Courageous E Cape team rise above its challenges
A UNITED, active and winning province. This is what the Eastern Cape department of sport, recreation, arts and culture strives for and it is evident at the ongoing SA National Schools Championships in Pretoria.
At the centre of it all is social cohesion, according to EC sport and recreation general manager Deidre Sedras. For team EC, it was not only about winning but more about giving players the opportunity to showcase their talent.
“We must expose these pupils to better things, we strive to capture and develop talent,” Sedras said. “It is, however, important to point out that as much as we want to win, it is not only about that because sport is about many things but most importantly social cohesion. For instance these kids, white and black, see no colour when playing against each other.”
Sedras continued that the province experienced challenges in the tournament but such was expected in an event of this magnitude in which more than 5 000 athletes are participating. Among the major challenges was the absence of information packs, no competition schedule and the insufficient time of preparing athletes before the tournament which came just after exams. Faced by these and other minor glitches, the EC delegation of managers and co-ordinators worked around the clock to ensure the pupils were not affected. Also, the coaches did their jobs with aplomb despite the challenges.
The managers held long night meetings at the end of each day since the beginning of the event to make the next day a better one. Sedras believed what worked well was the fact that the competition was a joint initiative with the department of education. However, she is of the view that the competition be split into two in the future, winter games in winter and then summer games at this time of the year to make things easier to manage.
Also, it was key to guard those who dished out outstanding performance in the competition, even when they leave the schools system. Her department was addressing this through focus on club development programme because “you cannot be an incubator forever.” To conclude, she said of the competition: “This has got a big transformation agenda.”