Thumbs up for Friday league

ERNEST MABASA

TEN games have been played so far
in the newly formed Atteridgeville
Friday Schools League and there is
great excitement among the participating
schools and community.
The schools are judged not by
how they start, but how they will finish.
This will be after they complete
their allotted 24 games.
Dr WF Nkomo Secondary School
are top of the table with seven
points, closely followed by Bokgoni
Technical High School, whom they
beat 1-0 last Friday to lead the log by
a point.
This league was launched by
SuperSport last month and it has
gained much popularity in the community.
The league’s main aim is to
revive school sports in
Atteridgeville.
The success of it is showing and
Dr Nkomo coach Saki Mogola is
motivated and grateful to the initiators
of the programme.
Mogola believes the initiative
gives coaches and players an opportunity
to participate in something
worthwhile.
“It gives us the power to play. We
were not very happy because we did
not have much to do before they
introduced it. It is for the first time
in this league but the feeling is good.
“It is working because if you look
at last Friday’s match, players were
all happy to be participating in the
match,” said Mogola, who was once
himself a soccer player for the
school.
“We used to have strong squads
in these (Atteridgeville) schools. We
want those to come back so that
these young players can be fit.
Maybe one day they will play for
SuperSport United.”
Hofmeyr Secondary School is
struggling but they believe the initiative
has been a success.
Although the school are second
last on the log, their coach Simon
Tsotesti is confident the team will
feature in time.
“The league is very professional
and it is run well. It is fair. It is also
successful as they know that our
school has the greatest and largest
fan base.
“We keep them (pupils) busy on
Fridays. They stay away from
nyaope and other drugs. It is very
good,” He said.
However, co-ordinator Itu Moloto
feels a need for more suppoters.
The last game had more than 150
supporters from Bokgoni High and
a few from WF Nkomo.
“The league is going well. We
only need to make sure that supporters
come in numbers to support
their respective schools. We will
deal with it after June because now
it’s cold,” he said.
SuperSport manager Coltrane
Munyai is happy with the response
from the Pelindaba community and
says it feels good to see the schools
respond positively.
“We are feeling good because
they are responding well to our initiative.
In the last game we had lot of
supporters. It shows that they
wanted it ( the league) for a long
time,” said Munyai.