LOCHNIVAR Primary School have been handed a huge boost in their bid to revive tennis at the learning institution after former students including Highlanders vice-chairperson Modern Ngwenya donated tennis equipment.
Ngwenya was the headboy at Lochnivar in 1987 at a time the school produced some exciting tennis talent in Ishmael Chemwai and the late Kamurai Matongo, who did well to raise the country’s flag.
However, due to lack of resources, the school has in recent years struggled to build on their yesteryear success to produce more stars.
But the school recently took a deliberate move to resuscitate the sport by renovating tennis courts at the educational facility while constructing new ones.
The school’s trajectory got a massive jump after Ngwenya and his colleagues, who include Paul Mukondo (Jnr), David Magama, Rodney Chavhungama among others donated equipment worth thousands of dollars towards the project.
“As Lochnivar School we used to produce good tennis players and we want to revive that spirit. In fact it not only tennis but in other sporting codes as well. I was a soccer player myself and we had quite as a formidable squad,” Ngwenya said.
“It’s unfortunate that schools’ sport is still frozen due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But, when everything returns to normal, we hope that the equipment will go a long way in helping develop the game at the school.
“We are not politicians and we are doing this in the true spirit to see our school develop.”
Lochnivar’s sports director Tariro Mubaiwa was excited about the gesture.
“This is huge. It means a lot to us as a school to be remembered by our former students. It’s indeed a timely intervention as it fit into our vision to revive the sport of tennis at the school,” Mubaiwa said.
Another ex-student and businessman Paul Mukondo (Jnr) and is into insurance industry said this is the beginning of a long term partnership with their former learning institution.
“We are a group of former students, most of us are in the diaspora and we are passionate about sport. It is our hope to continue pulling resources together and donate to the school to ensure they unearth future stars,” said Mukondo.
“We want to revive the spirit that saw Lochnivar produce national team material. We are keen to play our part in ensuring the school achieves its objectives. ”