Kingswood Pre-primary is the latest school to join the Little Kickers family, a fast-growing international soccer club franchise with branches across four continents.
Kingswood Pre-primary is the latest school to join the Little Kickers family, a fast-growing international soccer club franchise with branches across four continents.
The idea behind this fun-first football programme is to kick obesity to the curb. And contrary to the name, the dent it’s made in the health department is anything but tiny.
Lacking physical activity is a major reason for alarming childhood obesity statistics that have been recorded worldwide. According to the National Household Food Consumption Survey by the Medical Journal Research Council, 17.1% of South African children between the ages of one and nine living in urban areas are overweight.
Using soccer as playground currency, trained and certified coaches help toddlers (2-4 years) and school kids (up until age 8) to find their feet – quite literally.
Portuguese coach and life-long sports enthusiast, Cristiana Da Costa, runs two informal yet professional weekly training sessions at Kingswood. “We really just want the kids to have fun, but with better co-ordination and added confidence,” she said. “With any luck, who knows, we might just be witnessing the making of the next Ronaldo.”
Da Costa, who runs the Little Kickers head office in the region, has been based in Grahamstown for the past five years. Plans to branch out to other schools are high on her priority list. “Annually we have a mini soccer tournament in Johannesburg,” she said, but the Grahamstown teams aren’t big enough to participate just yet.
“But it’s definitely something we’re working towards,” Da Costa said.
