SUIVEZ-NOUS SUR
FRONTBALL ACADEMY - SOUTH AFRICA
MARCH 2015
A new team of OPEN WALLS visited South Africa at the end of March with
two objectives for this mission:
- Open a new site in Ermelo OPEN WALLS, two and a half hours east of Johannesburg
- Follow the up-date on the site of QwaQwa which opened in July.
It is due to the collaboration with the association Children of the Dawn that these underprivileged children in South Africa have the chance to learn how to play Frontball!
In Ermelo, 20 children between the ages of 8 and 12 years, discovered Frontball on a small wall, originally a tennis training wall. After the distribution of tennis shoes, shorts and tee-shirts, equipment that unfortunately most of these children do not posses, we were able to start two days of initiation, ball games, physical training, and to top off with a big tournament! Encouragement, teamwork, perseverance, desire to progress, desire to win, great joy and happiness could be read on all their faces...
We went back for a second visit to QwaQwa, were we had left our young Frontballers in July, hoping to see their advancements. And after a very joyful welcome, we noted with great pleasure that they had progressed! The coaches have all taken the training very seriously and done a good job. We were even surprised by the performances of some of the new children.
The sneakers are well worn out...
The final tournament was of very good quality, with a great ambiance. Songs and dances accompanied the players throughout the different games, supporting their favorite players. Thabang, the young finalist in July, won the tournament again this time around. The cheers of his supporters enabled a moment of triumph and strong emotion for him and us as well.
The experience for these children to be able to practice Frontball, was both physically and mentally of a great benefit. The immense joy throughout the tournaments brought a lot of emotion to the entire team and once again the meaning and importance of our project Openwall was well proven.