The 2023 Chronicle

SOCCER Back Row: Sazi Mbatha, Tshiamo Boikhutso, Alex Vries, Jordan Baxter, Matthew Kennedy, Abongile Xulu Middle Row: Mpumzi Ngogodo, Makabongwe Mace, Tristan Roques, Angelo Nkosi Front Row (seated): Theo Apteker, Jason Lawrence, Mr Ross Dubazana, Elihle Ngcobo, Banele Mlangeni, Muako Maepa, Nkosinathi Khumalo

Mr X Saunderson (manager) First Team Captain: Glen Chiimba AWARDS

term than the winter sports season, but you have to maintain a fine balance between working hard and having fun. I think we managed it perfectly over the first half of the term but were less successful during the second. We simply have to find ways of keeping the boys interested in playing the beautiful game. Committed coaches and committed players are the key elements for success. It does not help that only twoschools in the province are able to match our 26 teams. Boys don’t want to just practice week after week. They want to play and measure themselves against outside opposition. There is an ongoing debate about whether we should restrict our football programme to a limited number of teams per age group. That will ensure that everybody will play every weekend. On the negative side, it will mean that we will lose a lot of players, and I strongly believe that there is strength in numbers. The third term is used for a large variety of activities (outdoor education, pre-season cricket, pre-season water polo, interhouse athletics, a hockey festival, the matric ball, a marimba competition, summer sport fixtures, a choir festival, water polo tours). This makes it hard to compete on an equal footing with other schools because we are never at full strength. Administration remains a huge frustration in KZN. Information gets to us late or not at all, and I honestly think that provincial trials are a farce. Some schools seem to feature very prominently every year when provincial sides are selected. We only had three players in provincial sides this year. Mr Banele Mlangeni, our first team coach, was appointed as manager of the U16A KZN team. Mr Mlangeni, Mr Xulu and Mr Zikhali completed a Safa C Licence course during the July holidays, and we had a couple of professional coaches associated with Golden Arrows visiting us a couple of times to work with our boys and to upskill our coaches. Our A sides attended the St David’s and St Stithians festivals in

Half-Colours: Elihle Ngcobo, Tristan Roques, Angelo Nkosi, Alex Vries, Tshiamo Boikhutso, Matthew Kennedy, Makabongwe Mace, Muako Maepa, Sazi Mbatha, Jordan Baxter, Nkosinathi Kumalo

PROVINCIAL REPRESENTATION U16: Luke Mitchell, Jason Brufau Galvin U15: Tyron Kaufmann SPECIAL AWARDS Most Improved Player: Alex Vries Impact player of the year: Asande Nkosi

Team Spirit Award: Glen Chiimba Player of the season: Tristan Roques Players’ player of the Season: Tristan Roques Noah Stanger Award for service to football: Glen Chiimba he season kicked off with a lot of promise and Michaelhouse had no difficulty dominating in all age groups against St Charles College, Clifton College and Hilton College. But during the second half of the season we seemed to run out of steam. Results were more even against St Charles and Hilton in return fixtures, and we struggled against Maritzburg College and Kearsney College. Final results look as follows: played 145, won 67, drew 25 and lost 46. Football is a unique sport at Michaelhouse. It is played during a more relaxed T

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