School aims for Kay Motsepe soccer cup

The school’s soccer coach, Thabani Nyathi, said he had no hesitation when it came to entering the team for the second year because he believes the interaction and exposure that comes with playing competitive soccer is an important educational experience for the boys.

The school is playing in the Johannesburg East cluster of the Gauteng provincial competition and their matches begin on 14 April. They will be competing against schools such as Wendywood High School, Holy Family College, Northview High School, Athlone Boys High, Queens High, Jules High and Barnato Park High.

“In the past, we participated in our local schools league only, but last year we decided that the school should play in the Kay Motsepe Schools Cup,” said Nyathi. “In this way, the players get exposed to tougher competition and to other schools with exceptionally-skilled players. We see it as a learning curve.”

Nyathi said last year the school was knocked out early in the cup, but he said the players learnt a lot. “Academics is a priority of the school so I can only select players from Grade 11 as the Grade 12 pupils need to focus on matric,” added Nyathi. “This has resulted in me having to select a completely new team this year. I have some really skilled players and I believe we can go all the way to the nationals.”

After years of playing soccer at amateur level, Nyathi decided to go into coaching. He has an advanced level 4 coaching qualification, a diploma in sports management, a cricket umpiring certificate and an athletics coaching certificate.

Nyathi likens coaching to academic teaching. “Coaching is the same as teaching because at the end of the day you need to transfer your knowledge to the players and the only way of measuring your success is by the results that they show on the field,” he explained. “I think that being a teacher is an advantage, because you use the same mechanisms you use in class on the field.”

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