Resident aims to introduce American football to local schools
Radebe hopes the sport will gain more players.
Tsakani – Stephen Radebe from Vergenoeg in Tsakani hopes to bring American football to township schools.
Radebe registered his organisation, Gridiron South Africa – Association for American Football, in 2015 after he had resigned from where he worked.
The organisation held development training at the Benoni Northerns Sports Grounds over the weekend.
Gridiron deals with coaching and training young athletes on playing and also the rules of the sport.
“I have completed online courses on the sport and have received a certification,” Radebe said.
He said he has realised that the sport doesn’t have an association in South Africa and he is working on one.
“My dream is to see a fully-fledged league of the sport. Most of the players of the sport are from Gauteng and Cape Town.
“Other provinces don’t have coordinators and that makes it hard for us to visit those provinces,” he said.
Radebe said he would like to introduce new players to the sport as there is the potential for the sport to be big as a profession in the country.
He explained that American football and rugby have different rules and gear and that the balls aren’t the same.
“In American football there are 11 players and all the players can be substituted at a time and also put back to complete the gameplay.
“Our scoring system is also different from that of rugby as with us one can score between six to eight points at a time,” Radebe said.
Radebe said he’s currently working with a company which he can’t mention at this time. The two will be introducing American football in Tsakani schools in due course.
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