Soccer teams win prizes at Tembisa Youth Winter Games
Tembisa Sports Centre FC came out on top with both their U/15 and u-17 teams winning the title in their divisions after the finals on Friday, July 21.
Makhulong Square Sports field was a hive of activity this July, with 56 local soccer teams taking part in the fifth annual Tembisa Youth Winter Games.
The tournament ran over the course of a three-week period, with 14 teams taking part in the u-13, u-15, u-17 and u-21 divisions respectively.
Tembisa Sports Centre FC came out on top with both their u-15 and u-17 teams winning the title in their divisions after the finals on July 21.
Superboys FC were crowned the winner of u-13 after they won 1-0 against Golden FC in the final match.
Meanwhile the Ivory Park-based Makang FC won the title of u-21 after they beat Hlalefang FC 2-1.
The winning teams received sponsored soccer kit, trophies and gold medals, while the second-placed winners received silver medals.
The tournament’s organiser Robert Sithagu expressed his gratitude by thanking the local soccer coaches for working together to keep young people out of danger during school holidays.
“The tournament was a success. And I thank local young people and soccer coaches for being co-operative during the entire tournament.
This year our challenge was the lack of sponsorship,” said Sithagu.
Sithagu says a lot of young people get involved in substance abuse due to being idle during school holidays.
“At the same time, we trying to develop these young people to become professionals in football. We would love to see young people from the township grounds, representing at professional level. It hurts to see our talented youth standing at robots helping passengers board taxis, for R1,” added Sithagu.
Sithagu is appealing to local business people, government or any good samaritan to sponsor the tournament in the future.
“It is not necessary for players to affiliate with a particular team if they want to be part of this tournament,” emphasised Sithagu.
He added that he was proud of local coaches for being there for the children and making a difference in the Tembisa Township.
“People should not think these coaches have got nothing to do in their homes. They should support them in grooming their children. It is not an easy thing to develop a young person so parents should watch these young people when they play,” he said.
Sithagu said they are planning to invite teams from nearby townships to come and share talent with the locals.
