The under 12 Danone
Nations Cup Northern Cape Provincial Finals will take place at the Mxolisi
Dicky Jacobs Stadium in Upington on 14th April and it’s going
to be a unique experience and a big step up for most of the young footballers.
In the nature of age
group sport, players in the Danone Nations Cup move on each season and coaches
try to build their teams around the experience of the few players who are still
young enough to play in more than one tournament.
It is therefore not
unusual to find different schools appearing in the provincial and national
finals each year as it depends entirely on skills and the team combinations.
As a result, the
provincial finals often feature schools who are making their first appearances
at that level and that’s certainly the case with two of this year’s Northern
Cape provincial finalists: Gaegake Primary School of the JTG region, and
Lutzburg Intermediate School of the ZFM region.
Gaegake, from Maruping
Village, Mothibistad, will be competing in provincial finals for the first
time, a great achievement for the school that only started participating in the
Danone Nations Cup last year.
Their manager/coach is
Gilbert Mabihi, the school’s deputy principal. He has a CAF D coaching license
and is therefore well qualified for the job.
The school began its
preparations in October last year as they didn’t want to repeat their 2017
experience when they started way too late. Friendly matches were played to
ensure they were ready for the cluster level stage of the competition as well
as the regional final, where they won all four games played.
Mabihi is a firm
believer in sport as part of the educational process. “The lessons they learn
from soccer, particularly the importance of goal setting, focus, hard work and
resilience are also important for their academics,” he said.
Lutzburg Intermediate
School based is based in Kakamas and their coach, Chelsen van Wyk, explained
that they have been competing in the Danone Nations Cup for three years, but
this is the first time that they have progresses beyond the cluster level.
Unlike Gaegake,
neither Van Wyk, nor his manager, Jacob Basson, have any formal coaching
qualifications, but they have been coaching the school’s under-12’s for the
past 3 years and they are delighted to have advanced to the next stage of the
tournament. “This is part of a process which we believe will help us win the
Northern Cape title,” said Van Wyk.
There were 7 schools
in the ZFM regional playoffs with Lutzburg beating Vaalkoppies Primary in the
final. Vaalkoppies had won all their games leading up to the final by big
margins, so beating them was a morale-booster ahead of the provincial finals.
Another great
achievement for the youngsters was beating the historically strongest team in
their region, Laerskool Kakamas in the cluster stage of the competition. “This
is the first time we have ever beaten them,” said Van Wyk. “It was not an easy
road to the provincials but we have done our homework and feel confident that
we have the trophy in the bag.”
Four of the five
regional champions in the province, who will contest the finals, have been
identified. They are:
JTG region - Gaegake
Primary School
ZFM region - Lutzburg
Intermediate School
Namakwa region -
Aggenys Primary
Francis Baard region -
Vaalriver Combined School
The winners of the Pixley is
still have to be determined
About Danone
Danone Southern Africa is part of the
Danone Group, one of the fastest-growing food companies in the world. Danone
is present in over 120 countries across all continents. With 160 plants and
around 100,000 employees, the Danone Group is the number one worldwide for
Fresh Dairy Products. Danone’s mission is to bring health through food to as
many people as possible.
One of the core values of the Danone Nations Cup
tournament is to encourage young people to believe in their dreams. Through
this initiative Danone offers a sporting event that reaches out to and inspires
millions of children all over the world
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