The
Northern Cape provincial finals in the under-15 COPA Coca-Cola football
competition take place at the Douglas Stadium in Douglas on Saturday, June 23
(kickoff at 9.30am).
This
is the seventh of the nine provincial finals, with the nine eventual winners
going through to the national finals in Johannesburg from July 12 to 14.
Defending
champions, Kakamas High School from the Siyanda Region will be back again this
year. This is the third time the school is participating in COPA Coca-Cola and
the third time they have reached the provincial finals, twice going on to
represent the province in the National Finals finishing in 7th position in 2010
and 9th position in 2011.
Kakamas
coach, Andries Kampher, who has been coaching the school team for the past
three years, says the COPA Coca-Cola tournament has helped the school interact
more with their neighbouring schools because now they all train during the week
and play matches against each other over weekends which is something they don’t
normally do.
There
is no local Schools league, although five players from his team play for local
club teams to get match practise.
Kampher
believes striker, Guwaan Magied, will be their key player on Saturday. "He
is very fast and always listens to instructions." The team's captain, Lee-Irvine Vries will
also play a crucial role on Saturday.
“He reads the game well, has excellent leadership qualities and is a
good ball distributor.”
Vries
is looking forward to Saturday mainly to gauge how other teams in the province
play. "This is going to be a great platform to meet other inspiring young
footballers and hopefully we will learn a lot from each another."
Revaldo
Coetzee competed in the 2011 COPA Coca-Cola provincial final and was spotted by
a scout from Ajax Cape Town and is now part of the Club’s Development
structure.
The
other schools participating in the Northern Cape finals are: Steinkopf High
School from Namaqualand Region, Baiteredi High School from John Taolo Gaetsewe
Region, Veritas Hugh School from Pixley ka Seme Region and a school from
Frances Baard still to be selected.
