BARKERVILLE, 2011 DANONE NATIONS CUP CHAMPIONS, WIN THROUGH TO THE EP PROVINCIAL FINALS

On Saturday, June 2, at East London’s Mdantsane Sisa Dukashe Stadium, Barkerville Primary School from the remote Mount Frere district of the Eastern Cape will be travelling to East London to meet the other regional winners in the under-12 Danone Nations Cup provincial finals.

The nine provincial champions will go on to meet at the national finals in July and the winner there will be going to the Danone Nations Cup World Finals in Warsaw, Poland in September.

The Barkerville boys don’t get away much – they live in an isolated part of the country, where they have no electricity or running water, and it’s 10km to what could, with a bit of imagination, be called the nearest town.

Yet, the last time the Barkerville Primary School team played out of the district it was at the famous Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, the home of Real Madrid.

Barkerville were the 2011 South African Danone Nations Cup champions. They came though the Eastern Cape playoffs and the National Finals to earn their place in the international competition in Madrid. They finished halfway down the rankings there – an admirable achievement given where they came from - but more importantly, they learned footballing and life lessons that they will never forget.

One year down the line much has changed and much has stayed the same in rural Barkerville. The school’s football field is still a dusty patch with homemade wooden goalposts, and the players still go down to a nearby stream to get a drink during water breaks in training.

But the four players from last year’s team that are still at school, and coach Mpilo Caga, have seen what the best looks like and have played where the giants of the game play, and Caga is doing his best to make some changes.

For Caga, the Madrid experience has meant the world. He says he learnt how important it is to pay attention to all aspects of the game at training - the mechanical movements, body positioning, balance and technique. “In the past training sessions were all about running and kicking the ball forward,” he says “Now we warm up properly and our practices have an aim and a structure.” Caga has a coaching qualification in cricket but not football.

Caga has formed the Barkerville Football Club and has been instrumental in setting up the Shinta Development Local Football Association League, in which the club plays. The team walks 5km to their matches and practices  at Kwa Shinta which is also a rural area but with better playing ground conditions.

Barkerville is the best-supported club in the community. “The four players who went to Spain last year have become celebrities,” Caga says, “the people come to see the beautiful football they play. The most important lesson for them has been to play in their positions as opposed to just chasing the football around the field.  They have learnt to trust their team mates and work as a team.  Further, their eating habits have also changed.  They all prepare their own food before games.”

There are still many challenges, but Barkerville’s participation at the Danone World finals in Madrid has inspired the community, and galvanised coach, Mpilo Caga into action, meeting those challenges head-on.

Schools that have qualified are:

Region	School
Alfred Ndzo	Barkerville jss
Amathole	Carly jss
Cacadu	Bhongweni sps
Chris Hani	Ntabelanga ps
Joe Gqabi	Maruping ps
N.Mandela Metro	Imbasa ps
O.R.Tambo	Nkunzimbini jss