Me & Kay: Greatest coaches in the world

Me & Kay: Greatest coaches in the world. 

We had three official games against Norkem High in our first season and we lost all three. The first game was a Friendly and it's understandable because we were starting out and didn't know the boys all that well. We had more than 50 boys who wanted to be in the team so it was difficult for me and Kay. To be fair though we had the game under control, we were better than Norkem in terms of game play and individual players, we just didn't have a good goalkeeper. Our goalkeeper (Sakhe) drank us that day. On the touchline, Kay was telling me about some kid who was a goalkeeper who came to training the previous week who was a great goalkeeper. We both agreed that we needed to convince him to come back asap. But that was a plan for tomorrow, right now we were trailing Norkem. We managed to come back and made the game 4-4, but in the last moment of the game Sakhe conceded a stupid goal. Final score 5-4, but we consoled the boys and told them it's a draw. It wasn't Sakhes fault that we lost, in truth our defense was weak and Sakhe just carried the burden because he was the last man. Everybody liked Sakhe, he had enthusiasm and his energy was positive, he was always laughing and he loved soccer. He also attended every practice session, his will was just to get better and he did. In the end he became a very good goalkeeper. The Sir. Pierre game was the easiest game ever. We dominated the game and led the game 3-0. How the game finished 3-3, I don't know. It still puzzles me. Literally Sir. Pierre attacked 3 times and they scored 3 times. They scored the most stupid goals ever. True we substituted a couple of players to give others game time and to inspect other players, but the changes were strategic. Sakhe is the reason we drew that game, he made two horrendous mistakes. I think he was just nervous, he fumbled and missed the ball. After the second error, Mr. Dzumba lost his mind and went over my head to substitute Sakhe. Anything and anyone was better than Sakhe! But his replacement Freedom, was worse than Sakhe. A couple of minutes later, Freedom made the biggest error of the game, his error was worse, the dumbest goal you will ever see in your life, everything was under control and the ball came to him, it wasn't a shot, just a misplaced pass from the other team, all he had to do was just to control the ball with his legs, he missed it, no first touch whatsoever, the ball went beneath his elevated foot. Just like that the game finished 3-3. Me and Kay were devastated. Later that night FC Barcelona got eliminated out of the Champions League semi-finals by a bus parking Chelsea at the Nou Camp. Messi missed a penalty that could have taken us to the finals - it was a bad day. We finished 3rd that season. 

The next year and the boys were now U15's. By now we knew our team. This year we were stronger, we had a new goalkeeper and several new players who strengthened our defense and midfield. This was the year, I didn't think we'd lose. We were strong. First game was against Germiston and the game was evenly contested. The game was tactical and physical. 2-2 the game finished, it was a fair result. Mr. Pitseng was the new U14 coach for the new Grade 8s and they lost 5-0 to Germiston. The morale of the boys was low and some boys stopped coming to training. We won our next game, while the U14s lost their second consecutive 5-0 game, this time at home. It was bad. The U14s had exactly 13 players in their whole team. They had no confidence, the morale was low and a couple of players in that 13 were considering quitting. I talked to Kay that it was better if we took over, he agreed. This was better for the school and the boys. Mr. Pitseng just didn't have the time to coach these boys. I talked to Mr. Pitseng and he was relieved, he was happy to give me the team. He gave me all the boys papers and information. He gave me the keys to his classroom and offered his support if we ever needed it. Now me and Kay were coaching two teams. Me and Kay agreed that the U15's were now in free flow. They had a routine, the players knew each other, the chemistry was great, we had instilled a work ethic and they were motivated. They were okay, they didn't need much coaching. All they needed was supervision and I monitored that. The big challenge now was with the new U14 team. They had no confidence and from an initial 13 from the previous match day, there were now 8 boys. Me and Kay saw the challenge and we knew it would be a difficult task. We started rebuilding the team. We recruited back the players who had showed an interest on breaks. The numbers in training started improving. Kay recruited Sakhe from the U15 team, it was legal, Sakhes birthday was in December and he was now a better goalkeeper, he had experience. It was much needed for him too, the U15 team had a new goalkeeper and he (Sakhe) was destined to be on the bench. We called Sakhe to the U14 team because we liked him. From 8 players, we now had 24 players. The morale was good. Me and Kay handled the two teams exceptionally well. The first win for the U14s was so great, they were so happy, we were happy and Mr. Pitseng was also elated. The U15's were now a winning machine. That season with the U15's we finished the season undefeated. It wasn't enough to win the league though, we finished second to Germiston High. They won a game more while we drew, it was a fair result but the writing was on the wall, this U15 side was destined to dominate the district and they did. Germiston, while they won the league were defeated by Norkem, we beat Norkem 3-1 at their own school. We outmatched them everywhere. The following two seasons we dominated the district in convincing fashion, finishing both seasons undefeated - the last loss was when they were U14s. Me and Kay did great. Our new U14 team was also coming on good, we won several games and drew 2-2 against Norkem, it was a good result considering we had administrative problems, some players couldn't play. From a hopeless situation, we led the boys to a third place finish. Both our teams, U14 & U15's did great and for our efforts me and Kay got medals, our silver trophy was shared with the whole school on morning assembly. It was a great year. 

Kay was a perfect partner, absolutely perfect. Truthfully, no one was better than Kay, he was a straight "A" student and had social and emotional intelligence. Kay sat on the first table on the first row with Senzile and the other winners in Physics class. Trust me when I say "no one was better than Kay" - everybody knew that Kay was the best. I respected Kay. He was a winner, diligent, professional, motivated, knowledgeable, intelligent, focused, enthused and totally committed to the course - of course, the greatest soccer team that Rhodesfield Technical has ever seen was started by me & Kay; That's obvious, that is something that was already written by the stars. Thank you Mr. Dzumba for giving me a chance, I am eternally grateful.