Umqhele High School wins spot in KZN soccer final
Clermont’s Umqhele High School is hoping to reach this year's national finals again.
Clermont’s Umqhele High School won the Pinetown District play-offs of the U19 Kay Motsepe Schools Cup and is now through to KwaZulu-Natal provincial finals.
The school came second in the 2014 KZN provincial finals to national runners-up, Tholokuhle High School, which earned the school a spot at the nationals, where the team finished twelfth.
With ten players from last year in the team, they are hoping their experience will see them improve on last year’s performance. The team’s coach, Sthembiso Ntuli, who has been coaching the school’s senior team for a number of years, has worked very hard to make sure that the team is ready.
Manager, Phenduka Mkhwanazi, said, “The team is used to this tournament and I guess that is why we have managed to win the district finals again. I am not saying that it was easy for us, as there were new schools from our cluster participating, but having gone all the way to the nationals last year helped my players as they knew what to expect.”
Last year’s nationals competition was an eye-opener, Mkhwanazi said. “We learned a lot from the other schools, especially from the two schools that played in the final game (Holy Trinity and Tholokuhle). We were impressed by our neighbouring school, Tholokuhle, they represented the province very well last year we supported them, but they have been knocked out of the competition this year, so it’s their turn to support us.”
The main reason for competing in the tournament, Mkhwanazi said, is to give the boys exposure. “We know that talent scouts attend these tournaments to look for talent and the players need to use the opportunity to show what they can do.”
Two of the current players, the captain, Nkanyiso Zungu, and Thabani Mnguni were invited to the Mamelodi Sundowns Academy training camp last year and, although they didn’t make it through to the academy, Mkhwanazi said they now know that they need to work extra hard to make sure that they get called up again this year and hopefully get signed this time.
