Boxing coach who makes it more than just sport

MAEKA MAKOKO

Today I am with Tieho Ntulo – a prolific boxing guru in the swamps of Ha Tšosane and Motimposo right behind Motimposo Primary School.

This is where he grew up and became a man he is today.

Ntulo is not your ordinary coach. He boasts a vast boxing experience both as a boxer in his yester years and currently as coach of his former team while growing up.

At 44, he tells me he has been in boxing for 17 years, much of those as a boxer of note and later a coach.

I talk to him about his life and experience in the boxing world, and to put him at ease I start by asking a rather rib-tickling question – more of the obvious.

“Do you have a wife?” I ask him.  He bubbles forth with a smile.

“Yes I do. I have three children already. Do I look single?” he gets back to me.

In our norm of journalism – we ask questions and get answers and that is what I came to meet him for, I let him know.

“Ok,!” another smile.

“Tell me about your boxing experiences, when, where and how did you start?”

I get him to start a long journey of his sporting life, which has eventually landed him a solid post as Tšosane Boxing Club coach and double many times as a National Boxing coach with two or three others.

Ntulo walks in the footsteps of legends like Tšosane Boxing Club coach, the late Chaka Moekoa who died in 2021 after he was shot dead at night outside his home by unknown assailants, just after he returned from training.

At Tšosane Boxing Club Moekoa produced some of this country’s best boxing gems such as the late Mosolesa ‘Fire’ Tsie, Sephula Letuka, Sebusiso Keketsi, Tello Moejane, Moses Kopo and Arena Pakela, amongst others.

“I started to like boxing from a fairly tender age. Around my home area of Motimposo we have always had a boxing team and I guess that is where I garnered the interest in the sport both as recreation and a possible career,” Ntulo narrates.

He says from his family of five he is number three.

His brother Poloko Ntulo, who is a military man and a taekwondo star who is also a national coach, was his model growing up. This is his eldest brother.

Poloko has, beginning 1996, battled in national colours in the taekwondo World Championships, the World Cup, the Military World Championships, the Military World Games and a number of Continental Tournaments from which he has amassed enough medals and recognition to cement his place as a great fighter with a respectable career ranking.

“He would occasionally while growing up do boxing,” Ntulo says with a grim smile albeit a happy one.

It is this same brother who would later spur him to join boxing and go far with it.

“My brother Poloko liked watching me do my best. I think he made me like the sport, maybe more than I would not have – given how and where I grew up. My mother was very opposed to me joining boxing. She would say it was a bad sport where people fight and so on.

Early then boxing appeared as a fight – I think the perspective has changed,” he says before I interrupt.

“Was it only your mother who opposed or even the community?”

“No the community has always had boxing. Many I think – welcomed it a something to occupy us – kids – then from crime and other things.”

Ntulo attended Motimposo primary and many high schools around while pursuing his education which didn’t go far.

He would later be absorbed in the ‘sport of fists’ as he calls it in local Sesotho.

In this area crime and thuggery was rife when he grew up. He would have none of it, and simply cut a niche for him in a sport not many welcomed then.

“Is it the same spirit – the same reason you have in encouraging young ones for this sport?” I further ask.

“Yes,” he is quick respond.

“I became a coach because I believe the sport can and does have positive impact on people’s lives. A lot happened in my teen years. Personally I didn’t like a lot of things but I saw fellow youngsters take bad routes, make bad choices in life. I wish for the kids growing now in this area not to get into that. They like me, they like boxing – its good it occupies them.”

He goes on and on before I interrupt him – well – again.

“Your own children – are they into this same sport or another?”

“That’s my eldest there.”

He points to his daughter joining the others at a distance to train together.

“She doesn’t have much interest but she comes. I have not asked her to. It’s something all of them – kids – in this area see as positive,” he brags lightly.

I ask him to tell me how he came to be a coach.

“I was in the boxing team and I think I did well. The coach liked me. One time he invited me to a coaching course. We came back certified. And that was it, I then worked alongside him.

“Currently I have about 20 kids that I am mentoring. They come from places – some not from here. I have been coach for – I think seven years. Many have gone to become better persons from my hands,” he narrates with and occasional smile.

Do you ever go to competitions anywhere?” I ask.

“Yes – the boxing world has many such competitions. Last year my team won at Qacha’s Nek. We competed against many teams and we came back proud…” I interrupt again.

“Any medals?”

He laughs, “my team came out best in the competition. Come December 7 we are going to Qacha to defend the trophy.

“We got medals from Durban where we competed in the Mandela Boxing Cup with the national team. We got a gold medal, five bronze – two for boys and three for girls – and a silver. I was very proud. They did well and represented boxing in Lesotho.

We went there with the national team but as a coach I had concrete input in the choice and training – general coaching of our boxers. I will give you the pictures that captured that moment.”

“Recently the same team that I coach nationally came back from Montenegro – October 17 to November 6. I didn’t go because of financial constraints. They went with one coach but they made us all proud,” Ntulo said.

His team and the local boxers are looking forward to the AUSC Region 5 Youth Games in Namibia in June 2025 where he has high hopes for an emphatic representation.

“Boxing and coaching, does it pay?” I ask with a determined look at him.

“No, there is no money here – it’s just a sport,” he states.

“So how do you live apart from boxing?” I further inquire.

 “I do some farming – a little here and there to survive.”

Ntulo later tells me his farming includes livestock – piggery and vegetable farming.

How far his family supports his mission in boxing was my last question to which he amicable responds, “fully –fully. My wife supports me, and even like the kids I coach.”

Ntulo completes our talk saying the recognition by the community at large gives him strength and determination to help the kids in his area.

“At times their parents come to talk to me about their behavioral challenges. As coach I have many coats – I also act as a parent to guide them on which choices are good and which are bad.

The level of trust the kids have in me makes it easier for them to look up to me for good advice as well.”