Africa-Press – Namibia. DEUTSCHER Turn und Sportverein (DTS) celebrated its 60th anniversary last Saturday with a day full of social activities at its Olympia premises.
The club was established in 1961 when it offered gymnastics and swimming as sporting codes, but new codes were gradually incorporated.
Football was added as a code in 1965 and volleyball in 1977, before several more were added in the Eighties. They included tennis in 1982, fistball and wind surfing in 1983, and shooting in 1985.
A new club house was also inaugurated in 1983, while tennis courts were constructed two years later. Softball and baseball were added as sporting codes in 1991, while the foundation stone for a multipurpose hall was laid the following year.
Handball was added in 1994 and indoor hockey the following year, while inline hockey was established in 1996, beach volleyball in 2001, and curling in 2005.
Some of those codes have fallen by the wayside, but they now offer inline hockey, field hockey, volleyball, soccer, beach volleyball and tennis. Axel Dainat, the chairperson of the club said it was a special milestone achieved in difficult times.
“To be celebrating our 60th anniversary is a great achievement for us, and especially after these difficult Covid-times, to get so many people here is special.
You can feel the emotions of the people, wishing that this whole thing disappears and that we can continue with normal activities, so this was very important for us as a club and we are celebrating and looking forward to another 60 years,” he said.
“We’ve gone through our ups and downs over the years, but I’d say some of the highlights include when we expanded.
We always expanded in a very mature manner, we never got a loan from financial institutions, but we said if we don’t have the money in the bank we won’t develop and I think this is what makes us so strong.
But we are also a family-orientated club, so everything is not just about business, it’s about family issues and sticking together,” he added. Executive committee member Michaela Teetz said her involvement with the club started long ago and also emphasised the family aspect of the club.
“I’ve been involved with the club virtually since I was a baby, we were always next to the volleyball fields and then I started playing inline hockey, so I’ve been involved with the club for a long time.
I have been playing inline hockey for about 17 years and it’s very important for me to keep the club going, to keep on developing it and to get the youth involved, which I think we have been doing very well over the past few years.
“But it’s like a family – it’s not just a club where you come and do your sport, we always sit and socialise, it doesn’t matter which division or code you play, everyone comes together and at the end of the day we all support each other and everybody has a lot of fun,” she added.
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