PARENTS at Paarl Boys’ High School are up in arms after a decision by the school governing body to discontinue soccer as an official school sport.
Soccer has been a recognised sport at Boys’ High for the past seven years and has grown to accommodate almost 7% of the school population.
But last week this came to a crashing end when the sport committee of the school was informed that soccer would no longer be a school sport.
Scholars who continue to participate in this sport outside school and receive regional or provincial colours, will still be awarded school colours.
Derek Swart, principal of Paarl Boys’ High, said that it was not an easy decision for the governing body to make to discontinue soccer and much consultation was done prior to the decision.
“Even before I had taken up my seat as principal of Paarl Boys’ High, I did an analysis to determine what the needs of the school are.
“After having consulted with various educators, parents, learners, members of senior management and the governing body, it became clear that we face particular management problems in offering soccer as a school sport.
“Our facilities such as sports fields are already over-extended.”
He went on to say that there is no official school league for soccer in the Western Cape or Boland. Although soccer was started at various schools in the Cape Town area, the sport was later also discontinued.
“Because of this our soccer teams mostly play against soccer clubs, over which we have no control or say. This brings about a safety issue for our boys for whom we are responsible.
“Previously boys from outside have also been included in our soccer teams and this is not ideal.”
He added that Boys’ High is traditionally committed to concentrating on sports which are played at most schools in the Western Cape and soccer does not fall into this category.
“In this highly competitive time it is financially more viable for us to concentrate on a smaller variety of sports which are offered at high profile schools.
“It is financially not viable for us to put more strain on our financial resources to accommodate soccer, while the maximum amount of boys who play soccer is only 60.”
Thilo Klingenberg, old boy and soccer coach, said that he was outraged at the manner in which the whole debacle had been handled.
“The one moment we were an up and coming soccer team, and the next moment we were given the boot.
“This past season our under 16 team participated in the Boland play-offs and we also had two players in the Western Cape league.
“As coach, I have always had a very good working relationship with the sports administrators of Boys’ High and I have gone out of my way not to let football interfere with the more popular sports.
“Although we have previously had a few administrative hiccups, everything has been running relatively smooth up until now.”
Another woe for the young soccer players of Paarl is the fact that there are no clubs in the region for them to play against.
“The nearest clubs with youth teams are in Durbanville and Stellenbosch. Had there been such a local club, this could have been a compromise.”
One disgruntled parent said that the soccer teams had always been side-lined and often battled to practise because of a lack of sports fields.
“We are forced to train late in the afternoon, only after the rugby boys have trained.
“Then soccer was blamed for damaging the school field.”
Another parent said that the soccer boys were extremely dedicated and that this had seen the teams improving steadily.
