Bantwana College moving on to new heights

Bantwana College Football Club is blessed to have talented female players who want to improve the sport as a whole.

The club recently welcomed senior assistant coach Liezl Windvogel while two of their players, Gretel Buttress (17) and Nicola-Anne Forfar (16) received Safa D Licences.

Windvogel brings to the team a wealth of experience, being a part of Premier Skills, a British Council programme in partnership with the English Premier League. “Premier Skills focuses on assisting grassroots coaches, getting them involved in soccer and they, in turn, will educate others,” she said.

“I graduated from the programme but am still very much involved with it. While as a player, I was already thinking about my future and wanted to be a coach or referee after my playing career but such information was not readily available.

“What made it tough was the logistics around finding courses and the financial aspect made it hard. So when I was invited to be part of the Premier Skills programme, I grabbed it with both hands. So going back into the community and giving back, especially to young girls and help to guide them is important.”

Windvogel will have a chance to be a mentor to Buttress and Forfar who are following in her footsteps and also want to help develop women’s soccer in South Africa. The two girls decided to get their Safa D licenses in an effort to give back to the sport they love.

“I want to give back to women’s football and its development because I want to see it grow. Women’s football is on the rise,” said Buttress.

“There were not a lot of women on the course but everyone there was supportive and assisted me. It was an amazing experience because I came to understand a lot more about soccer than what I knew before.”

Her sentiments were echoed by Forfar who was not into playing soccer until five years ago when her interest in the sport started to grow. “When I started playing soccer and watched how my coaches interacted with the players, that piqued my interest,” she said.

“From there I decided to go for my D Licence as soon as I turned 16. I learned how you should train children and prepare them for games. Having a licence paves the way for me to coach my own team one day.”

For more information contact 072 300 1927.

ALSO READ: https://www.citizen.co.za/randburg-sun/337993/be-a-part-of-bantwana-football-club/