Methembe Ndlovu is arguably the best soccer player ever to pull on the Dartmouth green. He left Dartmouth to return to his homeland, Zimbabwe, where he earned the nations highest honor, captaining the national team. He made a brave decision to return to Zimbabwe last year to lead Grassroot Soccer’s HIV prevention efforts there. According to the WHO, Zimbabwe’s has the lowest life expectancy in the world and has dropped from 69 in 2000 to 35 in 2006. Everyone who can leave has left. Methembe returned.

Under his leadership the Grassroot Soccer Zimbabwe program has flourished, in large part due to a partnership with Highlanders, one the nations most popular teams. In return for Methembe’s coaching services, GRS has access to all the players (pro’s and Highlanders youth), the Highlanders games for graduation ceremonies and their facilities for conducting the HIV education program.

The partnership has paid off for Highlanders now too as 2 days ago Methembe became the youngest coach ever to win a Zimbabwe national title. The Dartmouth-Highlanders/Zimbabwe connection is a strong one. Dartmouth graduates Andrew Shue, Jesse Bradley, Tommy Clark, Geoff Wheeler, Brian Wiese, Chris Mitchell and former coach Bobby Clark have been involved with the club.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 at 8:50 pm .