Ramatsiyi Moholoa
Ramatsiyi Moholoa
The inaugural Tshoseletso Vodacom Soccer Extravaganza is nearing its end, with the semifinals scheduled for Tempe Military grounds in Mangaung on Thursday.
It is an initiative of Tshoseletso High School, where Fifa-accredited assistant referee Enock Molefe and Bloemfontein Celtic publicist Sello Nduna work as educators.
"There are three objectives that influenced us to introduce a development tournament of this nature for schools in Mangaung," said Molefe.
"The first is to revive school soccer in the area, create friendship among our schools and raise funds for Tshoseletso to buy sports equipment we need.
"It is a pilot project and we are grateful to Vodacom for coming on board to partner us in this project. Mangaung high schools have in the past produced great players.
"They include Jeffrey Lekgetla, Benjamin Reed, Simon Gopane and James Madidilane.
"We still have talent in abundance in Mangaung and hope to use this tournament to introduce our pupils to professional clubs.
"We started the tournament last month with the preliminary rounds, in which eight schools competed. We are now left with four institutions."
The eight participating high schools are Tshoseletso, St Bernard, Sehonelo, Mabeoana Inter Mediate, Ikaenelo Atlehang, Kaelang and Moemedi.
During the preliminaries, St Bernard humiliated Kaelang 7-1, Seonelo pipped Moemedi 2-1, Atlehang beat Mabeoana 4-2 and Ikaenelo defeated Kaelang 2-1.