Gauteng Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup Inter-district Finals kick-off
This year’s provincial finals of the Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup will take place at the Giant Stadium in Soshanguve on August 2.
Fifteen district winners of the under-19 Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup Gauteng will lock horns in the inter-district football play-off finals around the province on July 24 and 25 to determine the final eight schools to compete in the provincial finals. This year’s provincial finals will take place at the Giant Stadium in Soshanguve on August 2. The stakes are high with the provincial winner taking home R100 000 and booking a place, together with the provincial runner-up. In the national finals, the ultimate winner will walk away with R1 million.
Clapham High School, the 2013 national winners of the competition, are in the inter-district playoffs again this year, along with Ekurhuleni North’s SAFA Transnet Football School of Excellence. School of Excellence did not, by their standards, have a good Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup tournament in 2013. They went out at the provincial finals stage, and their coach, Whitey Tshowa, is determined not to let that happen again. “That year is behind them now. We are coming into this tournament with a clear mind and with a positive attitude. The players are motivated and believe in themselves,” said Tshowa.
School of Excellence will be playing I.R. Lesolang High next week and Tshowa conceded he did not know how strong I.R Lesolang was this year. “They have had a very good team in the past, so we are definitely not taking them lightly,” he said.
The problem for all the schools playing in the inter-district playoffs is that they go into the series straight after three weeks of school holidays.
In School of Excellence’s case, the players were given a training programme to follow during the holidays, and Tshowa said he hoped they had taken it seriously. “The program requires self-discipline and the players will be tested when schools reopen to see if they have been following it,” he said. “When schools open, it is back to normal training, because our game against I.R Lesolang is on the first Friday back. But I have faith in the boys and in my coaching abilities.”
School of Excellence is an academy school and each year they go on road shows all over the country searching for the best players, particularly kids about to go into grade 8. They are then invited to the school for trials and the best 20 to 25 players remain at the school. The entire 2014 team might be new to the tournament, but Tshowa said they had been together for years, giving them the edge and the fighting spirit.
Tshowa is a highly-qualified coach. He has a level 3 coaching qualification, a CAF coaching license and is a SAFA instructor.
