Get sharp and ready with pre season training at our cricket and soccer clinics, and enjoy refining those skills you have mastered this past season with our hockey and special edition World Cup rugby clinics.

As Sporting Chance celebrates 21 years and we start a new coaching season we are proud to welcome new apparel sponsor Hi-Tec and associate sponsor Kauai. We also are delighted to continue our relationship with title sponsor Flip File, and associate sponsors Sportsmans Warehouse, BIC, GM and media partners SuperSport Let’s Play.

Thank you to our sponsors for their continued support and we look forward to having the Sporting Chancers join us on the fields at Constantia, Kelvin Grove, WPCC and Kenridge PS next week!

This is a letter written to the Sporting Chance staff from a wonderful person who volunteered to be a part of this past weekend’s Kellogg’s Health of the Nation: 50 hour sports challenge… thanks Lynn 

Dear Sporting Chance and Sponsors

I got home on Sunday the 18.09.2011, round about 16h30, I was cold and wet, it had been raining that day, the wind was blowing, but I was content. It was the final day of the 50 Hour Healthof the Nation.

My story starts like this:

Thursday morning driving in our tedious traffic to work and listening to Cape Talk Radio Station, I caught the end of an interview between Cape Talk and Brad….. about a
50 Hour Health of the Nation, all I heard was, that there would be hundreds of kids….oh WOW I thought, I wonder if they would need my help, probably not, however I thought….Lynn do not procrastinate again, I thought, send an email offer my help and then at least you know in your heart – you were willing. So my friend “Google” helped me and I sent an e-mail to Sporting Chance.

So off I went, after work to meet Tracey, she briefed me on the weekend’s events and so I agreed to work in what ever role she would require me to fulfil.

Up early Saturday morning, so excited, but also nervous, maybe I am not going to fulfil “their” requirements, maybe they are going to say, “thanks for Saturday” but you don’t have to come back Sunday. Oh well I have committed – no turning back now.

Saturday 17.09.2011

On arriving, I could not believe the amount of people involved, I was given a t-shirt, which I wore, for some strange reason, with so much pride, as I still was not sure what was in line for me the weekend, but proud I was !

I have never seen so many kids in one given space at any one given time – They were all seated in rows in their different schools. “We” started with early morning dancing, just to get the kids “on a high” well they were. I was coordinating the body measurements – being their weight, height, waist and hips measurements, in addition to the sit and reach.

There was not one child who did not want to participate, they would line up with such excitement, just to do the next exercise. I had the most awesome group of students, they were all so dedicated to what they were doing, it was really unbelievable – well 18h00 arrived – too soon for me – and that was the end of day 1.

The kids lined up again in their different schools, and the music starting playing, You just had to be there to experience the enthusiasm from the kids, they danced, we danced – Words cannot describe what I saw with my own two eyes – the only way are by the photos that were taken – and then maybe you will understand.

I left on such a high note, and could not wait for Sunday.

Sunday 18.09.2011

Cold…raining and water logged fields with gusty winds….but that never stopped the enthusiasm from either Coaches or children. My station was still outside, but we had some cover. The students carried on showing their love and dedication towards the kids as if it was a hot summer’s day. There was such an aura about Sunday, I am still struggling to explain to myself how to describe the aura, but believe me it was an aura of joy, and that nobody gave up, just because the weather did not play its role, but as I have learnt in life everything happens for a reason and only time will tell.

Unfortunately we could not get to measure all of the kids, but that was a sign for me that the kids that were not measured will come back into my life sometime soon. All the kids lined again in their different schools inside the hall, we all danced and danced – till it was time to part.

On each day each child was given a “goodie” bag and something to eat, as they left to board their various busses.

I had the privilege of meeting the Kellogg’s team, but could not even say “Thank you”, the lump in my throat was too great.

In my heart I refused to say good bye to anyone, the kids, the students, the coaches, or even management for that matter, because I knew somewhere, sometime or someplace our paths will cross again.

With Love and Gratitude for allowing me this privilege of participating

Lynn Sevenster

Special thanks to Dawn Barrett and the Cape Town Nomadik Tents branch for their continued support!

This year, in addition to all the fun and games of this annual sporting extravaganza, the schoolchildren also took part in a serious fact-finding study, a 10-year follow-up to the original ground-breaking Health of the Nation study, which first revealed the magnitude of obesity in South African children. The resulting information and statistics will assist health and education policy makers to gauge where we are, so that they can continue steering SA youth towards healthier lifestyles.   The Kellogg’s Health of the Nation 50-Hour Sports Challenge is supported by the national Department of Health Promotion, Western Cape Department of Health, Education, Cultural Affairs and Sport.

Thanks to our sponsors Kellogg’s in association with Virgin Active, KIA Motors, SuperSport Let’s and Good Hope fm for making the project possible. and to the Sporting Chance team of coaches for all their hard work.

The 2011 Kellogg’s Health of the Nation project in association with SuperSport Let’s Play, Virgin Active and KIA Motors with radio partners Good Hope fm, is a Four Phase programme that highlights the importance of physical activity and leading a healthy lifestyle.

The Ocean View community are participating in the Kellogg’s Health of the Nation for the first time, which meant they were all eager to be a part of the action. Phase 1: The Health Education road show takes the format of engaged learning, with the participants being divided into sub groups and spending 15-20 minutes at four activity zones as follows:

1. PHYSICAL ACTIVITY: This zone highlights the importance of physical activity through a series of fun exercises & drills including shuttles runs, sit  ups, push ups and hand-eye coordination exercises. Variations of the conventional drills focus on emphasising the enjoyment of physical activity with the participants competing in: Sack Races – increase lower body strength; Ball and spoon races – increase hand eye co-ordination; Wheel barrow races – increase upper body strength; Sprint races – increase in speed off the mark; Shuttle races – increase in endurance

2. NUTRITION: This zone is facilitated by Kellogg’s dieticians and highlights the importance of eating a balanced diet & making healthy food choices. The activity includes a workshop focusing on food groups and the benefits attached.

3. HEALTH EDUCATION: This zone focussed on personal hygiene and the importance of washing hands, brushing teeth, keeping your body clean with emphasis on its relation to preventing TB etc. When? Why? and How? we should we carry out this daily routine.

4. FITNESS SPECIFIC: This zone focuses on specialised activities that advise participants on specific exercises to improve their sporting abilities. Through this participants are introduced to the scientific research testing that will take place at the Kellogg’s Health of the Nation: 50 hour sports challenge.

The session concluded with a group ‘Question and Answer’ session to illustrate the life skills discussed before all participants were part of a vibe dance in preparation for their participation in Phase 2: Kellogg’s Health of the Nation 50 hour sports challenge next week.

Day 2 of the road show saw the team visit Gugulethu where the participants from the schools excitedly gathered at NY49 to be a part of the Kellogg’s Health of the Nation project.

Look forward to sharing the rest of the week’s activities…

Sporting Chance, together with Kenridge Primary hosted the annual Sporting Chance/Kenridge u13 Inter-Schools hockey tournament at the Stellenbosch University hockey complex on Friday 26^th August 2011.

Twenty four teams, involving over 300 boys and girls from primary schools throughout the Northern Suburbs and Helderberg participated in the tournament, which has become a prestigious event on the junior hockey calendar.

The u13 format means it’s full field hockey, with made the Stellenbosch hockey complex abuzz with activity as matches were played on both the grass and astro turf fields. Teams played a series of round robin matches, before the play offs and finals being played under lights in front of hundreds of proud parents and spectators.

The matches were tightly contested from the first ‘hit off’ and it was a superb spectacle of hockey. After a busy afternoon it was Somerset House, Kenridge, Eversdal and Gene Louw in the girls semi finals and Monte Vista, Bastion, Kenridge and Somerset House in the boys. Two of the semi finals went down to ‘one on one’s’ with the keepers, which is a new format introduced to take the place of penalty flicks and provides excellent entertainment.

At the final whistles it was both the Kenridge teams that emerged victorious achieving the much sought after ‘Double’ which made the host school very proud.

The evening was concluded with a prize giving that saw the individual winners and teams honoured with prizes. The winners and runners up received medals and trophies along with prizes from Sportsmans Warehouse.

The individual winners received awesome prizes from TK hockey and respective recipients were as follows:

Sarah Wilmans (Som House) - Girls Player of the Tournament with her new stick from TK

Top goal scorer:

Boys: Christiaan Coetzee (Kenridge)

Girls: Caitlin Butler (Gene Louw)

Best goal keeper

Boys: Keiron-Bruce Robertshaw (Monte Vista)

Girls: Julia Masureik (Kenridge)

Player of the tournament:

Boys: Jason Vermaak (Kenridge)

Girls: Sarah Wilmans (Somerset House)

A welcome addition to the prize winners was the sportsmanship award which rewards a member from each team that is nominated by their coach. No players

Jason Vermaak (Kenridge) - Boys Player of the Tournament with his prizes

went home empty handed as with the support of sponsors Flip File and BIC Sporting Chance gave each participant some products to take with them.

It was a wonderful occasion filled with fun competitive matches and was an excellent showpiece for Western Province schools hockey. Well done and thank you to the Kenridge staff for their outstanding organization and thanks to all the sponsors and spectators that supported the event.

With these findings in mind and to highlight the importance of physical activity, Sporting Chance initiated the Kellogg’s Health of the Nation 50-hour Sports Challenge in 2006. During the Challenge, children participating in the event keep a ball in motion for an uninterrupted 50 hours, to highlight the importance of physical activity in children’s lives.

Now, Six years on, the programme has grown exponentially and we are excited to confirm that we will reintroduce some of the initial research testing into this year’s project. The project is four phases:

Phase 1: In the build up to the 50 hour sports Challenge, Sporting Chance, in association with the National Department of Health and Kellogg’s dieticians, host health educational road shows in selected communities. These sessions address specific social concerns within communities including nutrition, how to lead an active life, prevent obesity and principles of personal hygiene.

Phase 2: Using the basis of the original Health of the Nation research tests conducted, Sporting Chance together with a team of exercise scientists will test all the challenge participants and in this way gather a database in order to compare the results collected over seven years ago. The tests will also look at BMI and cardio vascular risk.

Phase 3: The sixth Kellogg’s Health of the Nation 50-hour Sports Challenge, in association with Sporting Chance, Virgin Active, Kia Charity and Care and Supersport Lets Play, kicks off in Cape Town in mid September before heading to Johannesburg to coincide with National Nutrition Week in October. Good Hope fm will be the radio partner in Cape Town with SAfm in Johannesburg.

Phase 4: The long term goal of the project is to implement school intervention programmes focused on the importance of physical activity and to show government the value of physical education in the school curriculum.

The 2011 Kellogg’s Health of the Nation 50-hour Sports Challenge has the support of the provincial and municipal Departments of Health, Basic Education and Sport & Recreation, in addition to celebrity health ambassadors, who will promote the project and further encourage healthy and active lifestyles among South Africa’s youth.

Kellogg’s Health of the Nation 50 hour sports challenge:

Cape Town: Fri 14^th to Sun 16^th September 2011 – WPCC Sports Centre, Rondebosch

Johannesburg: October 2011

The Grassy Park community came out in their numbers and hosted the finals in supreme style. The Metro Police were sideline to ensure everyone was well looked after, while the large group of media buzzed around catching all of the action.

Before proceedings, special honour was paid to two significant women who recently passed away. Aunty Shirley from Manenberg was a long serving member of the Sporting Chance team, and Mrs Abrahams who lived in the street which plays host to KIA Street Soccer in Grassy Park. They will long be missed and we thank them for their contribution to Sporting Chance and to the children of their community.

The twenty teams were divided into four pools of five, the format was demanding with only the top team in each pool progressing to the semi finals. The competitive spirit was evident from the first kick off and the each region was well represented by their boys and girls.

The matches were tightly contested throughout the afternoon with the players putting on a wonderful spectacle of this specially adapted version of the beautiful game. An esteemed line up of special guests made time in their busy schedules to offer their support, including MEC for Sport and Cultural Affairs in the Western Cape, Dr Ivan Meyer; Mayoral Committee Member for Community Services, Councillor Tandeka Gqada; SA cricket icon Herschelle Gibbs and former Bafana Bafana star, Thabo Mngomeni.

After tough round robin matches it was an all ‘township’ affair in the semi finals as Langa, Nyanga and both teams from Khayelitsha finished top of their respective pools. In hard fought semis with hundreds of supporters lining the pavements it was ‘team South Africa’ from Khayelitsha and ‘team Zimasa’ from Langa that emerged victorious and moved onto the final.

The stage was set… the lines were redrawn on the tar pitch, a new ball was supplied and the teams lined up opposite each other to shake hands.It was end-to-end action for the twenty minutes and after a skilled battle it was Khayelitsha that won the dual claiming with it the 2011 Western Cape KIA Street Soccer trophy.

A fitting ceremony concluded the day with thank yous to the sponsors, and prizes from AJAX Cape Town and Sporting Chance been awarded to the winners. No participant however went home empty handed, as each player was delighted to receive a food pack and Let’s Play soccer ball.

The Western Cape finals brought to a close the 2011 KIA Street Soccer programme which has seen Sporting Chance, with the support of title sponsor KIA Motors and associate sponsors Foodzone, Dawn Wing and media partners Supersport Let’s Play and Good Hope fm roll out a neighbourhood street soccer programme in streets in and around Durban, Johannesburg, Tshwane, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth as part of FIFA’s Ticket Fund legacy. The KIA Street Soccer League was created as one of the tiers of the Ticket Fund initiative as a means of adding sustainability to the programme which has involved 4 500 boys and girls under the age of 13 and provided contractual employment for 800 coaches.

The Sporting Chance team look forward to evaluating the 2011 programme and planning the road ahead with sponsors for KIA Street Soccer in the future. Keep watching this space!

The weather has been sublime and we couldn’t be more grateful to have had a warm week in the middle of July. Not sure if it’s climate change or just pure luck with the timing, but it certainly made the clinics run well with everyone enjoying the winter sunshine.

The Constantia venue has again proved popular with both the rugby and soccer clinics being well attended. Of particular interest was the amount of players that come from the traditional Southern Schools that enjoy soccer and would like to see the sport being introduced into their school sports structure… we will have to watch that space.

Bellville and Somerset West venues have been busy with the three sports codes producing good results. Kelvin Grove was buzzing with activity as the soccer and rugby boys and girls were put through their paces.

The highlight of the week must be the awesome vibe and amazing performance of the close on 100 juniors and seniors at the WPCC astro hockey clinic. The coaching team was phenomenal featuring a group of provincial and top level club players and SA women’s hockey player, Cindy Brown and SA u21 representative, Taylor Dart. To have a coaching team with such experience and hockey pedigree is fantastic and the skills certainly rubbed off on the eager participants.

SA cricket icon Herschelle Gibbs was once again passing on his expertise and incredible skills. His presence was well received by the young Sporting Chancers and their parents alike.

Many thanks to our Sporting Chance team of coaches and our sponsors Flip File, Sportsmans Warehouse, Second Skins, GM, BIC, TK hockey and SuperSport Let’s Play for their continued support.