Curtworth Masango
NEWCOMERS Bikita Minerals are set to appoint a new coach ahead of their maiden season in the Castle Lager Premiership.
Zimpapers Sports understands that the club shortlisted three coaches — Herbert Maruwa, Saul Chaminuka and Joseph Takaringofa last month.
Chaminuka, who almost saved Black Rhinos in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League last season, is seemingly the front runner.
Bikita Minerals are targeting to survive relegation at the end of their debut season and are pushing for their home stadium, Lithium, which is currently under renovations, to be ready for use at the beginning of the new season.
This year’s season is slated for an early kick-off next month.
Bikita Minerals want to have their house in order before the first kick-off as they want to play all their home games at Lithium.
Club chairman, Mike Mushava said they are looking forward to naming their preferred head coach on or before Friday.
“We haven’t made the appointment of the head coach, but it’s true we made some inquiries and we approached some short-listed names that we considered we could work with going ahead.
“The club has been looking into several cases and situations and I can reveal maybe on Friday we will be ready to announce our head coach. For us, it’s a matter of urgency, but we had to make sure all the deliberations were done before we appointed a new coach.
“Another big issue we are concerned about is to make sure we use our home stadium. We don’t want to travel long distances for home games as it will take the advantage away from us and cause early fatigue.
“We want to survive relegation at the end of the season and have to utilise any advantage that works for us as quickly as possible, hence our efforts to put our house in order,” he said.