Cape Town - The much anticipated Sporting Chance Street Netball Regional Finals will take place on Youth Day, June 16 in various communities, with the main event being in Langa.
The finals are set to take place after this tournament was first launched eight weeks ago and saw 768 girls from 16 teams in Cape Town formerly disadvantaged communities play in street netball courts, in a series of robin matches.
The Street Netball regional matches will take place simultaneously on Youth Day, at 10am across the Cape communities of Grassy Park, Elsies River, Mitchells Plain, Khayelitsha, Langa, Mfuleni, Ocean View and Nomzamo – with the main event taking place in Mendi Street, Langa in front of Thembani Primary School.
The event, organised by Sporting Chance in partnership with the City of Cape Town marks the countdown before the Netball World Cup, which will take place in Cape Town on July 28.
The Street Netball initiative which is conceived and coordinated by Sporting Chance, a youth sports development organisation based in Cape Town, has also seen all of the girls being given essential life skills training by supporting partner Emthonjeni Counselling and Training. Topics covered over the weeks have included self-esteem, decision-making, surviving or striving, leadership, Dreaming Big, managing stress and anxiety, sexual and reproductive health, hygiene, socio-economic empowerment, gender-based violence and keeping girls at school.
“In addition to this, SA netball icon Phumza Maweni, and the Phumza Maweni Foundation, have been assisting to identify netball players that display exceptional talent and flair and will mentor and monitor their netball progress going forward,” said Brad Bing, the managing director of Sporting Chance.
He said the event gave them a perfect opportunity to market netball in these communities and to instil a love of the game. He said part of this initiative was to bring change into the girls’ lives through netball.
“Tickets for the Netball World Cup will probably be expensive, and as you know, many of these kids come from disadvantaged backgrounds. So we want them to experience the World Cup and to feel like they are part of it while they are unable to attend,” said Bing.