Malcomess Senior Secondary School through to the provincial finals for the 3rd time

Malcomess Senior Secondary School of Aliwal North will be making their third appearance in the Eastern Cape provincial finals of the Kay Motsepe Schools Cup, sponsored by the Motsepe Foundation and Sanlam, on 15^th August.  They are determined to progress to the national finals, something they failed to do in previous provincials.

Malcomess beat Sibabalwe Senior Secondary School on penalties in the Geo Gqabi regional finals that took place this week.

Their coach, Tieho Rantho, believes it will be different this time because they have an exciting new team, and they are better prepared. “Last year unfortunately we were knocked out in the earlier stages of the tournament, but there are some excellent players in the new team and I know we will go far.  Our captain, Mawethu Mahe is the only player that was part of the 2013 and 2014 team. He is the only 19 year old in the team as the rest are 16 and 17 years old.”

Rantho is proud of his players who beat other teams made up mostly of 19 year olds and were much taller and bigger than his boys.  “I am confident and believe in this team. They have done remarkably well this year.”

Rantho said the regional playoffs this year were the toughest they have played in. There was little to choose between the teams and few clear winners in the games. “Schools from our district have certainly become more challenging than they have been before; there definitely is progress out there. The fact that we had provincial final experience didn’t threaten or intimidate our opposition; in fact it made them want to prove a point to us.”

Rantho has studied Sports Psychology and Sports Management at Unisa and has been coaching at Malcolmess since 2004. Current Kaizer Chiefs player Bangani Ndulula, came though his hands at the school.

He believes that studying sports psychology has improved his coaching. “I am able to tap into the players’ minds and help them understand and improve their game mentally,” he said. “Coaching is broad in a sense that it’s not just about training the physical body, it’s also about training the players’ minds and emotions.”

The school is now preparing for the provincials, and the coach will be working on the attack. “We missed opportunities to score goals, but I am not worried about the defence There won’t be any tweaking of the side, I am happy with how they played at the regionals,” he said. “But we will be soliciting help from local coaches as we need to be better prepared this time around if we want to win the provincials. We want to represent Eastern Cape at the national finals this year and the players believe that they can do a much better job than previous provincial winners.”  

Regional Playoffs Results

Mount Fletcher Sports Grounds, 16^th May 2015

Sibabalwe 1 vs Tlokweng 1

Ethembeni 1 vs Malcomess 2

Sibabalwe v1 s Ethembeni 3

Malcomess 1 vs Tlokweng 1

Ethembeni 1 vs Tlokweng 1

Final

Malcomess 0 vs Sibabalwe 0 (Malcolmess won on penalties).