‘It teaches you so much more besides football’
Twenty-nine football stars from all around the West Rand were handed their new kits for the upcoming Bill Stewart Primary School Inter-provincial Tournament on Wednesday, 20 June.
The two teams from the West Rand Primary Schools Football Association (WRPSFA) kicked off at the Bill Stewart Primary School Inter-provincial Tournament (BST) on Tuesday, 26 June.
The first instalment of the BST was held in Trezona Park in 1970 after a need to iron out problems concerning the U/12 tournament was raised. For this reason William Stewart, JA Henning, J Collier, P Brandt and Bobby McIntosh elected to hold the 1970 edition on the West Rand.
The next year the Football Association of South Africa (Fasa) was approached to provide a national primary schools tournament for U/13 football players. For the next five years, the tournament went off without a hitch, despite a couple of issues regarding U/13s who were already in high school partaking in the tournament. As the years went by, the tournament grew from strength to strength. In 1978 the sponsorship increased and three years later it eventually culminated into a full-on inter-provincial tournament (IPT). The first IPT edition of the tournament in 1981 was held at Christian Brothers College in Pretoria.
This year the BST will have 20 teams taking part in the tournament – the most teams since 1994, when Gordon Igesund was still caretaker-coach of the KwaZulu-Natal side and also the year that saw the last participation of the Western Province and Natal sides in the tournament.
The boys from the WRPSFA will be representing either the West Rand or the Protea team. Legendary South African footballer Stanton Fredricks was also present at the event, delivering a speech to get the boys in the right mindset for the tournament.”I noticed the boys were joking around a bit outside earlier,” Fredericks began.
“This is okay – but only for tonight. When the time comes to take part in the tournament you need to focus. You need to listen to and respect your coach so that the team will be successful.”
He further shared what he feels is so important about sport and IPTs such as the BST. “It teaches you so much more besides football,” he stated. “If you look at the demographics of the team, that’s something sport does very well.”
He continued by breaking it down some more. “You learn to interact with people of different colours and religions, and that’s the beauty of football. It gives these boys an opportunity to make friends that they will keep for the rest of their lives.”
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