Manthatisi High School from
Theseng Village, Witsieshoek are the Thabo Mofutsanyane District winners in the
Free State division of the under-19 Kay Motsepe Schools Cup, sponsored by the
Motsepe Foundation and Sanlam, and they will be going to the provincial finals
later this year.
This is the 1st time
that the school has advanced to this stage of the competition, despite entering
each year since 2010, and John Hlohlongwane, the team’s manager, puts it down
to really hard work this time.
“Since 2010 the school has been
knocked out in the early stages of the tournament every year,” he said. “With
working hard we have managed to finally reach the provincial finals. I really
commend the team for putting in 110% in training and in their matches. They
have really worked hard and from the beginning of the year and I could tell
that the team were determined to win.”
There is a good attitude in the
players, Hlohlongwane said, and should they continue like this they should do
well in the provincials.
“It’s been a tough road to make
it to the finals. We have played 17 games already from cluster level, through
to the regional play offs, and the players have risen to the occasion. I would
have to say that the team’s determination and hard work definitely helped them
win all those games,” he said.
The team suffered a major setback
when their coach for the past 7 years, Thabo “Troussier” Maboea, sadly
passed away recently. “He is the one responsible for the team’s success,”
Hlohlongwane said. “He worked tirelessly in training and grooming the boys. We
don’t have a coach at moment and are in the process of getting one of the local
coaches to help us. Once that happens we will begin our preparations for the
provincial finals.”
The team has won through to the
provincial finals for the first time and the coach knows that the boys will be
a bit nervous. “However, we know that Harmony High School, the team that has
been dominating in this tournament, has been knocked out and with them gone
it’s looking very possible that we might actually win the provincials,”
Hlohlongwane said.
“We have beaten the stronger
schools in our district including Ntsu high School, who competed in the
nationals in 2010 as well as Tlokola Secondary School who went to the nationals
last year. HTS Louis Botha is also a strong school, although last year they
didn’t even make it through the provincials.”
Results
Manthatisi 1 vs Evungweni 1
Leifo-Iziko 0 vs Tlokola 0
Evungwini 0 (1) vs Manthatisi 0
(3)
Leifo-Iziko 0 vs Ntsu 2
Tlokola 2 vs Ntsu 0
Final
Manthatisi 1 (7) vs Tlokola 1 (6)
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