Dribbling with destiny: Meet Klaas Mokgomole, trailblazing coach changing lives

Just a little over seven years ago, Klaas Mokgomole almost fulfilled his childhood dream of becoming a respectable judge in his village after completing his law degree.

But his love of sport remained his passion and, ultimately, crept up as his calling.

Mokgomole made a life-altering decision – perhaps baffling for many – to cut his law career short to open his own netball team and running club and become a community netball coach.

“When I said I wanted to start my own netball team, a lot of people were surprised.

“Some asked why netball and not soccer or volleyball. At least because I played volleyball for the Wits first team,” he said.

The 31-year-old founder and head coach of Brainwashers Netball Academy was born and raised in Mohlahlareng-Sunnyside Village outside Tzaneen in Limpopo, along with his five siblings.

He had always been an active boy from his primary school days, representing Semana Primary School in the circuit track and field championships and again representing Mopani district in volleyball in the Limpopo provincial championships.

“I guess I got that from my dad, who usually walked 15 km to town and another back almost every day. Even the love of dancing, music and playing the piano comes from him,” he added.

“He would come back late after an outing with friends and blast the music loudly, while dancing alone in the sitting room for hours and we’d watch and sometimes join in and dance with him.”

Although he studied law, Mokgomole still played volleyball for the Wits first team and participated in other sporting areas such as wargames, which included a variety of computer games, Fifa and morabaraba, a board game, and served in the Wits sports council and Wits students representative council (SRC).

He was awarded a Wits sports bursary and also half-blue colours, which inspired him to help other students realise that they didn’t have to depend solely on the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.

“Being part of the SRC helped me realise how many students were struggling financially, just like me, and then I saw the need for more students to try sport in order to have access to the sporting bursary,” he said.

“I started coaching at Wits to encourage more people to join sport. I coached students from my residential area at the time and moved on to other areas, on and off campus.

“And when I finished varsity, I was out of the Wits system and couldn’t continue coaching, so I started my own team and that’s when I realised there was a significant interest shown in the sport by both women and men.”

Mokgomole started with a small team of the students he previously coached at Wits and then was joined by some from Berea and Hillbrow.

“Seeing the response I was getting from people, I thought let me open this up to other townships. Then I had people coming from Yeoville, Soweto, Alexandra, Tembisa, the Vaal and even Soshanguve,” he said.

The academy, which is registered with Netball South Africa under Johannesburg Netball Association, has more than 60 players between the ages of 12 and 36, with six divisions – under-14, under-17, under-19, under-21, open team and male team.

When asked why he did not pursue any other courses in sport such as sport management, he said:

“I didn’t want to do it for the money, because then it would take away from the passion and the pure love of the sport.

“I saw what sport did for me, it took a young man from a dusty poor village in Tzaneen and opened doors I didn’t even think existed and that’s what I want to do for every other kid with a dream,” he told Saturday Citizen.

“I really do not want to develop the love of money in the sport. I want to do it voluntarily. I want to do it to help people.

“I want to get these kids out of their townships and into higher institutions of learning via sport, where they can realise their dreams and change their communities, whether it’s through playing professionally or just furthering their studies.”

With some satisfaction in his voice, he said: “With netball, we’ve seen some success. More than 28 of our team members have graduated, funded by the sporting bursaries.

“We have more students going into universities and colleges and last year we enrolled three students and this year we had eight doing matric.

“We’re hoping they’ll go to varsity using the sporting bursary.”

He also said apart from getting the students to university through a sporting bursary, he wanted the academy to give young men and women a chance to enhance their leadership, managerial and coaching skills through the netball coaching short courses.

“Your background should never define who you are or even decide your future. Whether you were born poor or rich, you can make it as long as you put your mind to it,” he said.