Holy Trinity School are the new Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup Gauteng champions

There is a new Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup Gauteng champion – Holy Trinity School of Pretoria. They beat Thaba Jabula Secondary School, from Soweto, 3-0 in the provincial final at the Giant Stadium in Soshanguve on the weekend to walk off with R100 000 to spend on legacy projects at their school.  They also get to play in the national finals and will be vying for the R1 million that goes to the national champions.

Not a bad result from a school that is competing in the competition for the first time, said an exuberant team manager, Patrick Maubane.  But he does go on to admit that many of the players, who are part of the Supersport United Youth Academy, competed for Rosina Sedibane last year.

Holy Trinity beat defending provincial and national champions, Clapham High School, 1 – 0 in their first game of the day and, according to Maubane, after the win he knew they were on their way to the provincial title. “That was the game that we were most nervous about when we saw the fixtures, but the team managed to secure a win and we knew from that point on that we were going to win the provincials. We knew that Clapham was the school to beat coming into the playoffs.”

There were great celebrations at the school on Monday when a special assembly was held in the team’s honour.

Maubane said they know the upcoming nationals are going to be tough. “We plan on sticking to the same game plan as the provincials, taking each game as it comes. Beating the defending champions means that the other schools at the national finals will be eyeing us out,” he said. “We need to up our game and make sure that we train hard every day.”

The coach singled out centre back, Makhwemkodwa Ntlanyana, as a key player for the team. Makhwemkodwa was happy with his performance, but feels he could have played better. “I let my nerves get the better of me in that first game. Playing the champions intimidated me, but my team mates were behind me and I think that’s why we managed to win.  We are friends first and that helps a lot.”

After the first game Makhwemkodwa said he settled down and the whole team got better as the day went on.

Makhwemkodwa knows the nationals are going to be tough and he said they need to start planning for them now, while they are still eager and fired up. “We need to focus on training and make sure that we fix things that need to be fixed in the team.”

He was spotted by the Supersport Academy scouts in 2012 while playing for a local Tshwane club.  He successfully passed trials and has been part of the Academy ever since,  and learning something new every day. “I have had a lucky break and I am working very hard to show them that they made an excellent choice with me and I can help make the club a success. I hope to be playing in the first team shortly.  I want to become a professional player so it’s my priority at the moment,” he said. “I would love to study in the future, but that will only happen once my career has taken off.”

In accordance to the Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup rules, both teams that play in each provincial final will go on to the national finals.  So Thaba Jabula, boosted by 3 players from Kaizer Chiefs Academy, will be joining Holy Trinity High School at the national finals scheduled for 5 – 9 October.

Gauteng Provincial Finals Results

Clapham 0 vs Holy Trinity 1

East Bank 2 vs Waterstone 0

MOM Seboni 3 vsKgoroyaThuto 0

Thaba Jabula 3 vs IR Lesolang 0

Holy Trinity 4 vs East Bank 0

Waterstone 1 vs Clapham 2

KgoroyaThuto 1 vsThabaJabula )

IR Lesolang 3 vs MOM Seboni 0

East Bank 1 vs Clapham 4

Holy Trinity 2 Waterstone 0

Thaba Jabula 2 vs MOM Seboni 1

KgoroyaThuto 3 vs IR Lesolang 0

Final – Holy Trinity 3 Thaba Jabula 0

Ends

About the Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup:

·           The tournament is run under the auspices of the South Africa Football Association (SASFA)

   Named after prominent businessman Patrice Motsepe’s late mother, the Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup offers the biggest prize money at school level in Africa (R3.4 million in total). 

·           The sponsors are:  Sanlam, the Motsepe Foundation and the Sanlam Ubuntu-Botho Community Development Trust.

·           The primary objective of the tournament is to revive the culture of school football amongst students between the age of 16 and 19 years old.

·           The tournament also gives players the opportunity to showcase their skills to soccer scouts with the talented players being recruited into development structures to be nurtured and shaped into professional players.