On Wednesday 13 March, the NV Cewu’s Head of Department for Senior Phase, Thulani Wana, travelled with the Eastern Province Athletics team to Germiston, Gauteng, as the coach of the boys U10-U13 section. Of the team from the Eastern Cape, 21 athletes are from the Sarah Baartman District team that competed in the provincial champs between 1-2 March, which was also coached by Wana.
“Its huge,” said Wana on his selection to coach the provincial side.
“To coach Sarah Baartman district firstly, at the provincial games, it was out of this world.”, he said. “But now to coach the whole Eastern Cape, the whole Eastern Cape has my back and they are watching me. That means everything that I have been doing is being recognised.”
“I think it was Oprah Winfrey that said ‘Be excellent in whatever you do and just give it your all’, those are the words that I live by.”
As a coach at NV Cewu, as well as a teacher at the school, Wana’s selection means a lot for the school and for the staff that surround and support him. “We always give all our energy to develop the kids,” said Anele Ndyolashe, Principal of NV Cewu. “So I am glad that he [Wana] is making it to nationals, from this historic background of us. This is a very disadvantaged school, so out of the whole province that he is selected to coach the Eastern Cape boys, we are so happy and are so glad to have this opportunity for own of our educators.”
Ndyolashe is also proud of the fact that his district of Sarah Baartman has 21 representatives in the provincial team, with one of them, Essonassipho Fani, coming from as near as Dambuza Primary in Port Alfred. “It shows the hard work and dedication made by the athletes and their coaches at school,” said Ndyolashe. “It is a great achievement for us as Sarah Baartman; it shows that we are doing a lot to develop school sports in our area.”
The National Championships in Germiston will take place from 14-16 March.
