UNATTACHED (PART 2)

Hola Kyle! Good to have you back for one more week. You know what to do, mate… Ha, ha, ha, yes, I do. When I was at Tuks, we would sometimes forget people’s birthdays if the manager did not post it in the (WhatsApp) group. So, sometimes he would forget to say and you know that sometimes in January you have new players joining the team. You get to know players’ birthdays and then you celebrate as a team. So, we had this ritual at training… We would train and then afterwards, the coach (Shaun Bartlett) would say, “Let’s close the session” and then we would pray. After that, we would get a bucket. The kit manager, known affectionately as Bra Killer, always used to have this bucket which was filled with ice and water…

Ha, ha, ha. Why doesn’t this sound good at all?

Ha, ha, ha. So, after the coach said, “The training session is over”, we would go get this bucket with ice and water. Some of the guys already knew what was coming and they would start running. Obviously, they did not want to get the ice and water on their bodies, so they would start running because the guys would start chasing players so that they could pour them with the ice and water. Can you imagine when they throw that water and ice all over you?

Eish, that feeling! Sometimes it seems your body is being separated from your soul.

It’s like an ice bath, but it was always funny to see which players were scared of the water and how they would pull their faces when they had cold water on them, ha, ha, ha. I remember we chased one of the players in the team and then he ran onto the other field. Like, he was running for his life, but he could no longer run after some point because it was like six of us chasing him. So, when we caught him, we picked him up and took him back tow here the buck etw ith the water and ice was.

Kicking and screaming!

I think it once happened to me as well, but I just forgot about the ice. I just felt the water running down my body and that was really cold, ha, ha, ha.

Fun and games. Well, we can only imagine how cold it was… Yho, the facial expression after they have poured water on you… it’s so funny! Those are some of the funny moments I enjoyed at Tuks. If it was your birthday, you needed to be aware for after training because you were going to get a cold ice shower with the bucket and then you would only be able to go to the change room afterha, wards to have a proper shower, ha, ha. It was just so funny how the players would chase each other and catch the birthday boys. We used to tell Bra Killer that he should just always make sure that he had the bucket ready for us to use. That was very funny. We had loads of fun and we always laughed about it when I was at Tuks.

So, the ice and water were strictly for guys on their birthdays? It was for birthdays. Even I went through that. Do you know how much you freeze? Ha, ha, ha. So, all the players were scared of the water. Even though you know it’s coming, you still pull your face and sit in a certain manner. We all did not want to get poured on with that water, ha, ha.

Eish. But it seems you had some of the best times there at Tuks… Another thing we used to have at Tuks is that if you arrived late for training, you would have to dance. Also, if you bought new boots, then you would have to dance. Or if it was your birthday, you would have to dance. There were some players who could not dance, ha, ha, ha. There were players like Shane Poggenpoel and a few others who did not know how to dance, ha, ha, ha. They would just do the robot dance where you move your hands like you are a robot, ha, ha, ha. It was very funny.

Credit to Poggenpoel and them, at least they still danced. And that’s usually the easiest dance to do if you can’t move on the dancefloor, ha, ha, ha.

Exactly. It is. But there was a guy in the team who did some break-dancwas ing. It so funny, and we always just used to look forward to those moments.

Okay, let’s have one more crazy story before we let you go.

I remember when I was playing for Polokwane City, I stayed in Polokwane and I can remember how hot it was there. I got used to the heat there, but you can’t get used to the heat in Thohoyandou. It can hit, like, 40 degrees. No, man, that’s too much, ha, ha, ha. It was so hot that we would warm up in the change room, not on the pitch. This was when I was playing for FC AK. I was on loan from (Orlando) Pirates. We would just go inspect the pitch and then go back to the change room. My man, that’s how hot it was! We were travelling to Thohoyandou and it was already hot in the bus. We tried to warm up outside, but we could not take it, so we went to the change room, but the Black Leopards players were there warming up like it was nothing and taking their water breaks.

Ha, ha, ha. They were obviously used to the heat in Thohoyandou. It’s called home ground advantage. Thank you so much for your time, Kyle. Been brilliant getting in touch with you for the last two weeks. We at Soccer Laduma wish you and your family all the best during the festive season. Have yourself a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you so much. Same to you. Thank you for the opportunity to share my stories.