Soccer and rugby day

Saturday May 19, 2012

Today was a day of sports. It started with an Ubuntu soccer game. Ubuntu is a South African expression coined by Nelson Mandela that means interconnectedness and togetherness: "I am what I am because we all are." The Ubuntu Football Academy (football=soccer) is Casey's main ministry here in South Africa. He took the best soccer players from the Southern Peninsula and formed an elite academy. Some of the players come from unbelievably rough backgrounds, and they're from black, white and coloured communities. He is teaching them how to work together as a team and giving them the skill they'll need to get college scholarships or play professionally. In addition, he enrolled them in one of the area's best schools, and he brings them food every day. His goal is to "nurture the next generation of African leaders and footballers."

Today was the team's biggest game of the season against AJAX, a team sponsored by a professional club and Adidas. Last year when the boys played AJAX for the first time, they were very intimidated by their matching uniforms and matching cleats. Obviously the AJAX boys come from pretty well-off families who had to pay for them to play, whereas the families of some of the Ubuntu boys can't feed them three meals a day. In addition, AJAX draws the best players from all of Cape Town, whereas the Ubuntu team only draws players from the small communities in the Southern Peninsula.

But today the Ubuntu team made history when they beat AJAX 2-0. It's the first time in the history of the Fish Hoek Football Club that a team has beaten AJAX. I took some photos of the game and Chantel helped me publish it on a local website:

Jesse Donn, the defensive centre mid for Fish Hoek, battles against AJAX in midfield.

Fish Hoek’s left back Luthando Iutshetu attacks the ball in Saturday’s game against AJAX.

Fish Hoek juniors dominate AJAX Cape Town for first time in club’s history

by Mary Withers

The Fish Hoek Football Club (FHFC) under-13 A team defeated AJAX Cape Town on Saturday May 16, marking the first time that any junior team in the club has beaten AJAX.

“It’s a big deal for a club like Fish Hoek,” said Coach Casey Prince. “We’re only drawing players from the peninsula. AJAX is drawing the best players from all of Cape Town.”

Prince said that because of AJAX’s reputation, this was the biggest game of the year. The win measures how far the team has come since he started coaching the team two years ago.

“For us, beating a team like AJAX is a way to measure our progress, to see how far we’ve come in a short time,” Prince said.

Coaches said one of the keys to winning Saturday’s game was the confidence that the players brought to the field early on. Fish Hoek’s centre back Rion Cuthill scored the first goal in just the fourth minute.

“You could tell they were ready to play the game and it showed as soon as they kicked off the ball,” said Assistant Coach Austin Dietz.

Ryan Serfontein scored the second goal in the 41st minute of the game, bringing the final score to 2-0.

“I was really hungry to win,” Serfontein said. “We passed the ball and we played well as a team. The effort was great.”

Prince said he tries to take a holistic approach to soccer, supporting the boys on and off the field. He said he hopes to empower boys from all the communities in the southern peninsula.

(You can find the published version here)

After the game, we traveled down the mountain to watch Casey’s adult soccer game. He plays for a recreational adult league. Casey was a professional player before he decided to pursue youth ministry and move to South Africa as a missionary.

On the soccer field of Casey's game. The boys brought us hot chocolate :)

Later in the evening, our group went with Casey to a DHL Stormers rugby game. Since I had never attended a rugby game before, this was quite an experience!  It reminded me of Ross playing rugby in Friends-- it was so rough! Imaging wrestling and football combined, except that the players wear hardly any padding at all. Casey explained the game to us as we watched.

Rugby game

Even at the game, the racial segregation was astounding. Since rugby is more of an upper-class sport, most of the crowd was white or coloured. We heard a lot of Afrikaans, which evolved from Dutch and the language that most whites in South Africa speak today. We didn't see any black spectators, though almost every worker was black. Once again, astounding how segregated the community is, even though apartheid ended so long ago!

-Mary Withers