Coach comes home after team wins

Basil Petersen, a soccer coach is home after his team in Swaziland won the league.

He grew up in Payneville and later moved to Geluksdal, where his family stayed behind while he was coaching in Swaziland.

The winning team he coached in Swaziland, the Mbabane Highlanders, won that country’s MTN First Division League Championships during the 2013/2014 season that ended in May.

At the same time he was also the Swaziland MTN First Division coach of the season.

Petersen, who is a businessman in Springs, says it was a big decision to come back home after this victory, but he missed his family.

He grew up playing soccer, and his uncle, Milton Petersen encouraged him to play the sport.

It was Birtie Williams, his role model from Payneville, who also inspired him to take this love for soccer further by becoming a coach.

He, among others, obtained a Confederation of African Nations B licence, as well as a South African Football Association B licence.

He described his coaching style as carpet football, which is a passing game.

According to Petersen, a good team is where each member has discipline on and off the field, as well as having fit players and when the team can work together.

“I choose a player that wants to play the game and not necessarily the talented one,” he says.

Because his passion is soccer, he is currently informally coaching children of Geluksdal in basic soccer skills.

He dreams of coaching a team like the one in Swaziland again and will do so as the opportunity arises.