Witpoortjie club unlocking the guiding principles of football as life

Only by leading from the front can a top-down trickling of excellence occur.

Started by chairman Tshepo Mogoba in April 2021, Flying Eagles Sports Institute is striking a chord with their community. Their exponential growth has seen them expand to almost 70 members in just five months of existence. With eight coaches under head coach Mpho Sekgoane, the club is now able to field U/9, U/11, U/12, U/13 and U15 teams recently registered with the Rand Central Local Football Association.

What separates Flying Eagles from any other football club is the inclusion of skills and leadership classes as part of their training regimen. After every session on the field, coaches and players move to the classroom where they engage in lessons and discussions on what it means to be an upstanding member of society. Fittingly, their home ground is an educational facility, Culembeeck Primary School.

Drawing players from the suburbs that straddle the boundaries of Roodepoort, Krugersdorp and Soweto, coaches are moulded into role models who in turn guide their players on a path to being better people. “We believe we can motive our members to adopt a specific behaviour or attitude by instilling discipline through sports. We want to use football as a way to teach life skills and leadership skills to our members,” Tshepo explained.

The theoretical teachings turn the practical execution of skills on the field into abstract concepts relatable outside the touchlines. “One of the technical aspects of football is control. We want to translate that into ‘What is it you need to control or have control of as a person? How can you control that specific behaviour?’ We want our players to learn to emulate or select role models not on the number of goals they scored, but because of the values they uphold,” mused Tshepo.

Flying Eagles have partnered with Heartlines, an NGO striving for positive change in societies, as well as SportsTrak, a sport-orientated data-capturing firm. Sport has a storied history of elevating communities and individuals, and with these two partners they have experienced mentors that can help guide the process while providing tangible results-based data.

While starting with the people’s game, Flying Eagles hope to evolve into a holistic sporting institute that brings change through a multitude of sports. Committing to the local community, Tshepo said, “We see ourselves as a complete sports academy with life skills and leadership development aspects, and Witpoortjie being our fortress. We want to walk this journey together with the community of Witpoortjie as Flying Eagles becomes a community institution.”