Two Montrose Primary School learners were celebrated by their peers and educators for their high-achieving participation at the Fran Hilton-Smith U13 Girls’ Provincial Soccer Tournament held at Camp Discovery.
Pupils, and emergent soccer stars Chloe Mandindi and Moshibudi Makgalamele, represented the Southerns team for the Johannesburg Primary Schools Football Association (JPSFA), who successfully defended their 2023 national title in this highly competitive inter-provincial schools’ tournament.
Montrose marketing manager and chairperson of the JPSFA Mokhosi Makara commended the level of skill and competition at this year’s invitational provincial tournament as highly impressive. Makara expressed his optimism over the bright future of girls’ soccer in South Africa.
“Girls’ football has progressed exponentially over the last few years, which made my job of selecting the top 15 players at the tournament extremely challenging,” said Makara.
“I was so impressed with the dribbling and passing skills of the girls, and some of the goals scored this year were of the highest quality.”
Makara went on to explain that trials begin in May each year when district teams are chosen to participate in the Discovery Girls U13 Soccer Festival held at Crawford International Sandton in June.
“The top 30 players became chosen to represent the JPSFA A (Southerns) and B (Joburg) teams, who go on to compete against teams from KZN, Mpumalanga, West Rand, and the Eastern Cape,” Makara said.
“Chloe was also selected in grades 5 and 6 to represent Southerns, and has been one of the star performers for her team over the last three seasons. Moshibudi was selected to represent the Joburg team, which went on to win the Simphiwe Dludlu trophy for winning the C division.”
The Fran Hilton-Smith U13 Girls’ Provincial Soccer Tournament was held from August 1–4 in the province of Limpopo.
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