Coaching boost for PE school
Rugby programme to be run at Ithembelihle will benefit other teams
ITHEMBELIHLE High have received a lifeline from the Eastern Cape Academy of Sport to better their rugby and develop provincial and national level players. The New Brighton school is the only one from Nelson Mandela Bay to receive this assistance, which consists of training equipment and coaching workshops.
The academy’s Wayde Douglas said the programme also aimed to equip the community with rugby skills and knowledge.
“This is a national programme so the mandate came from the top, that we should run a sport focus programme that allows us to focus on specific sporting codes,” he said.
“In this particular instance, Ithembelihle has been nominated, and so the school will drive rugby for this area as well.
“We want the school to go forward but we want the broader community to benefit as well.”
Douglas said he had been given the names of 12 schools this year.
“We approached the schools at the beginning of the year to tell them who we are and what we are going to do.
“Part of our first objective was to meet equipment needs just to make sure that the schools were serviced to run their sporting code.”
Yesterday, Ithembe were given rugby balls, cones, hurdles, tackle bags and protective shields.
Douglas said the equipment was only a minor part of the overall concept.
“The programme is to develop provincial and national level athletes.”
Besides the equipment, we will be running educational workshops to help coaches and the door will be open for coaches in the surrounding areas to also attend those workshops.
“We also want to focus on the athletes as well, so there will be opportunities to get these athletes tested to make sure that we can monitor their development.”
Ithembe coach Theo Pieterse said the equipment would help to improve their game.
“I am very happy,” Pieterse said. “We had hurdles and ladders but they were stolen.
“Now that everything is back again I am very happy. This is going to help very much with the development of the team.
“It will help the team improve their skills and help them to get bigger and stronger.
“But, the main thing we want is to help the players improve their skills.
“Getting this equipment means more children from the disadvantaged areas will come to train with us.
“Children come from David Livingstone, Newell, Cowan, Thamsanqa, Mzontsundu, Cubekile and Kwazakhele High and train here because there is no rugby equipment at their schools. This is going to help us a lot now to come up to speed with other schools,” he said.
The coach said to be chosen for this programme was fantastic.
“I am very happy about being recognised for what we are doing here. Sometimes you think that nobody sees what is happening here but now we see that all the hard work is paying off at last. “This is not about me, it’s about the boys. “I want to see them grow and improve all the time and this is going to help them achieve that.”