POLOKWANE – Apart from his busy schedule as the HOD at Grace and Hope Special School for intellectually impaired learners, Silver Ratsheku still makes time to coach the Limpopo Whale Aquatic Club which he founded in 2005.
Ratsheku joined Grace and Hope Special School in 2012 after having been a teacher at the New Horizon School since 2000.
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“When I joined New Horizon, I met Lizzy Vogel from the Limpopo Sports Association for Intellectual Impaired (LSAII). She is in fact the person who introduced me to swimming. In that year a swimming team from LSAII competed at the national championship in Mpumalanga. Vogel then appoint me as the manager of the swimming team,” he explained.
After being introduced to the sport, he immediately felt as though he was thrown into the deep end, unable to ignore his sudden interest in the sport.
“It was during that time that I really found an interest in swimming. I liked what I did as a team manager and being involved with swimming. It was then that I decided to learn more about swimming and also wanted to become more involved,” he added.
At this stage, according to Ratsheku, the only problem hampering the growth of his club is the lack of a decent facility in which to coach the children, especially during the winter season.
Among his highlights in his swimming endeavour, he qualified as a swimming facilitator in 2006 and had been the coach of Team South Africa for Down Syndrome persons and had also been appointed as the development officer for the province.
During his tenure as national coach, he explained that him and his team had toured to Ireland, Portugal and Taiwan and was after that appointed by Swimming South Africa as the province’s liaison officer until 2011.
“Since I first got involved with swimming my passion for this sport just grew stronger. During my time as liaison officer for Limpopo I introduced swimming to rural communities. I focused on the basics like just being able to swim and safety and aquatic awareness. I still have a dream and that is to one day own a swimming facility with heated water so that I am able to coach more children,” he concluded.
