 We are still on air. Good afternoon and welcome back to the touch line. My name is Max Oluwaseke. This afternoon we catch up with Paul Bitoka, a renowned volleyball coach now in acting capacity as the tactician for the national women's team, Malkia Strikas, and he did tremendously well overseas with the Rwandese national team. Getting full support of Paul Pagame, the president of the Republic of Rwanda, and I'm going to start with that question. Do you think it's high time we can get support from the president here if our sport has to grow? Yes, I think it is possible because the first time we visited the state house when we were going for the flak off to Morocco, I personally greeted him and I told him I'm back from Rwanda and he was surprised. He didn't know that I was in Rwanda, so I got blessings and I think yesterday, PS himself said that he's looking forward to request president to give me the contract as a coach of Malkia Strikas. So that means we are talking of the two presidents who are giving me the blessings. You had hinted of your exit from the scene of being the tactician of Malkia Strikas saying that probably in the future I will offer an advisory role. Do you think the intervention of PS Ambassador Kirimi Kaberia might enable you to rescind your earlier decision? For sure, when I came back from Rwanda, it was about what I was coming to do. I didn't expect to be the coach for the women. I was thinking that I'm coming into the Kenyan Folafederation in different capacity. So I told you earlier that I'm planning to have the national league to be played inside a youth and junior to be introduced in men and women. Unfortunately they called me and being called by the government to assist a team all the time I'm always ready and I took over the Malkia Strikas and helped them for these two months. When I came back I told them that it seems now it is like a job and we have to sit down if I have to do something with you. I wanted to be a consultant or to give them advice and to help them in a different way but we met two days ago with the president of the Kenyan Folafederation and also the PS was with us and they are looking for they saw that there is something that has changed from the team and the results is coming in. They felt that I should continue as the coach so that's why we are still negotiating and I think we will finish soon. Fredopenda, I know you are an ardent lover of volleyball as a sport and you are keenly following the proceedings of FIVB World Cup in Japan. Kenya managed to pick a win against Cameroon but the most important thing the learning cup from the championship was the coming out of young talent Sharon Chepchumba starring in the entire championship. What do you think the realisation of new talent to replace the aging Genwa Shuja Netwaja Masimoim is more important than the results? Exactly, we call it the change of God, old God. When we have the new talent as we have been discussing with the guru himself Paul Bitok is the most important thing, the most positive thing that maybe I know as he was saying when he was coming back he was saying that he had some ideas that he needed to help them maybe now he can tell us because you need to have a system to be able to get these results and the new talent. Now it's up to him now to explain to us maybe he has a vision what are the strategies maybe Mr. Paul Bitok that you were thinking of now getting the new talent into the limelight of the nation First of all we have a problem of basics you always hear that we are problem of reception, problem of blocks, service this one is coming out of what we are doing every day as a Kenyan football federation I myself retired in 2004 as a player we used to play Eldoret, Kisumu, Nakuru and we are still doing the same I thought I was talking to the chairman I told him we have to change, we have to play indoor we have problem of reception because we are playing our matches out of the arena we must use indoor facilities if possible and one way we must introduce the league to be played indoor so that every day they are training indoor and also playing their matches indoor and the challenge was the sponsorship and I have gone ahead and requested a few companies and they are willing to help us and very soon we are going to announce the sponsor for next year the other thing that we are trying to come up now is the youth and junior program as you are talking about the older players being there for a very long time it's the right time now to have the youth and junior participating in the competition there was the world championship in Egypt last month Kamerun and Egypt were representing Africa we are the African champion and we are not representing Africa in the world level when it comes to youth and junior so there is something wrong now our men's team they are nowhere because we have no program for the youth and junior and I believe that if we start such programs it will bring back our men's team and also give us more chances for the women adapting the right basics when it comes to the senior level we reached there, we have good scores with big teams we reached 22 but because we have not got in reception or we didn't practice when we were young so the other team will take advantage and they will finish them much so all the time we are about to win but we are not winning because there is something lacking and as he said that now it's do you think our facilities in the Kenyan in the Kenyan environment have been a major major undoing a major undoing to us as compared to our competitors outside there because you've mentioned about the Indo facilities and is it high time now Kenyan teams can start getting exposed to such a well equipped facility so that when they are participating in overseas championships it's not a strange thing they are encountering you see we have these facilities it's only the format that we are using which is a problem if we had introduced Indo arenas or Indo league we could have already identified many Indo stadiums here I visited several when I was giving out a proposal I went to Moya base there is a very beautiful gymnasium there Parkless Bank in sports club there they have one we have Nyaya stadium it is only the scoreboard which is hanging in the middle of the code which should be removed and put aside and then we can continue using the Nyaya stadium we have Katharani so that means we are not lacking facilities it's only the format that we need to change not having our competition being played in different region and it is possible also to have in our counties when I introduced the same system in Rwanda we had only one gymnasium in Amauro stadium but as we are talking now there are four which has been built because the teams which are participating from the district level they have already built their own and out of this President Esexalins Paul Kakami decided now to build the bigger one which he launched last month and it was full to capacity of 10,000 he was regretting that he should have built maybe 20 to accommodate the people who are now enjoying the facilities of INDO so this INDO can generate also money because people will be paying to come in so that means when you are an host team you will still generate some money for your team so it is a right time for us to change and also to change the leap time format we have to change but the time of playing for the national team and also club level is different FIVB have put it clear in October to May is for club level and from May to September or October is a national team assignment so we have to differentiate the two and to give chance also the club players who have been paid by club but they are all the time with the national team and they are not playing for their clubs you have spent better part of your career in terms of coaching in Rwanda besides facilities and even goodwill commitment dedication from the government through the president himself Paul Kagami what else can Kenya learn from fellow East African compatriots in terms of growing the game back home in Rwanda minister of sports they are the sponsor of the national team you find here most of the federations they depend on other sponsors to come in to help them because minister of sports maybe they will give small amount as part of their sponsor to the national team but I am very happy before going to Morocco peers came to come and he was talking of the new system that he was trying to introduce the hotels for the national team allowances of the players to be put in the account of individual not someone preparing the money for the team and this is what has been in Rwanda for the last 10 years there when I was in Rwanda when it comes to national team a national coach because most of the coaches in Rwanda are foreigners and I was the only African coach who was coaching there and you just give out your program 21 days before the competition there is an hotel for the national team you just go and check in facilities for the court to go and look for money to pay Kassarani to use when it comes to national team arena is free for the national team so anytime that you want to train there is a facility for the national team most of the time we have to call a press to come and help us we have been locked out of Kassarani things like that so these are things which we have to change also in Kenya to allow all national team assignment to be covered by the minister of sports I know coach would agree with us that all the local tacticians who have served in overseas leagues find it lucrative and they can't come back what informed you are coming back is it giving back to the society and serving the community is it patriotism that was the driving factor I think because for sure I know Rwanda it has full privileges I really made an history in Rwanda because it was the only coach who managed to stay there for more than 2 years because the contract you signed with Rwanda you have to achieve if you don't achieve you have to get the letter of going back to your country and I thank God that I sacrificed a lot and I managed to do my best and I realized that after doing all my effort and good results from youth, junior, beach volleyball I said there is a foundation for them I have left legacy I have to go back home I need also to give back home something and that's why I was coming back home here not as a coach but to be advisor consultant or being one of the leaders to bring in my experience I played in Tunisia 4 years I was in Croatia for 4 years I have been in Rwanda I have good experience to give back the community I went to school in Eldoret I have now 12 years below who are training volleyball and also athletics so I want to lead and using my experience now to give to the nation not only to myself in Eldoret I think I will be one of the parents because Ravel, the young one who is watching might be passionate about volleyball and I will be enrolling him soon hopefully you want to be exorbitant to charge me more As long as he is tall and qualified to be one of the big players So young people stand at the tender edge at tender edge because my coaching career started when I was in Tunis my coach was a teacher and when they were in PE time you could send me some of the kids to come and play with me I could train them so I realized that those kids now they were the ones who are playing the national team of Tunisia and I say to myself give back to the community in Sima village and that's what I'm starting now When you were talking you mentioned about beach volleyball where do you place beach volleyball in the Kenyan sport? There is nothing which is impossible when I started this in Rwanda I realized that indoor the other countries are already very far but in beach volleyball started in many of the countries so I started with Rwanda in 2013 it took me only 3 years to become African champion Rwanda has been ranked first for the last 7 years in the women and men in that position The last competition that we participated in Africa Cup of Nations with me I won the women and I was second to Morocco and we qualified for the world championship which was in Germany it was unfortunate that I didn't participate with them in that competition because my contract was ending in June and the competition was in July so Rwanda they don't have beaches here we have Indian Ocean we have we are using artificial we brought sand and we started and became African champion most of the time they were writing stories about us this country of 1000 hills African champion in beach volleyball I had a chance also this year before the Moroccan trip before they were appointed me I was working with Patrick Owino with beach volleyball girls and I was trying to help them and I was very happy that they came second in this competition and I hope they will qualify for the Olympics next year I remember interviewing Waitaka Kiyoni the current president of Kenya Volleyball Federation some time back and why the male counterparts have not been performing very well both at the continental and international stages and probably the reason was that women and in particular Malika strikers do get good facilitation from even the continental body CAVB and like men I don't know whether that remains the reason for you I don't think so because when I started working with Rwanda national team I pushed the men side until we were beating Cameroon who were ranked number 3 and it's only that we started with youth and junior with the same age group that we managed to be we were ranked 4th in Africa after beating Cameroon though Cameroon was ahead of us I managed to beat Cameroon and Cameroon was participating in the world championship and you can imagine I started in second school since if we can have those youth and junior program we can bring men up to the same level when we were in Kassarand this year for son 5 Kenya played so well against Egypt they took one set there is one set they were leading 24-20 to get to the two sets today as we are talking Egypt have won two matches in the world cup the same same group which Kenya was about to beat so it's just a matter of giving them chance giving them sponsorship and they will reach there policies, systems in terms of structures at the machinani because you run a very successful championship in Amako volleyball tournament with good sponsor on board how is it like at the local level in terms of talents and especially in schools because I have covered Kenya sport secondary school games and there is immense potential in Kwanzaan in Malawa for sure school association they are doing great job it is even federation they are depending on them and I have visited several areas since I came and I'm telling you there is great potential in machinani and what I'm afraid is that these big schools that they are now the champion in East Africa or in our country they are going to a certain area to bring in players if they don't develop their own players then you will find that in future we will only have the players coming from the same region I remember one time when we were grouting the players in 2006 the group of Washu, Wangeshi we were going up to Tetu high school to select some players but now if you don't go to Rift Valley or Western then there is no any other player that you can get from Central Machakos and you find now those schools are shining 99% all those girls are coming from the western or Rift Valley it's about to naja those students who are in that school not to go to Rift Valley to poach or bring them to your school I think we can develop anyone this year as a Kishi school won the school competition but 85% of the same students they come from my village so it is affecting those students who are coming from Kishi the locals who could have gotten an opportunity and they have talent it's only chance they believe in what we have but as we just provide them with the net and the ball they are always all the time they are playing I think Fredopenda with your financial muscles and considering that you come from those areas of Kishi now that they are poaching other students from other schools to shine for them it's high time you pioneer an initiative where you have to embrace your very own actually I remember when we were in high school not even in volleyball even in football schools used to go to poach students from somewhere and they can come and shine for their schools but as as Paul Bitoko is saying it's a disadvantage actually to the locals and we should now come up with the measures to ensure that the locals also get the same chance to shine and as Bitoko was saying he wanted to come back in for consultancy really where he can give advice so in such a scenarios which advice can you give to these schools in order to help the local talent not to go outside and poach other students you see now we must have excellent centers in each region I will give you an example when I was in Rwanda I had three centers for men and three centers for boys there is a primary school competition I could go there and have their names after data of all the student at that category and then I convinced their parents to take these children to certain school and I could go around one week to train them in those schools and this is where now coming in why we should have a national coach which has a contract because you will have time to move around and to monitor and to help and advise those coaches what to do now here our scenario now the coach of the club is being appointed to come to the national team then down there there is no one who is following what they are doing so the player will come when they are 17 or 20 years they have their own style of jumping they have their style of putting their hands on the movement it becomes very difficult when it comes to the eye level so a federation must come up structure on how to develop up to those schools they must have coaches who have studied how to deal with the young players not just leaving everything open that they will have one talent which is coming from nowhere to join the national team how was the experience in Japan during FIVB World Cup it was very interesting especially to other coaches they were surprised to see Africans have really improved they are playing more than vulnerable we could give them rough time remember when I went before 2011 or 2006 they could not even call for time out they could not even substitute their players but this time you could see the coaches who are really stressed when they were playing with us and they were even telling us that you have improved a lot your way of play is different before you could find three players they are running for one bowl even we could be taken to hospital because maybe you could not each condition I was very happy each time that when we have a press conference they are really thanking us congratulating us for what we are doing they were telling us if we continue the same then it is possible for them to lose to African countries they were surprised also with Chepchumba how she is so powerful they were admiring her wondering are you seeing white lifting and Chepchumba she has never even have this kind of program of strength training which we are introducing to her and I am very happy now three or four players have been invited to go to play in Europe for professional volleyball and is the position of technical director in volleyball I think the position was introduced three or two years but if you try to ask really the role of the technical director it is not clear so I think they should sit down and know what are the roles of the technical director is it for the Malkia strikers alone or together with men to work with schools to work with coaches only because there are different roles we need to sit down and come up with certain positions which are the right ones not just the name I know there is a burning question friend of Pendo would want to ask but he is shy I know coach dealing with these ladies is sort of a challenge how manageable do you overcome the challenges associated with dealing with young ladies, vibrant, robust pretty at the beginning when you have no experience maybe it can be challenging to you but to us we have been there for a very long time we take them as a professional work you have to respect your work it is the same as the way you are here you have to respect your colleagues this one helps a lot and when you take your workers in a professional way you will never go wrong but if you mix the two then at the end of the day no one will have results because the moment you mix with those things it will be a problem for the team and all the players now which way which way forward actually I was talking to Maxwell and I said there were rumors that Bitok is once out of coaching now he wants to go into consultancy but you have told us that there are negotiations between you and the federation and all that but now another question comes in if you are not able to agree on the coaching aspect what are your plans you know I was valued very well in Rwanda they gave me a very good contract they respected the contract I worked on it and it I developed developer in Rwanda now I came back here thinking of in a different way what I should give to the Kenyan developer federation now I have several things I have to do to earn a living I am not under any contract now they are world level now they are looking forward to be in the Tokyo Olympics that means there is a lot of time which will be taken if I am the coach to be with them what am I going to be earning if I am not with them I can do some other business or do my own things so it is a bit complicated to me as much as I wish to help them I also need to earn something out of it and I am saying this to help us also in the future so that we can have a neutral coach not coming from the club we must have the contract for the coach not only me the Malika strikers is a big team they are playing world level why government cannot give a contract to the coach why should we have a contract for the coach from the ministry of sports to only football or maybe in rugby if we are playing world cup world championship at this moment and they don't have a contract coach that means if we can have an international living coach having contract with the Kenya Kenyan team that means we can move to another level so all sports disciplines will be treated equally you imagine if I am a coach for KCB and coach for Pepline and I have a chance to promote my player from Kenya Pepline to win some competition as a club I will give chance to them so to have a neutral coach is very important and then there is also respect to the players because they are not favorizing any team even in training sometimes it is very difficult you push the player because I am not coming from your club then you are pushing me you are not pushing so on so it is the right time to have a neutral coach for the Kenya team it is always a pleasure speaking to you coach this particular after knowing it has been a fantastic show having pulled the acting tactician for the national women's volleyball team alkairstrikas now in negotiations with the government through minister of sports to see whether he will be given a full time contract to take charge of the national women's team and of course he has been formally at the Rwandese national team now back home to serve the community it has been a big pleasure having you and we shall be looking forward to hear from you soon thank you Fredo Openda it has been nice enjoying and getting seated closer to the coach exactly it has been awesome having the coach we have never met before this is the first time and I like the insights the view that he has for the vulnerable fraternity inside here and the thinking I like it definitely every Saturday 1 to 3 we talking matter sports and let's continue the conversation on social media handles at Waseke Maxwell at Osorobats at Y254 channel touchline Y254 don't go away of course the program continues keep enjoying and have a sporting weekend God bless you