Davidson Primary School were named Eastern Cape provincial U13 boys hockey champions after triumphing at the provincial playoffs in Port Elizabeth recently.
The Alice-based school team were crowned champs after finishing unbeaten to top the table.
They now qualify to compete as the Eastern Cape representatives at the National Schools Championship in Pretoria in December.
Davidson were at the tournament as the representatives of the Amathole region after winning the regionals to earn that right.
They were up against Nelson Mandela Metro champions Gelvan Park and Chris Hani District representatives Louis Rex.
After Louis Rex opened their tournament with a confident win over Gelvan, Davidson were under immediate pressure to get a result as defeat would have made Louis Rex champions.
Davidson dug deep and scored to register a hard-fought 2-1 victory.
They then came up against Gelvan and knew that a win or a draw would see them through as champs.
Davidson duly delivered as they fought out a 1-all draw to finish on four points, one ahead of Louis Rex in third while Gelvan had to settle for last place.
The Border hockey development programme played a big part in helping the team reach the nationals.
The school is part of the development programme of Border hockey under the auspices of SA Hockey.
What made the school’s achievement even more amazing was that they did not have the facilities of an Astroturf in the area and parents had to sacrifice so that the players could practice on the Astroturf at Dale College in King William’s Town on Saturdays.
“We worked extremely hard for this and we prepared and planned as best we could,” said Davidson coach Laetitia Golden.
“A special word of thanks needs to be given to the following coaches – Bernadette Adonis, Sikangele Sidzatane, Vusi Mba and Pricilla van der Merwe – who assisted in preparing the team for the provincial and now national tournament,” said Golden.
Going into the nationals Border hockey will be assisting the team by offering a high performance programme for the players.
Davidson’s young guns show spurs
The Alice-based school team were crowned champs after finishing unbeaten to top the table.
They now qualify to compete as the Eastern Cape representatives at the National Schools Championship in Pretoria in December.
Davidson were at the tournament as the representatives of the Amathole region after winning the regionals to earn that right.
They were up against Nelson Mandela Metro champions Gelvan Park and Chris Hani District representatives Louis Rex.
After Louis Rex opened their tournament with a confident win over Gelvan, Davidson were under immediate pressure to get a result as defeat would have made Louis Rex champions.
Davidson dug deep and scored to register a hard-fought 2-1 victory.
They then came up against Gelvan and knew that a win or a draw would see them through as champs.
Davidson duly delivered as they fought out a 1-all draw to finish on four points, one ahead of Louis Rex in third while Gelvan had to settle for last place.
The Border hockey development programme played a big part in helping the team reach the nationals.
The school is part of the development programme of Border hockey under the auspices of SA Hockey.
What made the school’s achievement even more amazing was that they did not have the facilities of an Astroturf in the area and parents had to sacrifice so that the players could practice on the Astroturf at Dale College in King William’s Town on Saturdays.
“We worked extremely hard for this and we prepared and planned as best we could,” said Davidson coach Laetitia Golden.
“A special word of thanks needs to be given to the following coaches – Bernadette Adonis, Sikangele Sidzatane, Vusi Mba and Pricilla van der Merwe – who assisted in preparing the team for the provincial and now national tournament,” said Golden.
Going into the nationals Border hockey will be assisting the team by offering a high performance programme for the players.
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