Olympian launches academy

Chris Theko

February 21, 2022

Maseru-Olympian Moroke Mokhotho launched an Academy called Rocket Sports Academy (ROSA) which is in partnership with Lesia High School.

A community based organization established to bring together people living in the Ha Thetsane area Maseru, through physical activities, ROSA is said to at this point be a pilot phase focused on only two sporting codes Badminton and Boxing for now, with plan abreast to include more with time.

Speaking at the event held at the Thetsane office park in Maseru today, Mokhotho said that the academy will also provide inclusive physical activities for members of society as a means to combat the alarming rise of criminal activities in and around the area. 

“In order to be inclusive of other sectors of society, not limited to the elderly, women, children and people living with disability, ROSA will provide fitness activities meant to combat the alarming criminal activities happening at Thetsane and neighboring villages and promoting social cohesion,” Mokhotho said.

As an athlete and international boxer that has represented Lesotho in a number of competitions around the world including the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil, Mokhotho said he has always been aware of the lack of development structures in boxing and other sports codes hence he decided to launch the academy.

“As a boxer myself, over the years, I have experienced challenges and successes and on the challenges I realized that in our country there was lack of development in the country hence I decided then that I will contribute to changing that situation in sporting codes that I could,” he said.  

The 31-year-old started playing boxing in 2008 and eventually made it into the national team since 2011. He hinted that 2022 could be his last competitive year as a professional boxer after the Birmingham Commonwealth games scheduled to take place in England. 

The launch saw the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ROSA and Lesia High School where Mathafeng Moteuli the principal, represented the school. 

The MoU is not the first one that Lesia High School signs with a sports organization. The first time they got in such was back in 2014 when they had an agreement with the Federation of Lesotho Rugby (FLR)

“It is not a surprise that ROSA has come to us because amongst other reasons is that we are a sports school apart from academics and when we do something we go all in, not one foot in one foot out. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, Lesia High School builds a child in totality. We don’t only work on their academics but also spiritually, intellectually, physically which is why we are here and ROSA came to the right place,” said Moteuli.

The MoU states that Lesia High School will provide training space for a period of three years while ROSA will provide technical support to the academy athletes who will be meeting weekday 4pm to 6:30pm.

Lesia is currently the country’s Schools Rugby Champions in the girls’ league while holding silver position in the boy’s league.

So far the academy has 25 boxers who are boys and girls while badminton has seven girls with the numbers expected to increase as it welcomes more athletes.