Hockey coach suspended

THE coach caught in the hockey storm over Liya Herunga’s omission from the Namibia u16 team to tour Zimbabwe later this year, Maryke Short, has been suspended until an investigation into the matter has been completed.

This follows a meeting on Tuesday between Short and the athletes representative of the Namibia Hockey Union (NHU), Magy Mengo, as well as Coenie Wessels and Marietta Stofberg of the NHU executive committee.

The storm erupted after Liya’s mother Ruth Herunga aired her grievances on Twitter following Liya’s omission from the u16 team to tour Zimbabwe, and inclusion in the u18 team, whose tour was postponed, and since then she has received countless replies and messages of support.

Mengo on Tuesday said that Short had been suspended until further notice.

“I called Ruth to understand the issues from her side. I called Coenie and Mariette and we had a meeting yesterday afternoon with Maryke. She has now been suspended until further notice until the investigation is completed,” she said.

“I asked Maryke a few questions and one or two things were not according to how things are supposed to be done. For instance she should have called Liya’s mother and not Liya herself to inform her that she had been promoted to the u18 team. It seemed like there were also issues on the NSSU tour to Bloemfontein where she was also the coach, so I asked her for a formal report and we are awaiting that now. I’ll also talk to the parents of the other players on that tour to get all the views,” she added.

Mengo said she had discussed the issue with the athletes representative of the Namibia National Olympic Committee, Gaby Ahrens, and they would hold a press conference soon to resolve the issue.

“I engaged with Maryke and didn’t experience any racism, but we are waiting for the facts to come out and she has been suspended until then,” she said.

Wessels, meanwhile, said that Liya was not dropped from the u16 team, but promoted to the u18 team.

“The facts are skewed. Liya was never dropped from the u16 team, but promoted with two other very competent players to the u18 team. The u18 tour was also never cancelled, but postponed to a later date in the year,” he said.

According to Wessels the u18 tour had to be postponed due to matric examinations, while they were also awaiting confirmation from Zimbabwe on which dates would suit them. They have since replied that the end of November would suit them better, with the result that both the u16 and u18 tours will now take place from 28 November to 3 December.

Ruth Herunga had also complained that Liya had not received enough game time on the Bloemfontein tour but Wessels said the facts did not bear this out.

“According to the time sheets that we received, Liya was one of the most active players in her team and was on the field 69 percent of the time,” he said.

He said that parents who had grievances about their children should speak to Mengo in future.

“The damage has now already been done on social media, but in future parents should go and talk to Magy, that’s why she is the athletes representative, to engage on these issues,” he said.