Copa schools’ bosses to meet

Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
PARTICIPANTS in the Copa Coca-Cola boys Under-16 and girls Under-17 football tournament from Harare province will meet today at Oriel Boys High for a preparatory meeting ahead of the provincial finals set for Friday. Oriel Boys High will host the boys competition while Oriel Girls High hosts the girls event with nine schools participating in each category.

The winner from each section will join Churchill and Roosevelt in representing Harare in the national finals to be staged in Harare from July 18 to 20.

Churchill and Roosevelt qualified for the finals by the virtue of being the hosts for the boys and girls competition respectively.
That means Harare will have four schools competing in this year’s edition.

For the provincial finals, the boys section will see hosts Oriel Boys High School, Churchill, Mabvuku High, Seke 1 High, Marlborough, Ellis Robins, Prince Edward, Mufakose 1 High and Glen Norah 2 High School fight for the single spot.

Oriel Girls High, Mbare High, Tafara 1, Zengeza 2 High, Vainona High School, Mabelreign Girls High, Budiriro 1, Girls High and Highfield will battle it out in the girls section.

Head in charge of soccer Harare province, Ropafadzo Matemavi, said the preparatory meeting was meant to update the participants on the rules and regulations of the tournament and they will also conduct a draw for the teams.

The meeting will be attended by the heads in charge of soccer, sports directors and representatives from all the participating schools.
“Preparations are at an advanced stage, we are almost there. We have nine schools in the boys Under-16 and nine schools for the girls Under-17.

“We are going to have a preparatory meeting tomorrow (today) at Oriel Boys High to be clear on the rules and regulations. I think this will reduce cheating. We are also going to have the draw.

“We have not hosted the event in our district for quite some time so we expect the turnout of spectators to be high.
“We believe it’s going to be quite entertaining and there is going to be stiff competition,” said Matemavi.

Matemavi said the schools will be divided into three groups of three and the top schools will progress to the semi-finals where they will be joined by the overall best runner-up.

“We will have three groups of three. We will pick the top schools from the groups and then decide on the best runner-up according to their playing to make four teams for the semi-finals and the best two schools go to the finals,” said Matemavi.

Last year Harare were represented by Churchill in the boys section and Vainona in the girls tournament.
Churchill came fourth after losing to Sakubva in the third and fourth play-offs while Vainona, who had won the title for two consecutive years since the introduction of the girls competition in 2011, lost to Chidyamakono of Masvingo in the finals.