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Innocent Kurira , Sports Reporter
FRESH from her debut season in the English Vitality Netball Super league, Zimbabwe senior national netball team captain Felistus Kwangwa has been channeling her off-season energy to studying.

The 26-year-old goal defender, who made history by becoming the first Zimbabwean netball player to play in topflight English league, is a fourth-year student at the University of Zimbabwe where she is studying for a Bachelor of Arts Honours in Economic History.

“Since I returned, l have been focusing mostly on my studies. Unfortunately, I was supposed to write exams starting on the 12th (of July), but they were postponed indefinitely because of the prevailing Covid-19 situation the country,” said Kwangwa.

“I was meant to travel home to Bulawayo, but due to the cancellation of inter-city travel, I’m grounded here in Harare. Fortunately, l have worked in Harare before so, l am settling well in the capital,” she said.

Kwangwa wishes her debut season had been better, but she enjoyed every moment spent at Surrey Storm.

“My stay in England was really great. l loved every part of it, although l did not do as much as l would have wanted because of the lockdown. Personally, I was still in the process of adjusting to their game, but it was real fun just encompassing new things and what l had learnt before made me a better player.

“I am just hoping that next season the team will perform much better and hope that I will be at the top of my game. Apart from us having a disappointing season in which we finished second from the bottom, I am glad that I got an opportunity to play and have the experience at a top level in UK,” she said.

Surrey Storm, who won successive titles in 2015 and 2016, had a forgettable season, winning only three games up out of 20 matches to finish 11th in the 12-team league, and they finished the season in 10th place, in the 11-team league.

Kwangwa joined Surrey Storm in November after she was nominated the best player in the Telkom Challenge in South Africa in 2019 and her exploits at the World Cup.

She was also part of the national team that came fourth in the 2019 African Netball Championships held in Cape Town, South Africa.

She feels Zimbabwe does not have potential to match the talent she has seen, unless netball gets huge funding.

“What we lack mainly is funding and facilities, but otherwise our ideas and what we are doing as a country is in line with what have to do to be the best. But without financial backing it is really difficult to achieve the goals that we want.

“In terms of general play, you have to appreciate that everyone has their unique type of play and l noticed that this side we base more on talent and tend to want to focus on molding someone that is already talented whereas that side they turn you into a netball player at a young age. Even if you are not good they grill you to perfection,” she said.

Kwangwa started playing for national teams in 2012 at the age of 17.

She captained the Golden Girls at the 2014 Region 5 Games and also led the team at the 2018 Junior World Cup Qualifiers in Botswana.

She says she wants to be a netball coach in future and hopes to start attending coaching courses this year. — @innocentskizoe