The team enters the scene when the race for honours is expected to be a tight affair. The playoff spot has been scrapped and one team will automatically secure promotion to the elite league.
There are household names in the second-tier league including Mochudi Centre Chiefs, Notwane and Uniao Flamengo Santos. Extension Gunners, Prisons XI and Mogoditshane Fighters' drop will intensify the competition in the league.
In addition, there are resourced sides such as CRACKiT City Polar and Young Stars in the second tier. Hawks have entered the 12 teams chase for a single promotion spot and the club is determined to survive the drop in their first season. “If you look at it, you have to finish eighth or seventh to survive. So our resources will be diverted. It will take a lot to achieve that but we believe in our players, fans, technical team and executive (committee). We have been together for a long time and with the same fire and support in the just-ended season and we will be hoping to carry that into the First Division,” Hawks’ general manager, Hassan Stoffel told Mmegi Sport.
Hawks won the Gaborone City Regional Division 1 League to qualify for the Southern Block playoffs. In the promotional playoffs held in Jwaneng, Hawks won the contest by eight points from four games. The team won twice and played to a draw on two occasions while finding the back of the net on four occasions. It was their second attempt in the playoffs after failure on their first attempt in 2022. “We had the longest season. Our first game was to be played in August and we had pre-season (preparations) for about 12 weeks instead of six to eight weeks, as we started the league in November. So that means we had to play around six or seven games before December and just around 24 in the next year. At some point, we had to play 13 games in eight weeks.” “So you can imagine how much of a tight schedule it was.
We had moments towards the end of the season where results were not coming and that was because of issues like fatigue coming in but through our technical team we managed; player rotation also helped.
In the playoffs, we were one of the strongest and fittest teams that was mainly due to how well the technical team was,” Stoffel said. He credited changes in the boardroom for the just-ended campaign's success. Stoffel said a new executive committee brought in a more organised structure. In addition, there is backing from Sefalana, C-Track, FC45, UB, O3, and AM-Group. “We came back determined and ensured that we replace all the key players we lost in the two transfer window periods. We had other changes, we had a new executive committee; we had a more organised structure leaving the technical team to focus on coaching and the executive focusing on issues,” Stoffel said. Desert Nxau join UB Hawks as the new faces in the league.
