Witu is only Highlander to coach NSL soccer team

COMING from a background where rugby league is a religion, it is quite fascinating how Matthew Witu became the only Highlander to coach a semi-professional National Soccer League team.
Witu, 42, from Kagua in Southern Highlands, is the head coach of new Kumul Petroleum NSL franchise FC Kutubu. He is also the former assistant coach of champion club Hekari United.
He has been involved in three sports – rugby league, kickboxing and soccer.
Growing up in the Highlands, rugby league was a lifestyle and Witu started playing while attending community school in Kagua in the early 1990s. He continued playing rugby league in Ialibu and Kagua leagues until he completed his grade 12 at Ialibu Secondary School in 2001.
Witu also had a stint with kickboxing during his rugby league days. Being a son of the Kagua-Erave electorate kickboxing was also another popular sport in that part of the country after the success of local boy Stanley Nandex.
He represented Southern Highlands in number of national championships from 1999-2003 in the 70kg division.
However Witu’s switch to “world game” was in 2003 when he received a phone call from John Kapi Natto, who asked him to join POM Souths in the new Port Moresby Soccer Association (PMSA) competition.
“I never had any dreams of playing or even coaching soccer early in my life,” Witu said.
“The only sport I knew growing up was rugby league and bit of kickboxing because of the influence of Stanley Nandex.
“It was the phone call from Kapi Natto that made me join soccer and my interest in the sport grew from there.”
Witu played as a right defender for POM Souths for two seasons (2003-2004). His career as a coach began in 2005 when he attended a soccer coaching clinic and received a certificate at the National Sports Institute (NSI) in Goroka.
In his first year as a coach, Witu led the Under-21 POM Souths team to the PMSA grand final where they lost to University.
Witu was then elevated to the coaching role as an assistant of PRK Souths (now Hekari United) in the inaugural NSL season in 2006.
After back-to-back premierships with PRK Souths, Witu was appointed head coach of new NSL franchise Besta United which saw them finished third in his maiden season.
He then had short stints with Welgris Highlanders (2009-2010 season) and Oro FC (20013-2014 season) as head coach before being recalled back to Hekari United in 2015.
This year he steered the team from the Hekari Soccer Association of Kutubu into their first ever Besta FA Cup appearance which saw them win the Highlands leg of the qualifiers and finished third in the final leg in Lae last month.
The association’s success in their maiden Besta Cup appearance impressed Kapi Natto who backed Kutubu’s inclusion in the 2019/2020 Kumul Petroleum NSL season with Witu being given the reins as head coach.
“It has never been easy coaching teams over the years,” Witu admits.
“I come across youths with different characters, backgrounds and personalities.
“I had to not only tell them what to do on the field but off the field as well. I had to be a mentor, giving them advice on what’s important in life and the awareness of what’s bad,” he said.
“It’s been 14 years since I first started coaching, I have learned a lot being an assistant to Hekari coach Jerry Alan for a good number of years.
“It will be a tough challenge to steer our new team Kutubu but I believe in the talent we have back home in Southern Highlands.
“We always play our hearts out in every game with pride and passion and that’s what brought us this far. We will maintain that team culture and bonding going into our first season in the NSL,” Witu said.
Witu thanked their major sponsor Kapi Natto, who is committed to the development of soccer in Kutubu and Southern Highlands. FC Kutubu will be backed by Kapi Natto’s company Kutubu Security Services (KSS).