Mandisa Khuse, a Mohlakeng resident and female football coach at Randfontein High School (RHS), is on everyone’s lips.
This comes after she was selected to coach the team that was selected to represent the country in Italy last month. Turns out her team put on a very tough fight and secured the second position against AC Sassuolo.
The Randfontein Herald recently met up with the 35-year-old Khuse on the football field where she was busy coaching young female football players from the school.
“I’m very passionate about football. I’m not just a coach for the girls’ football team but a team manager for the boys’ football team as well. I aim to groom young girls who want to take up football as a career and encourage them that there are many opportunities in this once male-dominated industry,” said Khuse, who is coaching girls from the age of 14 to 18.
Her team is playing in the Janine van Wyk (JVW) League which was founded by the former Banyana Banyana captain herself.
Mandisa is also changing the status quo and is she the deputy chairperson of the Randfontein Local Football Association which has five divisions, namely U11, U13, U15, U17, and promotional teams that are playing across the whole of Randfontein.
She said that she is proud of how far she has come as a coach.
“Last season, we did exceptionally and won all of our games drawing just one. We then ended up being in position two in the league. We then traveled to Italy from July 21 to 30 but unfortunately drew the final game and lost 5–4 via penalty shootout. That put us in second place as well as a silver medal so the girls did extremely well,” she said.
While Khuse’s achievements speak for themselves and besides the outstanding accolades of coaching a team in Europe, she was also selected to coach the West Rand Regional girls team that took part at the OR Tambo Provincial Soncini Games at Germiston Stadium.
She added that this season’s league has just kicked off and that they have only played one game but are looking forward to the rest.
“We are currently busy with selections again in our region for the next round of the Social Cohesion Soncini Games and would love to see many girls in our community participating in these Games. You have to get more exposure and an opportunity,” said Mandisa.
