The U11 and U12 soccer teams of Old Parktonian Sports Club have returned from participating in the London International Soccer Tournament Cup Final.
“We took two teams to the tournament this year because we couldn’t take last year’s U11’s due to the London Olympics. We had been preparing for the tournament for more than a year and were ready to do our best. The U12 team won the tournament in their age group and the U11 team did really well,” said U12 coach Duncan Craggs.
The boys returned with gold medals and a trophy. U12 team captain Pelaelo Mahloko said, “London was amazing, we had a very good time there. We played against all the teams and beat all of them.” Vice-captain Thabo Sibanda said to ensure the whole team did well they kept pushing and worked hard.
Craggs said, “I am really proud of the boys, they did really well. We had taken teams to London before, but no other team has actually won the tournament in their age group. I hope the boys grow as a team and continue to produce excellent match performances.”
U11 team coach Johan Nieuwenthuys said it was an awesome experience, especially for the boys as this was a new environment for them. Old Parktonian club manager Lizette Dmescher said she was happy with both teams and the amount of work put in by the coaches. “We want to keep up the hard work. We will be taking a new team next year and hope they achieve same results.”