The 4-year agreement between FERWAFA and the German football federation aims at upgrading the level of local coaches to a B license.

Last week, the first batch of 22 coaches from the first and second divisions embarked on the two-week training, which is led by Alois Strok, a professional instructor in the German federation and Andreas Spier, a professional coach.

“A good coach should have knowledge, methodology and tactics,” said Spier concerning the content of the course, adding that he was satisfied with the level of the participating coaches, even though the poor educational background of some of them might be an obstacle.

This was confirmed by Jules Kalisa FERWAFA’S secretary general. “We don’t have coaches who are really equipped with coaching knowledge and skills. For this training, we are focusing on those that finished senior six even though there are a few who have no A level but they have experience because they have been coaching for a long time.”

Camarade Banamwana, coach of the Zebra in Byumba which plays in second division, explained that he had gained a lot of insight in how to organize training and how to read a match.

“I’m now learning how to better deal with the team when a goal is scored against us,” Banamwana said. “Also, until now I was mainly looking after my team during a game, but now we are being taught how to study the opponent’s tactics so that we can eventually adapt our system.”

Misbah Gashegu, who coaches College Baptiste which won the Interschool trophy in Gisenyi, said he already felt better equipped to do his work. “I now know more about organizing the training, with first warming up, then the main part and finally cooling down. And we have been shown how to collaborate with our assistants,” Gashegu remarked.

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