Johannesburg’s FD Roosevelt Primary
School is 70 years old this year, which makes it one of the oldest schools to
enter the under-12 Danone Nations Cup soccer competition.
Eland Makobela, the team’s manager,
explains that he is fortunate in that the parents are fully behind their kids
and attend matches and give their kids the vital parental support they need to
build confidence. He also has four players
this year who play for clubs and they will be his key players in the
team. “They receive professional coaching and play competitively each
week. They will help the other boys,” he said.
This is the second time that the
school is playing in the Danone Nations Cup. They won their district
competition in 2014, but were eliminated at the regional level; and in 2015
they missed out because they did not enter in time.
“We have made sure that we met the
entry deadline this time and now the team has been selected and we are busy
organising matches against surrounding schools to give the players the experience
of playing competitively,” Makobela said.
FD Roosevelt is in a very competitive
district made up of 40 schools, although not all enter the Danone Nations
Cup. Makobela is not sure how many will
register this year and will find out shortly when fixtures will be announced.
The school competes in a wide range of
sporting codes and runs according to an inter-house system, which makes it
easier to organise sporting activities.
In soccer, Makobela said, they are
looking for players who are prepared to train hard, at school and on their own.
“Practise makes perfect and we expect the boys to go home and kick the ball
around,” he said.
“The Danone Nations Cup is very good
for the development of players. They learn determination and hard work.
Competing at this level gives then confidence, which helps build their
personalities.
“They must be able to interact with
other players as they will play in different teams with different players every
year – they need to adapt to new environments. They also need to understand
that not everything will go their way – they need to understand success and
failure. You won’t win everything and it’s important in life to get back
out there after a failure.”
Makobela singles out two players who
he believes will be key to the team’s fortunes this year: Jason Mcnamara is a
midfielder who plays for the Wits Youth Development under-13 team; and Koketso
Mhlabi plays for Randburg FC.
Both players see the Danone Nations
Cup as an opportunity to show what they are capable of and to make their
families and those who have helped develop them proud.
Schools have until Friday, 4 March to
register after which games at the district level will commence.
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