School Sports is growing in leaps and bounds in South Africa and the latest achievement by two of the country’s leading school football teams proves this.
Largest Prize Money in School Sports History
Clapham High School and Edendale Technical High School have just completed the double by winning the CAF African Schools Championship in Malawi, walking away with the boys and girls’ titles and pocketing close to R4million for their efforts!
It is an astonishing amount of prize money that the two teams were able to win, and it must certainly be the largest amount that any school sports team in South Africa has earned.
Clapham High School, who were also the winners of this year’s Soil Schools Cup hosted by St. Stithians, managed to beat Salima Secondary from Malawi in the boys’ competition and walk away with the winning prize of a staggering $100, 000 (R1.8 million).
In the girls competition, Edendale THS finished as the leading school in the round-robin competition and also pocketed a cheque for $100 000.
School is in a state of Euphoria
President of SAFA, Dr Danny Jordaan congratulated the two school football teams calling their achievement both “remarkable and unprecedent.”
The Principle of Clapham High, Ms Noreen Schutte said that “the brilliant result by the boys has not totally sunk in yet and that the entire school is bouncing with euphoria about the achievement. This has come about due to the complete dedication by the staff and the boys, and we are ecstatic.”
Talking about this CAF African Schools Championships, SAFA technical director Walter Steenbok explained that “Edenvale and Clapham emerged victorious by displaying consistent performances within our South African football culture,” and that was certainly on display during the Soil Schools Cup when Clapham walked away with the honors.
“[The CAF African Schools Championships} is a great initiative by CAF and the Motsepe Foundation. Such programs support eh development of school football and integrate junior international competition for our players,” Steenbok added.
Kgaogelo Monanyane was selected as the boy’s Player of the Tournament, with the Golden Glove for the best goalkeeper going to Kamogelo Phokela.
Clapham High School and Edenvale Technical High School now qualify for African Schools Championships that will take place in Morocco, during March 2023.
School football is poised to grow quickly in 2023 with many more tournaments being organised. Clapham will be defending the Soil Schools Cup at St Stithians during the 22-25 of September 2023 with many of the country’s top teams eager to challenge the CAF Champions.
