Harambee Starlets need tomboys to win

Harambee Starlets should have had several tomboys at the recent concluded Africa Women Cup of Nations (AWCON) tournament in Cameroon.

The more I watched them on TV playing, the more I missed Mary Wilson, my classmate at Kitale Union School. The name sounds foreign, just why I wished she was in our Starlets team.

During our days, one’s surname could be decided by the father’s first name. Mary’s father was Wilson. She had brothers John Wilson, James Wilson and sister Agnes Wilson.

Tanzania still uses that naming system which explains names like Charles Boniface, Gilbert John and Benson Gilbert.

For being a tomboy, Mary Wilson was made the class monitor. Among other duties, she was responsible for writing down the names of noisemakers. It was not a job for the fainthearted.

One had to be ready for the backlash from boys who wanted revenge. Quite an intimidating scenario? Not for Mary Wilson.

She could challenge boys to a fight.

One afternoon on our way home from school, my friend Maurice picked up the gauntlet. Mary simply drew a line on the ground and dared Maurice to cross. He did.

What followed was a flurry of blows and punches that confused my guy. He responded with wild punches which missed the target because he had been disoriented.

By the time he became focused, it was game over. He went for the nearest weapon, his belt. Too late.

The boys cheering around prevailed by reminding him it was a fight against a girl. Hallo! Maurice lives with the shame to date.

When I watched Harambee Starlets play in Cameroon, I wished we had just one Mary Wilson in the team. Cameroon and Nigeria had several in their squads.

Anyone watching would doubt their femininity because of the way they headed the ball, tackled, ran and intimidated opponents.

I gave up each time I looked closely at the close up images when the national anthems were played. I imagined that either the other countries picked their squads from rough and tough street girls or our girls were from ‘ubabini’ (upmarket) not used to physical activities.

What frustrated me is how our girls appeared so meek and docile in front of the West and South African girls.

My friend Abirry Wuoche Gweno concluded that our recruiters fished from the wrong places. He said if he was the coach he would go for the Serena and Venus Williams-type of girls.

To him our girls were too ‘petit’ for competition against the grizzly West Africans. Abirry Wuoche Gweno would have recruited 22 Mary Wilsons as what the Starlets need is to draw players from naturally big and mean looking girls.  

Like boxing, soccer is a physical game where body check wins most contests for the ball. Abirry wondered why the recruiters cannot go the Manute Bol way.

The late Bol was a South Sudanese basketball legend. Somebody saw his 7ft 9in height, took him to America and taught him how to play basketball.

He became a great NBA player in the USA and a hero back home. He inspired many young South Sudanese who followed in his footsteps.

Alternatively, our basketball or volleyball clubs have very many girls who can match the West Africans pound for pound. Our basketballers and volleyballers are not as tiny as our footballers. There is a huge difference in their physicality. The former are agile, taller and well built. T

he footballers are smaller thinner and shorter. It is for Football Kenya Federation (FKF) to put its act together and go scouting in the right places including the army barracks.

We have tougher girls in the GSU, Army and Police Service who if well trained can neutralize Naija sisters.

By the way what happened to girls who come from soccer families? Should our FKF try interesting girls from soccer pedigree families to join their brothers in the game?

Really if brothers are great players, can sisters also be such good? Using the science of genetic similarities, maybe that’s the way to go.