Frontball Academy - Southafrica 2017

APRIL 2017

Back to South Africa

For the fourth consecutive year, a team of Frontball Developpement went to South Africa to carry on developping this intense mission.

This year, we came back to the two first places that the organization « Children of Dawn » had presented to us (QwaQwa and Ermelo), before going to Pretoria, Swaziland and Lesotho.

First, in Pretoria, we have worked in collaboration with the organization « New Beginningz » which aims at helping children who live and work in the streets. Thanks to them, twenty motivated young people have started to practice since December with a very implicated coach and very elementary infrastructures.

Nevertheless, they have proudly and joyfully shown us their plentiful technical and physical achievements. That’s the reason why we really have faith in our project.

Then, we went to Swaziland. In that small kingdom situated between South Africa and Mozambique.

We were welcomed by a part of the Olympic National Committee. Our purpose was to introduce frontball to twenty teachers coming from the whole country. There, they could start practicing on makeshift walls. The popularity of such an accessible sport opened a potential successful path in Swaziland.

Back to South Africa, we went to Ermelo to discover the first official African walls of Frontball we had decided to build in the local sports complex, in order to provide good infrastructures for practice and competitions.

We encountered the almost finished walls, which will be ready for the first African championship of Frontball.

Thanks to them, the young athletes can practice in realistic conditions and significantly improve their level with no restriction. The major of Ermelo and some journalists were present for the opening tournament that gathered young people from Ermelo, QwaQwa and Pretoria. Despite an oppressive heat, the players gave us a high level performance.

Chants, dances, exultation.... These youngsters know how to show up.

How impressive are they with such quick improvements in just a few years!

The next stop was QwaQwa where we are used to being surprised and amazed every year. QwaQwa is where we introduced Frontball for the first time in Africa. This place is even more significant for us because we meet all the young athletes up, and see them growing up and improving. In spite of a threatening weather, they impressed us once again.

The concluding step was Maseru, in Lesotho, where the National Olympic Committee received us too. Lesotho is a landlocked and mountainous small state within the South African territory. There we could discover the « Olympafrica Center » which proposes several sports to the children of Lesotho. Frontball is a rookie sport in Lesotho, because Kathleen has taught the teachers virtually on Skype just for three months. During our stay, children practiced with a surprising dexterity and solid basis on each side of the wall. Frontball is actually an accessible sport.

Throughout this entire mission, we never stopped meeting motivated teenagers and enthusiastic supervising staff. Concrete innovating projects are arising in different places. Africa definitely passed Frontball.

See you in 2018, for the first African contest of Frontball !