Blue Waters to celebrate legacyOne of Namibia’s oldest football clubs is getting ready to celebrate an important milestone in its history. Club plans big bash for 80th anniversary Namibia’s second oldest soccer club, Blue Waters FC, founded by a teacher Daniel Shimbambi in February 1936 in the Old Location of Walvis Bay, is celebrating its 80th anniversary.Blue Waters Sport Club chairman Hafeni Ndemula has announced that the club will celebrate the event on 1 October at the Kuisebmond Soccer Stadium, with other activities to take place at the Blue Waters field.
The family of the late Daniel Shimbambi will unveil his tombstone at Swakopmund Old Cemetery on 1 October as part of the commemorations.
The club’s patron, Ben Amathila, will open the celebrations on 30 September.
President Hage Geingob and First Lady Monica Geingos will attend a gala dinner on 1 October.
“It will be a memorable occasion filled with fun and excitement.
“We are planning a street procession from the Kuisebmond Fire Station to the Blue Waters soccer field at 08:00.
“This will be followed by a fun day programme with various netball and soccer games for the public to enjoy and we invite everyone to join us in the festivities and to celebrate this special day in the history of the club,” Ndemula said.
All set
King Mandume Muatunga, a former chairman of the club and mayor of Walvis Bay, heads the organising committee.
He said the arrangements are 80% completed, and invited all former players, managers of Blue Waters, the Namibian Premier League (NPL) and all former teams that played against Blue Waters to be part of the event.
“We are also looking forward to have Tigers present as the oldest team as well as a number of great players that played against our legends.”
The team, fondly referred to as the ‘Beautiful Birds’ or ‘Omeya’ (Oshiwambo for water), was transformed from Blue Waters FC to Blue Waters Sports Club in 1990 and includes other sport disciplines such as cricket and youth development.
Since the club’s formation 80 years ago, Blue Waters have won major cup tournaments and attracted some of the best players from all over the country, such as Tobias Akwenye, Jacob Ingo, Joël Amadhila, Adolf Lucas, Johannes Mutilifa, Johannes ‘Tifu’ Nendongo, Elliud Munjere and many more.
Near collapse
Blue Waters nearly faded into oblivion in the early 1960s as its best players joined some Namib Woestyn players to form Eleven Arrows, which won most major tournaments in and around Walvis Bay.
The team accommodated netball in the mid-1960s led by Nana Muvangua, a teacher from the then Inboorlingskool in Kuisebmond (now Immanuel Ruiters Primary School) and produced a number of excellent netball players during the 1970s.
Players such as Loide Viringa and Queeny Kambongarera were replaced by newcomers such as Elly Bamm and Meriam Pinehas in the early 1980s.
With the formation of the Namibia Premier League in 1985, Blue Waters clinched four league titles in 1988, 1996, 2000, 2003-2004 and is currently the second team after Black Africa (10) in terms of league wins.
After Namibia’s independence, the first two players from the side to be selected for the Brave Warriors were Dokkies Theodor and Chicken Kasaona. They were later joined by the mercurial Sandro de Gouveia, who would go on to represent Namibia at the 1998 African Cup of Nations.
The first coach of the Brave Warriors, Shepherd Murape, coached Blue Waters in the 2000s and Eliphas ‘Oupapa’ Shipanga, a member of Blue Waters’ technical team, was the national team’s first manager.
Blue Waters have won a number of major tournaments including the Dave Furniture’s (1978), Samwel Thaniseb (1980), Isak Kahatjipara (1984), Werner Dupene (1987) and Eleven Arrows Soccer Tournament (1987).
The club also clinched the Windhoek Lager NFA Cup (1994), Metropolitan Super Champ Cup (1995), BP Top 8 Cup (1996), Inaugural NFA Windhoek Lager Christmas Cup (2000), MTC Christmas Cup (2002), MTC Christmas Cup (2003) and the FNB Cup (2005).
Hendrik Dawids took over the team in 1998 and ran the team on business principles for eight years.
OTIS FINCK