Northern Cape school gets support from a local farmer in their preparations for the Danone Nations Cup National Finals

Preparations for the national finals of the under-12 Danone Nations Cup soccer tournament are well underway.  The nine provincial champions are getting in those last practise sessions before they all head to Soweto’s Dobsonville Stadium on the 15th of September.

The winner there will represent South Africa in the Danone Nations Cup world finals in Barcelona, Spain in 2019.

Lutzburg International School will represent the Northern Cape at the nationals and, thanks to the enormous support from local farmer, Aubrey Laubscher, the team is fit and ready for the nationals. 

Aubrey might be a farmer, but he is a sportsman at heart, said school manager, Charles Basson.  “He comes to the school every day and helps with the warm up and coaching.  He has also secured sponsorships for kit and equipment.  He has been very supportive and has done so much to ensure we are ready for the national finals.” 

Basson explains further that most of the players live in poor communities and often are confronted with challenging situations which affects their play. “As soccer is a team sport, if someone is not pulling his weight it affects everyone.  Here again Aubrey helps by counselling the boys and helps them to re-focus.”

Lutzburg is a small school based amongst the farmlands of Kakamas.  “It is very exciting to be going to the national finals after numerous attempts,” said Basson, a social and natural science teacher at the school. “We are a small school so our pool of players to select from is limited, which is not the case in most of the other provinces, but we are ready and fit and will do our best in Gauteng.  We will be going all out to be the first Northern Cape school to represent South Africa at the world finals, but I don’t want to put pressure on the boys and I am encouraging them to have fun and just enjoy the moment.  I tell them to have confidence in themselves and play their best in every game, not matter how the other teams play.”

Basson doesn’t have any coaching qualifications but is passionate about soccer and was a good player.  “I went for trials at Mamelodi Sundowns when I was at high school in the early 90’s but was unsuccessful.  I then went to AmaZulu where Clive Barker was the coach but broke my knee during a practice game.  After being out of action for a while I decided to study teaching instead of pursuing a career in soccer.” 

A player cannot excel without good nutrition, explained Basson, and here again the farmer has come to the schools’ assistance.  “Aubrey comes to training armed with food hampers to ensure the player’s nutritional needs are met. The school does have a feeding scheme, but the hampers are extra as sportsmen need that additional nutrition to ensure their energy and stamina are kept at optimal level.  This will be important in Gauteng due to the number of games we will be playing on the day.”

The schools that have qualified for the Danone Nations Cup national finals include:

NORTHERN CAPE    Lutzburg Intermediate School
FREE STATE    Tshediso Xolani Primary School
LIMPOPO    Benny's Sports Academy & Development
MPUMANLANGA    Shapeve Primary School
NORTH WEST    Laerskool Rustenburg Noord
KZN     Muzuvukile Primary School
EASTERN CAPE     Charles Morgan Primary School
WESTERN CAPE     Nomlinganiselo Primary School
GAUTENG     Zamukhanya Primary School

Northern Cape Danone Nations Cup provincial final ends with first time winner

Lutzburg Intermediate School of Kakamas became the first school to qualify for the National Finals of the under-12 Danone Nations Cup soccer competition when they won the Northern Cape Provincial title in Upington.

It was a historic occasion for the school and its community as no school from the region has ever gone this far in any soccer tournament and the community came out in numbers to meet and celebrate with the team.

Coach, Chestlan van Wyk, explained that the town they live in is very small and the school itself only has 338 learners, so to have got this far is very exciting.

“It was a difficult day as the tournament was extremely competitive,” he said. “Playing at this level is very different from playing at cluster level among the schools in your area. The games were all closely contested.”

Their final game, against Aggeneys, was decided in a penalty shoot-out, which was tough for the boys, Van Wyk said. “They beat us on penalties in the league game earlier in the day, so it was just reward for us to then go on to beat them in the final.”

The next step for the team is preparing for the national finals. “We will continue to train as we have been,” said Van Wyk. “We will concentrate on keeping possession, running with the ball, passing and scoring goals.”

They will be keeping an eye on the tournament on Facebook to see who their opponents at the national finals will be

“It’s going to be very exciting for the kids to travel to Joburg to play soccer, it will really be a treat for them,” Van Wyk concluded.

RESULTS

Kareeville Primary School 3 – 0 Hoerskool Vaalrivier

Gaegake Primary School 1 (5) – 1 (4) Aggeneys in penalty shoot out

Lutzburg Intermediate  School 2 – 0 Kareeville

Hoerskool Vaalrivier 1 – 2 Gaegake

Aggeneys 0(4) vs 0 (3) Lutzburg in penalty shoot out

Kareeville 0 – 2 Gaegake PS

Hoerskool Vaalrivier 0 – 2 Aggeneys

Gaegake 0 vs 2 Lutzburg

Aggeneys 1 – 0 Kareeville

Lutzburg IS 1(2) - 1(1) Hoerskool Vaalrivier in penalty shoot out

FINAL: Aggeneys Primary School 0 (2) - 0 (3)Lutzburg Intermediate School in penalty shoot out

Free State will host the next provincial final at Grey College on Saturday, 5 May.

Two Northern Cape schools to participate in the Danone Nations Cup provincial finals for the first time

The under 12 Danone Nations Cup Northern Cape Provincial Finals will take place at the Mxolisi Dicky Jacobs Stadium in Upington on 14^th 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

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