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Team Rwanda: Lessons Learnt

30 July 2008 at 18:09 | 1752 views

By Jean Jacques Bosco.

My name is Jean Jacques Bosco. I have been successfully managing team Rwanda for the past two years. During this year’s African soccer tournament in Vancouver, I was attending the the World Youth Cup, “GOTHIA CUP”, competition in Sweden, Europe.

My JBST International Soccer Academy based in Vancouver had five teams participating in the African Soccer Tournament: U6 Boys, U9 Boys & Girls, U12 Boys & Girls, U16 Boys, and team Rwanda in the men’s competition. Ms. Karen COOKE from Dunbar managed and coordinated extremely well my teams and club during my trip to Europe.

Parents of JBST Academy students worked hard to make the Vancouver tournament successful by providing oranges, snacks and water to my young and adult players and even to the opponents’ players who forgot to bring theirs. That was very kind and I thank the parents who did that.

I would also like extend my thanks to the following JBST Academy parents: U6 Boys (coach Michael NEMIROW), U9 Boys & Girls, (Alex GUY), U12 coach, (Benjamin NG), and U16 (Bruce TATTRIE) who voluntarily accepted the difficult and challenging job of coaching my different teams that played against the older players or waiting too long for teams to show up, at the Children & Youth Tournament side.

In this piece, it is fair and honest to reiterate that the African Soccer Tournament has survived death due to Mr. Adebo MAHMOUD from Uganda and Mrs. Christie Mahmoud. Both individuals have been very courageous and persevered to keep this tournament alive in the past years. They deserve credit and respect. On behalf of team Rwanda and my soccer club, I address to them my special thanks: Mwarakoze cyane! Merci beaucoup!.

A Brief History of Team Rwanda by Head Coach Dr.Don COOKE and General Manager Jean Jacques BOSCO, owner of JBST Internatioanl Soccer Academy.

Team Rwanda was formed by young players. It is also fair to say that team Rwanda, the same way as the France, Netherlands and Canada national teams or teams like Sierra Leone or Uganda , attracts different and very young soccer talents from different countries who join it in order to form a very competitive and disciplined team.

Our first game on Saturday July 12th was against Liberia. Liberia provided good competition but our team’s speed and ball control and movement proved too much for Liberia and we won 3-0.

Rwanda’s next game was against Sudan and this team from Khartoum was very competitive as they wanted to reduce last year’s loss (7-1). We managed to triumph 2-0 and everybody started talking about team Rwanda winning the tournament.

During the quarter final on Sunday, we met Ghana. Unfortunately, there was some scheduling confusion about starting time. The game scheduled for 10:30 am did not start until 11:45. Rwanda and Ghana played a very exciting and competitive game. At the end, Rwanda won by a score of 4-2 against the team from Abedi PELE’ s country that beat us 4-2 last year.

Our next and last game was scheduled at 2:0’clock and was against Sierra Leone. Our players had only one hour between the games and the boys were still exhausted at the start of the game. This suggests that the tournament should have three days instead of two.

Again, we played a very competitive game for the first half.Unfortunately, the combination of Sierra Leone being a very experienced and skilled team and our players being tired resulted in a 4-1 loss.

From the team Rwanda staff and management’s point of view, we could have beaten Sierra Leone if we were more rested. Team Rwanda thoroughly enjoyed the tournament and look forward to playing next year!

Vive le Canada, Vive le Rwanda, Vive Vancouver, Vive le monde! Vive le soccer!

Kids African Soccer Tournament

By Clarisse Boon Bosco.

Hello,
My name is Clarisse Boon Bosco. I am 11 years old, and I participated in “The Kids African Soccer Tournament”.In my article, I will talk about my experience during the tournament.

The tournament was an exciting event and I loved it a lot.I played for my dad’s soccer school JBST Interantional Soccer Academy for U12. The day I had to play, we had to stretch 30 minutes before the game. It was intense because I got tired in the middle of training.But I still trained with my team.

When the game started , I was pumped up to play. I started with playing goalie; it went well until the first goal.So we swicthed people for goalie. I played defence for the whole game. Sadly we lost because all the opponents except for Sudan were the wrong age. We were not the only level that lost. My dad’s whole soccer club lost.But it’s okay. We had a lot of fun.

Finally,we got our ribbons of participation ,“freezes” and we got to hold the hands of the players in the final.In the end I had so much fun.

Photos: Team Rwanda(top) and Jean Jacques Bosco and his two daughters, Clarisse(left) and Kathryn. The photo was taken six years ago. Clarisse is now 11 years old and Kathryn is now 8.

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