Dale College soccer boys are growing from strength to strength
Despite a poor performance by the team at the Absa Wildeklawer Soccer Tournament, Tevin Klaasen says he is proud of his boys concerning how far the team has come. “It was definitely not the kind of performance we were looking for, losing all games.
However we are honoured to participate in big tournaments such as the Wildeklawer sporting event and to play against the top schools in the country” Tevin said.
Dale College sits on the 6th of the Buffalo City High Schools League, 9 points behind Stutterheim High School who are the current log leaders.
“In order to grow from strength to strength, our team has made it a point that we participate in several tournaments. This will allow our young boys to learn from other teams and to also learn from themselves.
We are challenging them to leave their comfort zone and play out against the best teams; if we want to be one of the best schools not just in the province we need to get used to playing out the very top schools out there”.
Tevin Klaasen from Dale College is an enthusiast soccer fan, league coordinator of the Buffalo City High Schools League and director of soccer at Dale College.
Discipline goes a long way, starting at home, at school and in the classrooms. “How you behave and conduct yourself with and without others around is very important”, he said. That is one of their core values that our players are brought up to as they put on the Dale jersey.
Challenges are part of the game and Dale College is facing one of many challenges when it comes to forming a formidable team to compete at the highest level.
Most of the soccer players at the school are not exposed to the sport and they only get to start playing at a much older age. Tevin says this is a lot of work for the technical team as they need to have a certain temperament working with the players at the school.
To overcome this challenge, Dale College is now looking to establish a strong relationship with primary schools to introduce soccer at a young age so that by the time they get to high school, they know how to play the game.
Despite these challenges, Dale College have a star in the making to boast with; Aqhama Mqongwana who is a former Dale College boy, is now playing for TS Galaxy Reserve Team.
Tevin said this has been inspiring for the team at Dale College and to the young boys at the school as they hope and dream to play either varsity football or go to the professionals.
