Cliffview Primary School’s U14 boys’ hockey team not only earned the title of best team in district 10, they won the inter-district Best of the Best competition and will now take on other provinces.
The team took on the likes of Maragon and Emfuleni Park, managing four wins and a draw. They will now participate in the Champ of Champs in Potchefstroom on 30 September.
“We played so well on Sunday [Best of the Best] that we don’t need to change anything,” said coach Gareth Riley. “If we play like that in the Champ of Champs then we’ll be very hard to beat.”
The team only started training with Riley at the end of July this year, yet they are composed on the ball and play with a trust and maturity level only seen in high school teams. The team is blessed with strong individual players who have played district and provincial hockey, however, they don’t dominate the team.
Riley said the team doesn’t follow a conventional 3-3-3-1 formation on the field, they play a 4-3-3 system.
With Riley being a defender for the University of the Witwatersrand men’s hockey team, he said his team used their defence as a form of attack.
“We turn the ball over a lot and make use of outside defence to overload the play,” he said.
This strategy, coupled with teamwork and strong individual players might mean Cliffview will be the team to beat at the Champ of Champs.
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