Sandringham High School’s newly upgraded sports fields are producing promising Balderstone Sports Institute (BSI) International Study Centre football players.

In January this year, BSI embarked on a project at Sandringham High School, which has resulted in the upgrade of two sports fields at the school.

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The Sports Institute offers quality education for talented and dedicated sports-focused high school learners.

With modern-day youth sports demanding an extensive practice and competition schedule, which is not normally catered for in traditional schooling, they allow learners to focus on their chosen desired sports path, while still enabling them to get a full academic qualification.

A reporter visited the school on November 14 to watch the daily soccer practice and catch up with the head football coach, David Thorpe.

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“This year has been a big year in the growth of the football academy, integrating ourselves into the local community with the move into our new home at Sandringham. We’ve managed to build up a base of footballers that have been able to compete at many different levels, from your amateur local leagues to your SAFA Gold 1 streams, and now we’re entering into the SAP Hollywood Bets League, which has been great,” he said.

Thorpe added that the players have had a platform to be able to learn, develop and maximise their growth to reach their dreams and aspirations of being a footballer.

He added that moving to Sandringham has been a good journey of building relationships with the school and the local community, “We are hoping next year will be bigger and better, and more opportunity for footballers from the local area to come in and experience the platform we have created.”

U19 player Manene Maqiza said his football has improved since playing for BSI.

“10 months ago, I approached BSI for the opportunity, but before that I played at community level at Protea Glen. My dream is to play professionally, but now I am focused on improving and honing my skills at the grassroots level.”

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