SA SCHOOLS Sport Championships team Eastern Cape chef de mission Brian Hendrikse said he was pleased with the way things panned out, especially on operations.
According to him, there were improvements compared to the previous edition. This, with the exception of performances on the field of play where not all went as planned.
Hendrikse though continued to trumpet the management team's horn. “There is a 100% improvement in aspects like preparation, the system we adopted here and operations. This we can attribute to the fact that the 53-member strong management team was made up of people with the necessary skill that we needed and most of them were committed to the cause.”
He said there were three people in charge of every hostel which was not the case in 2014. Transport was well set up and we had reps at all fields.
However, Hendrikse conceded there were challenges.
He said accreditation was the major challenge, blaming schools for changing teamlists at the 11th-hour and athletes failing to furnish accreditation to officials with necessary documentation for approval.
This cost Team Eastern Cape with their U19 soccer side disqualified and the youngsters left to twiddle their thumbs for for the better part of the competition.
Hendrikse stated that there were also rushed decisions that had to be made, some of which were wrong.
He was also not happy with the playing fields that were spread all over Pretoria – far apart from each other, making it difficult to consolidate on logistics.
This, he said, was something Sports and Recreation SA should consider addressing with the organising parties.
The national department has already announced they will be doing exactly that by splitting the event into three parts and each taking place at different times.
About the performance on the field of play, Hendrikse said the underperformance of some of the teams was more complex than many understood it to be.
Explained Hendrickse: “There is no effective and efficient leagues running on a regular basis at schools which makes the performance issue a difficult one to judge.
“Lack of physical education in majority of the schools does not assist the process of developing fundamental movement skills and this has an impact on the standard of sport across the country.”
Hendrikse went on to say the School Sport structures in the province were weak but “as the department of sport, recreation, arts and culture in the province we are working on a turnaround strategy to assist the DoE to develop active school sport and leagues in all codes and schools”.
Hendrickse expresses mixed feelings
According to him, there were improvements compared to the previous edition. This, with the exception of performances on the field of play where not all went as planned.
Hendrikse though continued to trumpet the management team's horn. “There is a 100% improvement in aspects like preparation, the system we adopted here and operations. This we can attribute to the fact that the 53-member strong management team was made up of people with the necessary skill that we needed and most of them were committed to the cause.”
He said there were three people in charge of every hostel which was not the case in 2014. Transport was well set up and we had reps at all fields.
However, Hendrikse conceded there were challenges.
He said accreditation was the major challenge, blaming schools for changing teamlists at the 11th-hour and athletes failing to furnish accreditation to officials with necessary documentation for approval.
This cost Team Eastern Cape with their U19 soccer side disqualified and the youngsters left to twiddle their thumbs for for the better part of the competition.
Hendrikse stated that there were also rushed decisions that had to be made, some of which were wrong.
He was also not happy with the playing fields that were spread all over Pretoria – far apart from each other, making it difficult to consolidate on logistics.
This, he said, was something Sports and Recreation SA should consider addressing with the organising parties.
The national department has already announced they will be doing exactly that by splitting the event into three parts and each taking place at different times.
About the performance on the field of play, Hendrikse said the underperformance of some of the teams was more complex than many understood it to be.
Explained Hendrickse: “There is no effective and efficient leagues running on a regular basis at schools which makes the performance issue a difficult one to judge.
“Lack of physical education in majority of the schools does not assist the process of developing fundamental movement skills and this has an impact on the standard of sport across the country.”
Hendrikse went on to say the School Sport structures in the province were weak but “as the department of sport, recreation, arts and culture in the province we are working on a turnaround strategy to assist the DoE to develop active school sport and leagues in all codes and schools”.
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