A knight in shining football gear

The Kyalami Knight Riders Football Club is gearing up for another season to begin in early February and is looking for both boys and girls between the ages of four and 11 to sign up and learn some new soccer skills.

Although the club is based in Kyalami Estate, the organisers estimate that each year about 40 per cent of the team is actually made up of children from outside the estate. This is because team coaches put more emphasis on teaching ability rather than competitiveness.

“Other bigger clubs in the area cover other age groups,” explained Peter Grgin of the Kyalami Knight Riders Football Club.

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“But I’ve found through my years of experience that ages four to 11 are the most neglected groups in terms of [being taught] soccer skills.”

The Kyalami Knight Riders Football Club was started six years ago by Grgin after his 40 years in the world of soccer, both as a player and then as a professional soccer coach. His aim in creating the club was to teach children with little or no experience new skills.

“Our claim to fame is taking kids who have never even kicked a ball and work with them so that their skills grow exponentially within the year. We only accept about 30 kids into the team each year and that’s because we want our coaches to give their full attention to helping improve each kid’s ability.”

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Kyalami Knight Riders host training sessions twice a week with their three coaches and Grgin, and will take part in a game either at home or away once a month. They mostly compete against brother clubs from the Eagle Canyon Golf Estate in Honeydew or Cedar Lakes Estate in Fourways.

“We don’t want to make it too stressful for parents having to drive back and forth to games and practises every day of the week and we practise on a field inside the Kyalami Estate, so parents also have peace of mind that their kids are somewhere secure at all times.”

Although team members have to pay fees to be part of the Kyalami Knight Riders, Grgin has also set aside 10 per cent of the club’s budget to sponsor underprivileged children who want to be part of the team.

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