Archie Mbolekwa Public School pupils returned from the inter-district sub-section of the Metropolitan South African Schools Football Association (Sasfa) U16 Cup play-offs with brand-new soccer kit.
Archie Mbolekwa Public School pupils returned from the inter-district sub-section of the Metropolitan South African Schools Football Association (Sasfa) U16 Cup play-offs with brand-new soccer kit.
Representing Cacadu District, they competed in this leg of the national competition held in Matatiele last weekend. Although they didn't win, the local school team returned with new uniforms, water bottles, kit bags and a reserve-team kit.
The players also came home with a winning attitude and renewed drive to keep improving their team. They made the jump from reaching the local finals last year to playing in the provincial play-offs in 2013. "We were very excited, it's not every day that our learners get to express their talents at a provincial level," said teacher-coach, Mandilakhe Klaas.
They started training for this competition last year already, Klaas said, after being knocked out of the 2012 Makana finals. "Planning in advance helped us reach this level."
"We are very happy to see the learners do this well," said caretaker-coach, Yivani Ncwadi. "We participated in the Rhodes University U19's league so that our U16s could be used to playing with older players," he said, adding that the school team came second in the university-level league.
U16 captain and mid-fielder Lindokuhle Mdoko said they'd aimed to win the provincial Metropolitan tournament, "but we are still strong and positive".
"We are planning for next year already and we want to come home as champions," the captain said.
Klaas said Archie Mbolekwa plans to enter teams into the five big Sasfa schools' tournaments next year: the U12 Danone league, U13 Milo league, U14 McDonald's league, U15 Coca-Cola league and the U16 Metropolitan tournament.
The school winning the national competition wins R1 million.
