In our second game,  against another local school Temweni, we were a bit more mentally prepared. We played with a lot more aggression and were able to score two tries. But our defence was not yet what it was supposed to be and hence they scored a try. We won that game 14-5. In our third game, we were really well prepared and we got our defence sorted out, but our passing really slacked off and we struggled to gain any possession. This was against Chiwala Secondary School. They had some ‘experienced’ players, and rather big ones, but we didn’t let that take the best of us. We drew that game 7-7.

Our last game in our pool was Trident College. There was really a tense atmosphere among our two teams, and we struggled to get the game running smoothly. This was rather frustrating and so we lost a bit of focus in our game plan and they found our gaps and made good use of them. We lost that game 14-0.

Musonda escaping Tridents' winger

We still made it into third place in our pool. Chifubu School was our final obstacle to overcome, however we had a harder struggle getting the game going, due to the fact that we couldn’t find a ball and when we did, we kept losing it [over a fence] and had to find a new one. When half time came, we were already a few minutes late and therefore we didn’t play to full time, which gave us little time to do anything. They had us rather confused and some interesting ‘drop kicks’ from the other team really put us in the gutter. We ended up losing that game 12-7. We came 6^th overall from 10 schools. 

I want to thank all the guys in the team for their support, courage and fighting spirits to keep on going. Mr Grove for assembling the guys and having coached us this far and God for the good fun and great weather we had. Thank you.

Report by P. Nieuwoudt

Boys U19 Zone 1 Round 2 Football

On Saturday we went to play football at Mpelembe Secondary School. We played three schools Kalulushi trust, Mplelembe and Lechwe. Our first game was against Mpelembe and in the first half our mid field was disorganised putting a lot of pressure on our defense, but our defense was more organised denying most of the opposition attacks. On the second half we made some changes to our team, especially our mid field and it was more organised and stable and this allowed us to have more opportunities at goal. But we still ended up losing that game 1-0.

Straight after the first game we played Kalulushi Trust, this game we played really well as we were moving the ball around and moving into space which got us the opening goal which was scored by Mwansa. The second half we continued to play really well and had another goal scored by Yarel. So we won that game 2-0.

Replacement goalkeeper Philip was fully committed to the task

Our third and last game was against Lechwe and this last game we still gave it our all. In the first half Lechwe was given a penalty for them to open up the scores, but this didn't put us off, so we continued to push ourselves by passing the ball into space more giving us more chances at goal. In the second half we managed to score a goal by Peter, so we drew that game 1-1. Overall we played really well and worked hard. I would like to thank the team for giving it their all and also Mr. Grove and Mr. Kirk for coaching us and all those who came to support us.

Report by Y. Cariaga

U19 Girls Netball

The U19 girls' team went to Mpelembe on February 11, 2017 to play zone 1 netball games. Kalulushi Trust, Lechwe and Mpelembe were our competitors for the day. We were the first match of the day, playing against Mpelembe. Our defence was not the strongest and we were not moving into space like we had been taught. However, we won the game, beating Mpelembe 13-9. We had a break as Lechwe and Mpelembe played each other but we were soon back on the court with Kalulushi Trust. Our first half was really good; our defence was tight, we were moving into space, and our passing was fairly good as well. We were able to keep them at zero points for this half. The second half of the game was still played fairly well although it was not as good as the first. This resulted with another win for Amano with the scores being 20-5. We then had our back to back game against Lechwe. I would say that this was the toughest game, with a lot of uncalled contact on both teams. Also, it was not the best netball played by our team. We did a lot of high, slow passes which were easy to intercept and they did get intercepted. However, our playing got a little neater in the second half although it did start to rain near the end of the match. I think that due to our experience on Thursday afternoon [house netball], we were able to play better in the rain than Lechwe. We did lose this match against Lechwe with the result being 11-8.

 

File Photo - U19 Girls Netball

Our game against Kalulushi Trust was the best game of the day. There were some excellent plays. We do need to work on moving into space and moving on the catch. If this improves, our performance will also improve.

There were some new girls on the team; Grace and Naomi (who were both shooting at some time or another) and Rosemary and Natalie. Thank you to the team who played considerably well for the first netball tournament this year. Thank you, Mrs. Grove for coaching us, Mr. Grove for driving us, and all those who came to support us; it was much appreciated. 

Report by S. Ronald

ISAZ Cross-Country

On the fourth of February, the Amano under 19 teams A and B ran a five kilometre cross-country route along roads, paths, and trails on Amano property. The schools that came to compete were Chengelo, Lechwe, Ndola Trust, and Life Song. However, Life Song is not an ISAZ school, but an orphanage that was invited as guests. Out of all these teams, we knew that Chengelo and Life Song would be our hardest competitors to beat. It was a good effort put in from all members of the team. However, one of the rules for a team to qualify is that all members must cross the finish line. In light of this, two teams did not qualify – the Lechwe team and our Amano A team. Therefore, the results at the end of the day for the ISAZ schools were Ndola Trust in third place, Amano B in second place, and then Chengelo in first. Congratulations to Rose, who came in first for the ISAZ girls teams [and 3rd of all the girls] and also to the new people on the team – Naomi, Grace, and Faith. To the rest of the team, thank you for putting in your best effort and we hope that enjoyed the run.

For those who have been running for the last couple years and have perhaps completed their final run, I hope that you have learned a thing or two from running in the Amano team. Through this cross country running event, we have learned that it is not a one man show but it is a team effort and although we go through challenges along the way, we should persevere until we cross the finish line. Just as Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:7; “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 

Thank you to all who were there to support us and thank you very much to the organisers and helpers of the event and an even bigger 'thanks' to God for His hand in the event.

And they're off...

Most of the B team

Naomi and Diana hard at work for the A team

ISAZ U19 Boys Football

On Saturday we went to play football at Lechwe School and played against three schools Trident, Kalulushi  and Lechwe. Our first game was against Kalulushi Trust and we played very well considering we were a new team. We were well organized, defended well, made a lot of good passes which created more chances at goal. Communication in the fist half could have been better, especially in defence, because the opposition started to have more chances at goal, though we improved in second. Now due to many missed chances which would have won us the game, we ended up drawing that game 0-0.

Samuel taking a free kick

Our second game was against Trident which was a much harder game. Ten minutes through the first the half our goal keeper Cholwe got injured and was replaced by Xavier who did really well and made some good saves, but in this game we started to lose focus, especially in defence, after we gave away a goal due to sloppy kicks. But in the second half we started to focus more, allowing us to have more chances at goal but didn't score. But then there was a miscommunication between the defence and the goalkeeper and we scored an own goal. So we ended losing that game 2-0.

Our last match was against Lechwe. In the first half, Lechwe scored the opening goal, but a few minutes later, Chandalala scored a penalty keeping us tied in the first half. In the second half we managed to score another goal keeping us ahead, but then we lost three men because of injuries and cramps so we were eight men against eleven. We ended up losing that game 4-2.

There's always one

On the whole we weren't a bad team, I would like to thank the team for their hard work and giving it their all, though we need to improve on some things such as finishing. I would also like to thank  Mr. Grove and Mr. Kirk for coaching and supporting us.