Covid-19 turned our lives upside down, says Alex HP Stars boss
ALEX – After Covid-19 lockdown, Alex HP Stars coach picks himself up and starts all over again.
The old adage, ‘you cannot keep a good man down’, rings true for coach and Alex HP Stars founder Prince Ndlovu.
Ndlovu who lives in Alex founded the old HP Stars in 2014 as a Gresswold-based club which plied its trade in the Alexandra Northrand Local Football Association until the outbreak of the global pandemic of Covid-19.
His desire to take children off the streets and away from mischief propelled him to open up more soccer activities for them, leading him to open a street soccer club and a football talent search competition known as Bramley Future Stars.
All this came crashing down due to the advent of the coronavirus outbreak, which led to the closure of all football activity when the country and world underwent stringent lockdown periods in attempts to limit the rampant spread of the deadly disease.
Ndlovu lost most of his players as he struggled to keep them together and motivated. “My world literally came crashing down and all the work I had put in for the children came to nought, and I was clubless with most of my players poached by other clubs,” he said.
But a bruised Ndlovu rose from the floor and dusted himself off and started all over again. At the height of the lockdown, Ndlovu decided to start a girls club and named it Alex HP Queens and a boys club, Alex HP Stars, and started scouting for players.
The move paid off and today he has more than 150 girls who play in his U13, U15, U17 and U19 sides, and just as many boys. Besides the boys and girls clubs in Alex, Ndlovu has also established Jozi HP Stars for boys with the same age divisions.
“I am ready to rumble come the opening up of soccer activity which will allow us to return to the grounds and do what we like most, developing young and aspirant footballers,” he said.
“Covid-19 turned our lives upside down, and not just me, many people lost their livelihoods in the form of jobs and businesses but resolute as we are as a human species, we will get up again and start it all over,” added the 22-year-old coach who started his first club at age 16.
The ‘HP’ in the clubs’ names stand for his first names, Hitlers Prince.
