Nkunzimbini
Junior Secondary School gets the chance to go for a long-standing dream on
Saturday – to qualify for the national finals of the U-12 Danone Nations
Cup. The school is from Nyandeni Libode Municipality in the Eastern Cape and is
one of seven Schools playing in the Eastern Cape provincial finals on Saturday
May 25 at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium, East London. Games commence at 9am.
Nkunzimbini
has been playing in the tournament since 2000 but has never made it to the
national finals before. Team coach Gideon Maqokolo says they have been
hard at work preparing for Saturday. They train twice a week for two
hours, and have been using whatever spare time they can get to put in some
extra training. The weekends have been used for friendly matches against
local teams so that the players can get used to playing competitive football.
“Many of the kids lack confidence which is a problem I am working on,” says
Maqokolo. “I am trying to get them to forget about specialising on one position
at this stage as that limits them.”
Maqokolo
says he does not want to single out players in the team as everyone is
important. “Often people rely on their strikers, but the game of football is
not just about the goal-scorer. The build-up to the scoring opportunity is just
as important. If you single out a player, and he gets injured, it can affect
the rest of the players and their morale. To me everyone is important.”
Coaching
a team like this is not easy and Maqokolo tells the story of one of his players
whose father has more than one wife. His mother is the wife who is neglected
and not supported by his father. “This strains him emotionally and I have
encouraged him to open up so that this doesn’t affect his performance,”
Maqokolo says. “I sometimes take him home with me and he sleeps over at my
place because all my players are like my own children and it is my duty to
groom them mentally and physically so that the tournament can benefit them in
all aspects.”
Nkunzimbini
Junior Secondary has played in many tournaments including represented South
Africa in Ghana in 2010. The school recently won the netball provincial
tournament for the Eastern Cape.
Maqokolo
explains that the school’s progress in the tournament has raised the level of
interest in soccer in the community. “We have had many kids coming to join the
school soccer team, some even take it upon themselves to join us when we are
training,” he said.
The
school involves the parents of the players in all their activities as their
commitment makes it easier for the team to succeed. “We meet with them and
sometimes do house visits to parents whose children are taking part in the
competition. We all need support in doing what we love and we are trying to
make sure that the children excel at what they do,” Maqokolo says.
The
winners of Saturday’s provincial competition will play in the National Finals
in Johannesburg in June, with the eventual winners there earning the honour of
representing South Africa at the Danone Nations Cup World Finals in London in
August.
The
Nkunzimbini players are all soccer nuts and they know all about British
football and Wembley Stadium where the final day of the Danone Nations Cup will
be played this year. That is a huge motivating factor for them.