The Chronicle 2022

U14D: Mr S Shabangu U14E: Mr S Goddard U14F/G: M Nene, Mr P Edgar First Team Captain: Lazola Mayekiso

represented the province with distinction. Mr Banele Mlangeni was also appointed as coach for the U16B KZN team. The U18A side was unbeaten and ended up winning the inter provincial tournament. The challenge is to get the trials back into the hands of the schools next year. Our first team was without doubt our flagship and set the standard for the rest of the of the school. After starting with a 1-1 draw against Kearsney College, the team participated in the Big 10 Tournament at Hilton College. After draws against Westville and Northwood, we beat Hilton College (3-2) and Maritzburg College (2-1) on our way to the final where we beat St Charles 5-4 on penalties, to be crowned champions of KwaZulu-Natal. That was followed by a trip to St David’s in Johannesburg where wins against St Stithians (2-1), St Andrew’s (3-2) and St Peter’s (3-2) took us into the semi-finals against Jeppe. We ended up losing 0-2 to Jeppe who went on to win the tournament. A 1-1 draw against Northwood (with ten players on the pitch for most of the match) was followed by a 3-1 win against Clifton College. In light of the matrics writing their trials exams, we basically took a stayers team to the Maritzburg Cup the following weekend and the young team made us proud again by making it all the way into the semi-finals where we lost 2-3 to Alex. The future looks bright. We are already planning for next season, and we are looking forward to an even more successful season in 2023. A final word of thanks to all the coaches and players involved. I so enjoyed the smiles on your faces after a good practice session or a good win on a Saturday. You guys make the sport what it is, and I can never thank you enough for the part you play! You make me proud to oversee this sport!

AWARDS Honours: Kevin Smith, Jason Lawrence, Theo Apteker Colours: Lazola Mayekiso, Misokuhle Hlophe PROVINCIAL REPRESENTATION U19A: Kevin Smith U19B: Jason Lawrence, Theo Apteker U15A: Luke Mitchell SPECIAL AWARDS Goal of the season: Alex Vries Team Spirit Award: Theo Apteker Impact Player of the Season: Jordan Baxter Most Improved Player: Abongile Xulu Service to Football: Lazola Mayekiso Players’ Player of the Season: Lazola Mayekiso Player of the Season: Jason Lawrence After two years without a soccer season, it was wonderful to see the boys back on the pitch again! I must admit that I was slightly worried about the long-term effects of Covid on sport: Would the boys be as enthusiastic to play as before? How did the past two years without a season affect the boys’ skills levels? Would we be able to compete as well as before? There was no cause for concern! Michaelhouse was able to enter 28 teams on SOCS on any given weekend (only two schools could match us) and were more than competitive. In fact, we got the better of everyone that we played against, and an overall summary of results looks as follows: played 163, won 86, drew 35, lost 42. This means that we won or drew 74% of the games we played, with the fifth, U16F, U15D, U14B and U14D teams finishing the season unbeaten! I am certain that these are the best soccer results we have ever had. Soccer is not without reason the most popular sport at Michaelhouse! Provincial trials and selection remain a major source of frustration. Poor communication, a complete disregard for the fact that we have to travel to Durban on numerous occasions and a clear bias towards boys from certain schools are just some of the issues we have to deal with. Despite our excellent results, only four Michaelhouse boys were selected for KwaZulu-Natal teams: Kevin Smith (U18A), Jason Lawrence (U18B), Theo Apteker (U18B) and Luke Mitchell (U15A) T he first team won the inaugural Big 10 Tournament and finished in the top four of both the St David’s Festival and Maritzburg Cup and the U15A team finished in the top four of the St David’s Festival.

2022 SOCCER TEAM P

W

D

L

PF

PA

%

1st XI 2nd XI 3rd XI 4th XI 5th XI 6th XI 7th XI 8th XI 9th XI

18

10

5 3 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 2 2 3 2

3 1 3 1 0 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 5 1

35

29

6 0 2 3

6 7 6 5 6 5 5 1 5 5 5 5 4 2

2 3 4 5 3 4 2 0 3 3 4 3 1 0 3 3

9 9

9 7 8 7

11 19

12

5

12 10 15

-7

15 14

5

-1 -2

0 9

2 7 3 7 5

U16A U16B U16C U16D U16E U16F U15A U15B

2 9 4 7

12 11 12 12

13

-1

3

3

0

11

12 10

17 10

-5

6

0

130