Zambia’s success was brewed six years ago

HECTOR MAWONGA

So now that the 2012/2013 Namibia Premier League (NPL) has come and gone, attention will now turn to the part I hate more and more with each passing year: The NPL Awards ceremony.
The thing I hate about the awards is not necessarily that they are meaningless, but rather the whole attitude towards them.
It is now customary that every year there are complaints about the eventual winners, with questions raised about the criteria used to select the respective award recipients.
Mark my words, this year won't be any different and the whole saga leaves me with one question every single time the awards come around.
Are the players, coaches and administrators motivated to perform only to get recognition at the awards or do they pride themselves on going after excellence regardless of awards?
If the answer is yes to the second part of the question, then not being recognised would not really matter, as your joy comes from knowing that you excel in your job and therefore. The acknowledgement from those outside of your club or institution becomes irrelevant.
Besides, it is my opinion that the awards are subjective and will always remain open to debate.
Take, for example, the category of Coach of the Year.
How would one go about choosing who has done the best job when the resources and the playing personnel quality of the different clubs are not the same?
I mean, would you hand that award to the man who joined a club with only four points and bottom of the log, but yet steered the team to safety from relegation (Rundu Chiefs' John Sikerete)?
Or do you hand it to the man that steered his club to emerge as unlikely league challengers, then joined another team and saved them from certain relegation (Ramblers/Tura Magic's Woody Jacobs)?
Or do you give it to the man who masterminded his team's successful defence of their title (Black Africa's Brian Isaacks)?
I'm convinced that each of these men performed quite incredibly and deserve to be praised for their success.
But can you really rate one of their successes as higher than the others, since the teams had different objectives to begin with?
So I say, let every humble soul accept and realise that the awards will never please everyone.