Aziza Rafferty (20) the captain of the ladies’ soccer team under Midas Sports Development in Eldorado Park shared her soccer journey so far.
She started as a young girl playing street soccer with her brothers but when she started high school, she decided to join the soccer team.
Rafferty has only officially been with Midas since February this year as a central defender and said that the team has been growing.
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“Since I played against coach Shifa Fredericks, I’ve admired her and knew that when she starts her team, I would be the first to join because she is very driven to help girls. She could have started a team in Soweto or Alexandra where she knows people but its because she is from Eldos, she made sure that she works here with us at home, where many of us don’t get the opportunities, scouts do not come into our community but coach Shifa wants us to be seen. I was 16-years-old when I started learning from coach Shifa Fredericks and I would take what I’ve learnt and implement it wherever I played or trained,” added Rafferty.
During her teenage years she noticed that a lot of teens were getting involved in the party lifestyle with drugs and alcohol, she also saw many teenage girls falling pregnant and explained that she did not want that lifestyle so she chose to play soccer so that she would stay off of the streets and bad company.
“Almal sal sê ‘jy’s oumarag’ because I’m not one who would want to go out late and go chill with friends. Some women and girls would meet me and tell me that they look up to me, and that is an honour for me. There are many bad things happening in the community so to be that positive light to someone is something great. I don’t want to disappoint my community; I want to be the change that I want to see,” said Rafferty.
The covid-19 pandemic has delayed plans for her as she would have had both her certificates for coaching and firefighting. Rafferty would like to become a coach and a sports physiotherapist.
When it comes to her most memorable game, it would be a tournament in 2015 where she represented Johannesburg and her team won the tournament.
“I feel like if your child is passionate about sports, do not keep them from it. Sports helps with concentration, your children cannot just sit with books all day stressing, even if its two hours of training and then go back to the books, it really helps. Parents should stop blaming sports for children failure in their academics,” concluded Rafferty.
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