“The Wall” of Ballito Soccer

The Ballito Football Club has had a strong 2017 season and no small part of that is due to their iron goalkeeper.

Jared Rivers measures in at just below 2 meters and has earned the nickname “The Wall” from his teammates.

Originally from Stanger, Rivers moved to Ballito at the age of three and has lived here ever since.

The 22 year old has been with Ballito FC for the past year and previously played for Juventes in Durban North during his school years.

Rivers, who went to Ashton International College, is now studying law through UNISA. Unsurprisingly, The Wall’s favourite soccer player is the evergreen Petr Chech, who used to play goalkeeper for Chelsea and is now with Arsenal.

“I have always admired his bravery as a goalkeeper and how fearless he was in going for the ball right up until and even after an horrific head injury.”

Rivers told the Courier he had always enjoyed sport and had also played cricket, rugby, golf, tennis, squash and hockey. In fact, it was through cricket that he first put on his goalie’s gloves.

“I started playing soccer in primary school as a midfielder and while I enjoyed it, I did not love it as much as I do now. At the time, I was more into cricket than soccer and I was told to

try goalkeeping after people had seen my fielding in cricket,” Rivers explained.

“I gave it a try and really felt at home being in goals. Slowly but surely soccer started becoming my number one sport and I have been playing it ever since.”

His passion for sport has seen him earn several accolades, including: Half Colours in both soccer and cricket, represented Ilembe on multiple occasions for cricket as well as Natal AVS (bokkie week), receiving the Proctor Sportsmanship Award in his matric year at Ashton and winning the Durban Central Football Association Shield in 2010 with Juventus.

“My most memorable match for Ballito FC this season would have to be our third game. After narrowly losing our first game, the team seemed to be picking up the pace and we won the second.

“But when it came to the third game, the team just seemed to click and we ran out 10-0 winners, it was by far the best team performance we had and of course I was happy with the clean sheet too.”

When all is said and done, Rivers said he enjoys playing soccer because of its competitive nature (and because he is quite good at it).

“Soccer is something that, no matter how stressed I am or what is going on in my life, always manages to help me switch off and relax.”

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