Player Profile: Riyaad

Name: Riyaad

D.O.B: 04/04/1988

Position: Left Wing / Left Back

Personal Description: I'm originally from Retreat in Cape Town. I live with my mother, my sister and two brothers. I like to play football and watch cricket and rugby, and I like to listen to hip-hop and R&B

Favourite Player: Javier Hernandez

When did you join the academy: 2011

What do you want to do in the future: To find work and carry on playing football in the Super League or higher.

What have you learnt in the Academy so far:

• Discipline mostly
• Gained more faith and knowledge about God
• Learnt a lot from life skills, especially what to do with my money

Riyaad has been with us since the start of this year after he was successful in the trial that we ran back in April. Riyaad was one of the trialists from Drakenstein, so he'd been training with the side since January, but he was officially made part of the team after he was successful in the trial (like the rest of the Drakenstein trialists). His natural position is left back, but he also plays well down the left wing, which is where we started him in the first few months. We chose him to play in that position due to his crossing ability on the wing, but we have since changed tactics to put Nkosinathi (Sister) on the wing and Riyaad at left back in place of Jason, who has been injured. Riyaad's strengths as a player are definitely his crossing and his ability to run with the ball, although he has some skill in all areas of the game. This is why we feel comfortable playing him anywhere on the field as we know he'll do a job. In defence he is good at getting forward and overlapping, and is generally good at 1 vs 1 defending, he just needs a bit of work in positioning. All in all, though, he has the potential to be a good little winger and with continued effort there's no reason why he can't play at a good level when he gets out.

Riyaad (middle) doing a training exercise with Romano (left) and Wakka (right).

Unfortunately Riyaad has had a bit of an injury prone season this year, mainly with an ankle injury that sidelined him for a good month, but now also with a back problem as well. This has meant that he's been in and out of training, and in and out of form this season, but the good thing to see is that when he has regained his fitness he has usually got back into form quickly and right back into the first team. Also, being the only Muslim in the room, Riyaad had the month of Ramadan back in August, during which time he moved to a Muslim cell and fasted for 30 days. It is a real testament to his character and commitment that he still requested to train with us during that whole month, which is no small feat when you consider that he trained with no food or water and sometimes in over 30 degree heat. Nevertheless, it was obvious the effect that this had on his overall fitness, so he didn't get too much game time in that period either. When he has been playing, though, Riyaad has been a very useful member of the team, popping up with goals and assists here and there, as well as doing a job for us at the back.

Riyaad with the team just before kick off.

Riyaad loves his football and he's a big Man United fan, so he's obviously the one in the room with the most intelligence ;). Surprisingly though he's only one of two guys in the room who support United, with the rest of the guys supporting either Barca or Liverpool generally. Every time we go in me and Riyaad have our 5 minute 'United chat' where I give him the update on the United results and team news, and he gives his ideas on where they're going right or wrong. Unfortunately these chats haven't been so lekka recently as we've had to discuss the ins and outs of why United got caned 6-1 by City, but its good to be humbled sometimes as United fans otherwise we get too used to the glory. I said to him recently that one day United will get relegated, and on that day I'll still be there supporting them, but he didn't seem to think that'd ever happen (the United getting relegated part that is). Riyaad also supports local team Ajax Cape Town rather than the bigger Soweto clubs in Pirates and Chiefs, which again puts him in the minority in the room, but that's the rule in supporting a club...you can support more than one team if you want, but at least one of them has to be local (for me its the good old Boro...Stevenage).

Enjoying Coach Bully and Coach Mikey's kwai braai at Zola's farewell.

As I said, Riyaad is the only Muslim guy in a cell with many Christians and in a programme run on Christian principles, but its good to see that there is a mutual respect in the room and its good to have him contribute and voice his opinion in the life skills sessions. Recently he went to the parole board and he asked us to pray from him, which was obviously very encouraging for us as coaches to hear. In terms of his character, I'd say that Riyaad is a fairly laid back guy, who is always up for a laugh and is easy to talk to. He is also an intelligent guy, not just in his knowledge of football but also when it comes to life as well, as even though he doesn't speak too often in the life skills, when he does it is usually something wise and worthwhile hearing. I'm not entirely sure where Riyaad is at with his schooling, but I'm sure that he could pursue it to quite a high level if he wanted to.

Mid-game, Riyaad (No. 17) watches over the game.

So, Riyaad should be getting out in the next month or so, where he will go back to Retreat in Cape Town. He has said to us that he wants to really push on in his football when he's out and play at a good level, and with enough hard work then there's no reason why not. Riyaad seems like a solid character, and I'm sure he'd be the first to admit that he's learnt a few things since being in the academy, so I'm sure he'll do well when he's back in Cape Town. He'll get out after me and Bully will have left back for the UK so I'll be interested to hear about his progress when Bully meets up with him next year. Good luck Riyaad.

 

 

Player Profile: Loyiso (a.k.a. "Khune" / "Louis")

 

Name: Loyiso

D.O.B: 25/03/1990

Position: Goal Keeper

Personal Description: I come from George in the Western Cape. I have 2 sisters and a brother, but my sister and my brother have passed away. My mother passed in 2007 to TB and I don't know my father. I love to sing and used to sing in a choir.

Favourite Player: Brian Baloleli

When did you join the academy: 2010

What do you want to do in the future: To continue to play soccer, but a job is most important so I can support my sister.

What have you learnt in the Academy so far:

• Be responsible
• You have to take ownership of your life
• How to be dependant

Loyiso is our number one goalkeeper and has been since he joined the academy back in 2010. He joined after impressing at a trial run by AIS in Mossel Bay prison in late 2009. He has been a goalkeeper his whole life, and you can see that he has the raw talent to become really top class. Last year he didn't really have any competition for his place from a second keeper, but this year we have had Luyanda (a.k.a "Station") as a second choice, who has been challenging for the first spot and keeping Loyiso on his toes. As a keeper his definite strength is in his shot-stopping. Fire a shot at Loyiso and he'll probably save it, and that's down to the fact that he's always committed to the save and he's also very athletic and quick to move across the poles, as well as being quick to get up to his feet after he's made a save. He's got good hands and you can generally rely on him not to fumble the ball and to push the ball away from the goal when he makes a stop. Every now and then he'll pull off a world-class save that makes you just stand back and say 'wow'. One that comes to mind was against Hawequa prison a month or so ago, where he saved a pen in a set of rugby poles! The striker smacked the ball high into the middle of the goal, and Loius, who was already diving to his left, somehow managed to twist his body and stick his arm up to push the ball over. Unfortunately the pen was retaken as some of our players had run into the box, and the following pen went in, but nevertheless it was a fine save. Loyiso stills needs work in his distribution and his positioning in the box, but he knows that and we've seen some vast improvements in his all round game this year.

Loyiso in action doing one of his trademark tip overs.

Speaking to Loyiso, he says that he relishes the competition provided by Luyanda and would rather have someone challenging him for his place than not, as it sharpens him and makes him a better player for it. In view of this, then, I think he has seen 2011 as a more productive year in terms of his football than in 2010 when there was no consistent second goal keeper to compete for the top spot. Louis has been great with Station this year and has basically acted as his mentor and coach, as myself and Bully don't really have specialist knowledge in keeper coaching. When Mr Jonas (the guard who helps us with the programme) is available he will run the keeper coaching in training, but when Jonas is not around then Louis will often assist with coaching Station. As I said, Loyiso is glad for the competition, and because of this, when Station has been picked as the first choice for a few run of games, rather than getting disheartened it has made him even more motivated to improve and get his spot back. Its been great to see that he's also had a great attitude when being dropped to the bench, helping Station warm up and encouraging him from the touchline.

Louis in the room by Zola's bed.

Louis has had an interesting journey through the academy so far. Apparently one of the major issues last year was Loyiso's attitude in terms of his confidence in goal. If he let in a goal then his head would go down very quickly and he'd get easily frustrated, and it was a battle for Coach Bully to motivate him and get his mind right. This year started a bit up and down, but you look at him now and he's come such a long way and he's admitted himself that he feels a lot mentally stronger now than at the start of the year. Speaking to him the other day, he said that one of the most defining moments of his time in the academy was the game against Ajax Cape Town (who are a sister club of Ajax Amsterdam) last year. At the time Ajax were at the top of the PSL (premier league in SA) so were technically the best team in South Africa. Hope Academy played out of their skins, with the score ending up 1-0 to Ajax and Loyiso, who apparently had a blinder, won man of the match. According to Louis, Ajax first choice keeper Hans Vonk (who played for the SA national team between '97 and '05) stood behind his poles for some of the game and watched Loyiso, encouraging and coaching him as the game went on. After the game he came up to Louis and was full of praise, and gave him his goalkeeper gloves as a parting gift. Not bad for a boost of confidence, and I'm sure he's used that as motivation for this year and will do going forward.

Loyiso with Ajax keepers Hans Vonk (left) and Andre Petim (right) after the game.

In terms of his character, I'd say Louis is definitely a competitive guy, which has been good for him in the sense that he is always motivated to improve his game, but has caused problems in the past with being able to take losing. Like I said, though, he's come a long way since his first days in the academy, to the extent that he doesn't even mind if I beat him at pool now...well sort of. Louis is also a very honest and open guy, who is always willing to talk. In fact he definitely has a bit of a gift with language and speaking, as he is able to speak fluent English, Xhosa and Afrikaans, and is usually the guy who will get up and speak about the academy when we have visitors come in. At times he has said some really inspiring things even when just speaking off the cuff. For example, when ASD (a Cape Town academy) came in recently he spoke about his time in the academy and how its always possible to make a positive out of a negative situation. Also when our former captain Zola was released from prison, at his farewell Loyiso said the following to him: 

"I have never had a male role model in my life. Zola has been the best role model I have ever had and has shown me how to be a man. I would go to him as a shoulder to cry on and share my struggles with him." 

It'd be great to see him use his oratory skills in some sort of relevant career in the future when he is released from Drakenstein.

Loyiso speaking at Zola's farewell braai.

Aside from football, Loyiso is a solid Christian guy and in terms of his future he is studying at NCV level I think, so he is currently going through his final exams until the end of November. Hopefully after that he can get on some sort of correspondence course so that he can fulfil his potential in terms of education. So, yeah, all in all Loyiso is a guy with bags of talent who has learnt a lot in his time in the academy in how to use that talent in the right way. According to Bully he's come far since his first days in the academy, so I hope he can keeping striving forward when he gets out.

Great photo, action shot!

Louis and Jafta at family day last year.

Player Profile: Siphelele (a.k.a "Spesh")

Name: Siphelele

D.O.B: 04/11/1991

Position: Centre Mid

Personal Description: I'm originally from Matatila in the Eastern Cape and lived with my mother, 4 brothers and 3 sisters. I left school at standard 8 as my mother needed money. I enjoy making furniture.

Favourite Player: Lionel Messi

When did you join the academy: 2011

What do you want to do in the future: To finish school, get a job and continue playing soccer.

What have you learnt in the Academy so far:

• Respect
  
• Working together as a team
  
• Working as a family and standing together

Siphelele is one of the newer members in the academy, coming from the group of four guys that joined this year from Hawequa juvenile prison after they impressed in the trials back in March. They didn't get transferred to the academy until about May time, which means they've been with us for around 5 months. Of these four Hawequa players one guy, Mbulelo, has already been released. Mbulelo and Siphelele look very similar, and it took a couple of months for us to get the names in the right order, so after that me and Bully dubbed them the 'Hawequa twins'. They both play a similar game, in fact, as they are both short but stocky guys, so they battle it out in the midfield and use their strength and bursts of speed to win the ball well in the middle. Mbo is the more attacking midfielder, while Spesh is more of a defensive midfielder, and with the vast amount of defensive midfielders we have in the team, this meant that Spesh hasn't had as much game time this year as he might have liked.

The 'Hawequa Twins'

This is not a reflection of his quality as a player though, as he is fairly solid in terms of basic technique, he just needs to have a solid 6 months of training to get up to speed with the guys who have been in the academy longer and thus have a more developed footballing intelligence. Spesh has managed to come on as a sub towards the end of most games though, and has done a good job when he's been called upon. In the few months that we have had him, though, we have seen some major improvements in terms of his awareness and the quickness of his play, which can be said for most of the new guys in the team, as well as the existing players. We've seen some major improvements in the quality of our football this year, especially in the past few months as they guys are starting to understand the type of football we've been drilling in since the start of the year, and we've really seen some guys step up and surprise us. One of the awards at the end of the year will go to 'Most Improved Player', so I'm certain this will be a hotly contested battle.

Spesh (right) with Zola on his farewell.

In terms of his character Spesh seems to be doing fine. He doesn't seem to have had any trouble settling into the room, and we've had no problems at all in terms of discipline. Spesh likes to laugh (often being the only one who laughs at Coach Bully's jokes ;) ) and he's definitely an animated guy, especially when he's watching his 'soapies' on the box. South African soapies are like the 'Eastender''s and 'Corination Street''s of television over here, but there seems to be flippin' loads of them, on all channels. To be honest I think they're pretty rubbish, and I'm only gonna watch them to laugh at the bad acting (not that Eastenders is much better though), but some of these guys (including Spesh) get proper engrossed in the cray story lines. I remember walking into the cell one day and this one called 'Rythmn City' was on I think, and I had no idea what was going on, and all of a sudden Spesh erupted with a bunch of 'yo!'s and 'aybo!''s because obviously something intense had happened on the show. I still didn't have a clue but it was funny to see Spesh get so worked up about it. With the TV, the guys get a certain amount of hours of viewing time a day and because of the academy, the guards try and fix the viewing times so that the times coincide with live football, as we want them to be watching as much football as possible. For the rest of the time, though, I guess they have to put up with these rubbish soapies.

Another one from Z's braai. This time its Spesh and Duna

The good thing about Spesh, for me, is that he hasn't let the fact that he's had less game time get him down. He's kept a positive attitude in training, and has even gone beyond what has been asked of him by taking on the role of the physio during the games at the weekend. Granted, at the moment this just constitutes running on the pitch with a bottle of water, but you can guarantee that when you see someone go down Spesh will already be sprinting on with the water in hand. This wasn't asked of him, so its great that he's taken the initiative to make himself useful when he's sitting on the bench. In terms of his schooling, I'm not entirely sure where he's at, but I know that I've been assigned to help him with some English comprehension and written exams, so we'll see how he does in that. All in all though, Spesh has settled into the team nicely, and I hope he can keep striving forward towards success in his football, faith and future.

Finish Strong

As you can see I've been doing the player profiles for the past month or so on the blog, but I thought it was probably time to give an update on the academy as we move into the end of the year. The prison closes over December month as that is the big summer holiday over here in South Africa, so our programme ends in mid November. This means we've got pretty much 2 months left, and we're going to be very busy in the run in. One of the things we always encourage the guys with in training and during the game is to 'finish strong', so if they're doing the last run in fitness or going into the last 5 minutes of the game we just shout out “finish strong!' and they'll run hard until the end. This is an attitude we're trying to apply to the end of this year, and its looks like its going to play out that way with various tournaments, away games, trials and the final awards ceremony in November.

As of last week we've started doing away games at other prisons in the Western Cape. The reason this hasn't occurred until now is down to the prison having to approve it with regional office and the other prisons, but we've finally got the go ahead. We're doing these games for a number of reasons. First, is just to give the guys a chance to get out and have an away game, and also for the guys in the other prisons to have a chance to play a game. Second, is for us to do some scouting of players in other prisons and run trials for applicants for next year's academy. Third, is for us to get the name of the Hope Academy out there and hopefully develop some good relationships with the officials in the other prisons. All in all we have 5 away games planned, two in September (Hawequa – which we have already done, and Pollsmoor), one in October (Bransflei), and two in November (Mossel Bay and Goodwood), so we should hopefully find some good players and develop some useful contacts across the Cape.

So last Wednesday we went to Hawequa prison, which is just 20 minutes from Drakenstein on the outskirts of a small town called Wellington. The prison only deals with medium security juvenile offenders so its quite a small facility, especially the playing field, which is long but very thin and definitely made the game quite congested.We kicked off at around 10am and the game was hectic from the get-go. It was end to end stuff and the Hawequa boys fought really hard and played to their strengths to give us a real tough contest. Our players probably went into the game with a bit too much arrogance and they were almost made to pay when we were 5-3 down with 20 minutes to go, but they showed good character to fight back and win the game 6-5 with a lucky last minute goal. We expected a high scoring game because we were using rugby poles as the goals, but all credit goes to the Hawequa team who showed great mental strength and teamwork throughout despite it being the first time they had played together.

All but a few of our players had poor games, but we can take positives from the fact that we fought hard in the last minutes, and also that we learnt something about our attitude as a team going into the game. Hopefully in the future we will always approach our games with a respect for the opponent and not expecting to win just by turning up. Mr Jonas and I were on the sidelines taking notes on some of the Hawequa players, and we ended up agreeing on 5 of their players as potential academy applicants. Following this up, though, we found that some of these players were due to be released within next few months, so that whittled down the list to about 3 guys. All in all it was a very fruitful day and the officials at Hawequa were very welcoming, so lets hope that the next few prison games are just as productive.

Between now and the end of the year we also potentially have two tournaments to take part in as a team, one in Mossel Bay and one at Drakenstein. The one in Mossel Bay will be at the start of October and will involve 2 teams from our academy (which has meant taking on and training a few more players from other sections to form a B team), a parliament team and a team from Mossel Bay. The tournament at Drakenstein will also be in October and will be between the academy and other sections in the prison as far as I'm aware. This is good news for us as a team, as since we left the league at the start of the year we've just been playing friendly games, so the chance to play for a bit of silverware will be a good motivator and morale booster for the guys.

In terms of our football we have definitely seen improvements in quality in the latter stages of the year, and this is because we've been drilling a certain type of football into the guys in training that centres around nice one-touch football with perfect passing, nice lay offs and good movement off the ball, and they're finally starting to get it and apply it into the games which is encouraging to see. Also the unity and spirit of the team seems to have improved over the past few months, and I think this is partly down to the fact that we've upped the life skills sessions to 3 times a week. We've started a programme called the sports values course, which is an AIS resource and focuses on issues such as losing with dignity, fair play and discipline, and relates it to football and the Bible. We try to make these sessions as thought-provoking as possible and we've really seen the guys starting to open up and challenge themselves on certain issues. So, although there are still a few niggling little problems with unity in the cell, it seems that the guys are all in agreement that the positives in the room are outweighing the negatives.

Coach Dave (above) came in not too long ago and helped us re-enforce our football philosophy with the guys.

Our relationship with the DCS (officials) in the prison has also improved over the last few months. Back in August we had a meeting with the Head of Centre and other heads of departments and officials who are involved in the Hope Academy, and discussed the way forward for the prison academy. It was a very fruitful meeting with the prison committing themselves to taking more ownership of the running of the whole programme. The idea moving forward is to have more of a partnership between the Siyakhula academy (which is the sports section in the prison where our football cell is located) and the Hope Academy, with the hope of naming it the Siyakhula Hope Academy for the start of 2012. This means that all of the sporting codes (rugby, cricket, basketball, martial arts and the band) will adopt the same structure as the Hope Academy with the running of the same life skills (just adapted to their sports) and the same standards, which means having a disciplinary system in the room and all the players having to be in school. Also, the prison officials and offenders will be taking on more responsibility in the academy with the fulfillment of roles such as academy director, head coach and assistant coach, with Ambassadors acting as more of an overseer, which will free up AIS staff to do more community work, family visits and academy graduate follow ups back in Cape Town.

The first step towards this new partnership will be the awards ceremony, which will take place in mid-November and will officially end the academy year. Compared to previous years, and in light of this new direction, the awards day will involve the whole Siyakhula academy and therefore all of the sporting codes, not just football. Me and Bully are both on the organising committee, and we are currently finalising details, but its looking like its promising to be a great day, with key-note speakers, a nice lunch, fancy trophies and also all of the inmates in the section have the chance to invite two family members to enjoy the day with them. The ceremony is a week before I leave back for England, so I'll be sure to take lots of photos and write another blog entry on how the day went.

Apart from that the only other news from the academy is that a few more guys have been released on parole. This month we've had two guys leave, Romano and Mbulelo, both of whom were new academy players this year, so we hope they have learnt something in their short time here, but it has re-enforced the fact to us that when selecting new players we need to know how long they have left on their sentence so that they can preferably complete a whole year with the academy. Also, back in August, Coach Jafta was released, who was one of our more experienced guys, having been in the academy since its inception back in 2008. Jafta lives in a township called Mfuleni near Khayelitsha, and has already been a great help to us by coming with us on family visits to act as a translator. With these three guys, along with Zola and Sehole earlier in the year, and possibly a few more guys by November, this means that by the end of the year our squad will be down to around 18 including coaches, so we will definitely need to sign up a few players from these trails. Otherwise the rest of the academy graduates seem to be doing well (the ones that we are in contact with anyway), with most of them in jobs or actively seeking employment, whilst also helping us do our community work.

Me and Bull with Jafta, his mum and little sister a few days after he was released.

Zola outside his shack in township Samora Machel. Z's has found a bit of work doing water meter readings and has already started working with the youth in his area.

In other more general AIS news, about a month ago we ran a TREC course (Train Resource and Equip Coaches) at a school out in Stellenbosch that trains up international leaders in sports ministry. We were there for three days teaching these guys how to coach kids and run successful soccer clinics, and it was great to meet people from all different nations who are doing similar work to us. Also last weekend we went up to Citrusdal, which is an area about 2 hours north of Cape Town on the Cape Namibia route, to run a fun soccer day in a primary school with about 180 kids! We took along Jafta and Zola who were a great help, and it was good to see them willing to give back to the community and encourage the youth. Naturally the kids absolutely loved it, and after the school work was done we got the chance to relax and stay the night on a plush rural farm which was a nice reward for our days work. We got back on Saturday afternoon just in time to support the launch of a futsal academy run by a former staff member of AIS-SA.We entered a team for the launch day and obviously we smashed it ;). It was winner stays on, and we were on for a run of about 6 games before the heat got the better of us. The hope is that we will enter a Hope academy graduate team so that we can meet with the guys every week and play a bit of futsal with them.

Pics from our weekend in Citrusdal.

Otherwise, the weather in Cape Town is slowly getting hotter and hotter as we move away from winter, which means I'm starting to hit the beaches a bit more often on days off. I did some surfing for the first time the other month as well which was awesome. Four of us guys had a 2 hour begginers lesson and it was quality to get out into the surf. Its quite hard to describe the feeling when you catch a good wave and ride in, but its that moment when you know that you're no longer doing anything yourself and the wave is just smashing you towards the beach...its awesome (see I got the lingo already...gnarly dude). I managed to pop up onto my knees and ride a wave but I didn't get to standing which was quite frustrating. I can time catching a wave quite well, its just popping up quickly enough that I was struggling with. 

 

For a first timer though I didn't do too bad and now every time I look at waves out on the sea I just wanna get out there. In that same week I also did Table Mountain and Cape Point, both of which were brilliant, so I've definitely ticked off quite a few touristy things now. I also saw a game at the World Cup Stadium last week which is another thing I wanted to do. It was a league game between Ajax Cape Town (who are linked with Ajax Amsterdam) and Kaiser Chiefs (one of the two most popular teams in South Africa, from the Eastern Cape), and although there wasn't a huge crowd (being a Wednesday night) the atmosphere was still great, apart from those bloomin vuvuzelas. As I said Kaiser Chiefs are a very popular team, especially in the townships, so they actually had more fans in the stadium but it was still weird to hear a louder cheer for the Chiefs when they scored even though Ajax were the home team. The only other thing I really want to do before I leave is shark cage diving. I've been raving about it since before I even got here so it'd be a shame if I didn't, but not suprisingly no one seems too keen to come and have a go with me. Its a bit pricey as well, but we'll see, watch this space.

Not a bad view eh? Ontop of Table Mountain looking down on the city.

Also, about a month and a half ago I bought myself a potjie pot (an iron cauldron designed for the braai) from Shoprite for R200 (which is just under £20, a bargain apparently). Since then me and the people I'm living with along with a few friends have pretty much been doing a potjie every weekend. We've done a chicken one, a seafood one, a spicy steak one, another chicken one, a vegetable one, all of them quality, and I'm pretty sure we've got the technique down now. Its pretty simple, you make your fire, get it to embers, stick the pot on, stick the oil in, wait for it to heat up, then chuck the onions and spices in, then the meat, then the harder veggies (like potatoes, carrots), then the stuff that doesn't cook for long (like mushrooms or pasta), always adding water so it doesn't stick to the pot. The key seems to be not to stir the pot, but rather sort of stab it down the sides with the spoon (see told you I'd got the technique down). This is something that I'm definitely taking back with me to England, along with Gatsbys (massive roll filled with chips, egg, onions, tomato, salad, spices and your choice of chicken, steak or sausage) and Bunny Chows (loaf of bread with the inside carved out and filled with curry). Maybe I should set up a "Mikey's Taste of the Cape" when I get back...it'd make a killing!

This was at Cape Point. Me and the guy I was with, Henry, went on a wander and found a beach that was almost untouched, apart from a few ostrich prints. It was like the set of Pirates of the Caribbean or something.

So, yeah, as you can see its going to be a busy end to the year and hopefully it'll roll nicely into next year with the new crop of staff and players. I'll carry on doing the player profiles from now until the end of the year as the boys seem to be enjoying it, and its good for them to send home a good character report to their parents and communities. Then just before I leave I'll do another update to summarise the year and explain what happened in the final couple of months. In the meantime check out the official hope academy blog for some interesting articles at http://blog.aishopeacademy.org/.

Surfs up dude!

Player Profile: Eddie (a.k.a "Shark")

Name: Edward

D.O.B: 05/05/1988

Position: Right Back

Personal Description: I grew up in Vredendal with my aunt, uncle and brother. My mother died when I was 3. I like running long distance

Favourite Player: Sergio Ramos

When did you join the academy?: 2009

What do you want to do in the future?: To go to young people and encourage them. I've been helped and I want to do the same.

What have you learnt in the Academy so far?:

• Respect others
  
  
• Strong relationships 
  
  
• Belief in yourself
  
  
• Learning to trust
  
  
  
  

Eddie has been in the academy for 2 years now and is our star right back. I'd say Eddie is probably one of the fittest players on the team, if not the fittest. His strength is in endurance, as he used to do long distance running, so he always does well in the fitness drills and lasts the 90 minutes in the game. Generally he has a nice touch and good passing, and is also very quick in terms of physical and, more importantly, mental speed so he often makes good decisions quickly. Due to his speed we often see him overlapping on the right wing for Duna to play him in, which is great in terms of his energy, he just needs to work on his crossing a little bit so we can see the final product of his hard work. In terms of his defending, generally Eddie is solid, but sometimes his positioning can be a little off, with him staying too deep or close to the central defender so the long ball into the channel sometimes catches him sleeping. Again, though, due to his speed he always seems to catch up with the attacker and win the ball. His timing in terms of defence is excellent, and you'll often see him intercepting the ball in front of the attacker, and although he's not the biggest or strongest of guys, what he lacks in size he makes up for in effort, so he can definitely go toe-to-toe with the big guys upfront.

Eddie (left) and Loyiso (right) with pro player John Armogam, who visited the academy back in April.

Eddie is definitely a worker when it comes to the games, and due to this he's already gotten 2 man of the match awards this year I think. The players all call him 'shark', because he'll come out of nowhere and bite your ankles to win that ball. I think that nickname is quality because its so fitting to him as a player, and you can see that it eggs him on when one of the guys or one of us coaches belts out 'shaaaark' in training. That's the thing with nicknames in the team, a lot of the time they can be a great motivator and a sign of team spirit, but we always have to be careful as coaches with some of the nicknames given out because sometimes they can be a bit negative without us knowing it. So in his football Eddie is doing really well, and also in his schooling Eddie is excelling at a high level and is looking to continue studying when he gets out.

Eddie next to the team photo wall.

In terms of his faith Eddie is a strong Christian guy. He leads a lot of the services that the boys have on Sundays and is always challenging himself to read new material on Christianity, which is great. The other day we did a life skills session on God, and some guys had a chance to share their testimony, which Eddie did. The question was how has God made a difference in your life, and Eddie answered that God had changed his way of thinking completely. He said that before he knew God he was a coward, always looking after himself and being afraid to speak up, but he said that God has used his weakness to become strong and has changed his behaviour so that he now has no problem speaking up for himself and sharing his views with other people. Its great to see someone being honest about how they've failed in the past and giving the glory to God for their change in behaviour.

In training, probably listening to the wise words of Coach Mikey ;)

I can see that Eddie used to be a 'shy guy', and he still can be a bit quiet at times, but I guess the difference now is that he is not afraid to speak in front of others, and when he does speak it is often something wise and worth saying. One of the verses we used a lot with the guys is James 1.19 '...be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry', and you can definitely see that Eddie is living that out in his life. Eddie also gives a lot of credit to the programme and the people in it to the change in his attitude, especially to Zola, the former captain who was released back in June. At his farewell braai everyone had the chance to say something about Zola and Eddie got up and said the following: I have a respect for you that may look like I'm scared. You taught me to be a man and stand strong. I used to be the 'shy guy'', but you have given me the confidence to stand up and speak for myself.

Shark next to his bed, which as you can see is very neat and tidy.

As you can see Eddie is definitely one of the leaders in the team, due to his good example in all areas of the programme: football, faith and future. He is definitely seen as one of the candidates for the vice-captain role if that role is made official in the coming months, due to his leadership and other qualities. Eddie is an attentive guy, always willing to help out and serve others, and he always gets stuck in with whatever is going on in the programme. If we have visitors it will usually either be him or Loyiso who shows the people around the room and explains the programme, which shows his experience in the academy as well as his confidence and skill as a speaker. Also, often before the games some of the guys will start singing victory songs to rally the players, which is more of a Xhosa tradition, but Eddie (being a Cape Coloured guy) still gets involved and stuck in with the singing and dancing, which shows the kind of guy he is. Eddie recently saw the parole board and was unfortunately refused for another year despite already having done half of his sentence (usually offenders are released on parole after they have done half of their sentence if they have showed good behaviour whilst in prison). This is obviously a shame for him, but on the positive it means that he has another year to keep improving in his football, faith and future, and also means the academy can be blessed with his skills and qualities as a player and a person for another year. So, all in all, Eddie is doing great and we're hoping he can finish strong into the end of the year.

Eddie with former academy captain Mezza, who was released last year and came to visit back in March. 

On a side note, the new hope academy website is now live, where you can view all of the players, coaches, pictures and news about both the Drakenstein and Soweto academy, as well as sponsor individuals in the academy. Its looking very proffesh so check it out at www.aishopeacademy.org


 

Player Profile: Duna

Name: Asanda 

D.O.B: 24/04/1987

Position: Right Wing / Centre Forward

Personal Description: I grew up in the Eastern Cape with my grandmother, 2 sisters and 1 brother. I left school at standard 8 when I failed. I like athletics and running.

Favourite Player: Siphiwe Tshabalala

When did you join the academy?: 2009

What do you want to do in the future?: To continue with my studies, to find work and to continue playing soccer.

What have you learnt in the Academy so far?: 

• Discipline myself

• I know what is wrong now

• I'm feeling prepared for life outside

Duna has been in the academy for 2 years now and is a very talented guy. He's probably one of the best players in the team at the moment, playing on the right wing or up front when we need a bit of pace. That is one of his greatest assets as a player is his speed and fitness, which is largely down to his commitment in the fitness sessions in training. Whenever we do fitness, Duna always seems to be within the guys who finish first and have the quickest recovery time, and you can definitely see it roll over into the games as he will always give you 100% to the last minute. Duna is a fast and skillful winger, with a wicked cross and also great composure in front of goal, which has made him top goalscorer this season despite playing most of his games on the wing.

Duna about to fire in a free-kick in training

He is also a very tricky player, which is great at times but this is also probably his greatest weakness as well because he tries to do unecessary tricks a lot of the time instead of doing the simple pass or lay off. This is quite typical of south african football because the fans love tricks and will celebrate someone getting "nuts'd" more than an actual goal so you can see it in the players mindsets, that they would rather do a skill and embarrass another player than actually play the simple pass or take a shot. Obviously its good to do tricks at times, but it has to be done for a purpose and for the right reasons, which is something we're trying to drill into the boys in training. We're hoping that Duna can play in the Castle League when he gets out (which is the 4th tier of South African football) if not Vodacom (3rd tier) or higher.

Duna getting ready on match-day

It is not just on the pitch that Duna has talent though. He's also a great singer and dancer, always leading the match-day victory songs and putting on performances for visitors. There seems to be a new song every time we go in, so we've had an idea of possibly recording the boys doing their songs and making a CD to use to give to visitors and put on the website etc, which Duna seemed pretty excited about. Last year on family day, (usually a day in November where the families of the players come in to finish off the season before the December break) Duna led a performance which is now affectionately known as "The Duna Show". I've got the video, but it doesn't seem to want to let me upload it at the moment, so for now here's a still photo below of that performance last year. 

Duna (middle) in full swing on "The Duna Show"

Duna is a bit of a joker as well, which is always good for team spirit, we just have to make sure that all the joking around is in good spirit, which is why we always encourage the guys to speak in English so that we know what is being said as well as giving them a chance to practice their language skills. Duna does make me crack up though sometimes, and me and Bully have now started calling him 'Mr Motivator' because of his shinanigans in the fitness sessions. Duna is also one of the guys who we've scouted to be a potential leader in the Hope Academy in our search for a suitable vice-captain now that Zola has left. His experience and his good example on the pitch led us to see him as a good leader, as well as the fact that he is very attentive to us as coaches, is always willing to help and motivate other players (which we've noticed especially since he has been injured recently) and has also never got involved in gangs since he has been inside. He does need to learn to be a bit more thick skinned and humble if he is to take on the vice-captain role, as he can take things too personally at times, but generally he is applying a good attitude to the programme and is showing us that he wants to improve as a player and as a person.

DJ Duna in da house!

In terms of his future, Duna is one of the guys who is doing well in his schooling. He wants to continue his studies when he gets outside, but it seems that he wants to focus a lot of his attention on football. We can help him in this, and he has the potential to go quite far in his football. The only thing that could cause a problem in getting signed is his age, but it is by no means out of reach, as Chris has shown us (ex-Hope Academy player released in January) by currently playing at Castle level with the potential of Vodacom next season, as well as having trials at first and second division clubs. We'll see how he does for the rest of this year, but at the moment Duna is excelling in all areas of the programme and we hope it continues. 

Duna and Jade on family day last November

Player Profile: Thulani (a.k.a Serrero / The Boiler Room)

Name: Thulani

D.O.B: 30/03/1987

Position: Centre Mid

Personal Description: I'm from Kuilsrivier in Cape Town. I live with my mother, 2 brothers, 1 sister and my step-dad. I also have a little boy called Sesona who is 4 years old. I like reading and watching cricket.

Favourite Player: Xavi

When did you join the academy?: 2010

What do you want to do in the future?: To further my studies in theology and sports management, which could help me to do sports ministry in the community.

What have you learnt in the Academy so far?: 

• About life skills, about leadership and Jesus Christ.
• About not being selfish, and putting others first
• Being slow to speak and quick to listen
• Patience and perseverance 

Thulani arrived at the Drakenstein Hope Academy in March 2010 after being transferred from Pollsmoor prison when he was spotted at the Hope Academy trial there. The way he got to Drakenstein is a story in itself however. Supposedly some of the guards where Thulani was being held at Pollsmoor made up a story about him to AIS that he was heavily involved in gangsterism and was a poorly behaved inmate so that he wouldn't be accepted into the academy. According to Thulani this was done because the guards wanted to keep him in the band in his section, but he kept on pushing the DCS at the prison to get him into the academy and in the end he was the only one out of 4 guys from Pollsmoor who made it into the academy that year. 

When he first arrived, Thulani said his focus was completely on football but that he was encouraged by Coach Mark to focus on all aspects of the programme, which meant looking at the faith and future side of things as well. After this he started to work on getting better grades at his matric and he said it didn't take long before he accepted Christ into his life because he couldn't ignore how God had worked in his life to get him to Drakenstein. Thulani says that before he came to prison he had passed his matric and was playing football for Vasco Da Gama reserves but that he didn't have God in his life and he felt that he had no vision. After making a commitment in Drakenstein he now feels that he has found a new vision and a new life, and he can see God working through him already as he has gotten closer to his mother since being inside. 

Thulani with his little sister on Family Day in November last year

Thulani's came to prison in 2008, and although he maintains that he is innocent, he says that he is glad that he came inside as it meant that he found God and became a better person through the programme, and also improved his level of education. He is due to see parole next year and he has a 4 year old son, Sesona, waiting for him outside. He says that he wants to obey God as he as shown him grace and mercy, and he feels confident that God has a plan for him when he gets outside. 

Thulani (captain) and Sinethemba (coach) discussing tactics in the room

Thulani has only been in the academy for just over a year, but has already shown himself to be one of the leaders in the cell, so much so that after Zola was released last month we gave Thulani the armband. Being the captain of the side doesn't just mean leading the team on match day, but its also about leading the whole cell in day to day activities, so it is a responsibility not given out lightly. Thulani had been vice-captain since the start of the year, shadowing Zola and assisiting him in organising the room, and in that time he proved to us that he was the right candidate to lead the boys after Zola left. He shows great wisdom in the way he acts and is also full of passion on and off the field, so I'm sure he will bring his own flavour to the leadership role left by Z. Since he has become captain, Thulani has introduced a daily morning meeting called 'Thought for the Day', where anyone can share a word of encouragement from something they've heard, or read or watched, which we thought was a great idea. Recently we have had a few issues on unity in the room which has been a challenge, but one of the good things that has come out of recent team meetings is that no-one has a problem with Thulani and that he is very approachable and easy to talk to, which is another sign of a great leader.

Thulani and Zola at Family Day last year

Thules also leads by example on the football pitch and in his attitude during training. He is one of the fittest guys on the team which shows his discipline and commitment during fitness sessions, and when he is playing he doesn't stop running until the final whistle. I noticed the other day that every time we leave the prison Thulani always seems to be the most tired, which shows that he puts it in every time we go out. His workrate is so noticable that Coach Bull has given him the nickname 'The Boiler Room', which seems to have caught on. Currently we're playing him in a defensive midfield position, which is where he is most comfortable, and he's doing a great job mopping up the loose balls in midfield and calmly playing the ball out from the centre. He needs to work a bit on releasing the ball quicker, but technically he is very sound. In front of goal he's not the most prolific of players, but when he does score it always seems to be with his head, which obviosuly has become the focus of much banter so that if he misses we'll be like 'you should've gone with your head mate'. That's the other good thing about Thulani is that he doesn't take himself too seriously, and he's always up for a laugh. The other week I was teaching him how to do an English accent and later in the day he comes up to me and goes 'alright mate' in the most ridiculous accent...honestly one of the funniest moments this year.

Anyway, we've all got high hopes for Thulani at Ambassadors, and at the moment he is certainly going about things in the right way.