adminThe tournament is slated for Saturday and Sunday at Marondera High School.
The event will see 12 schools from the country’s 10 provinces fighting for honours.
The schools are defending champions Dewure and Mwenezi (Masvingo), Prince Edward School (Harare), Gifford High School (Bulawayo), Marondera High and Kandava Secondary School (Mashonaland East), Gaza High (Manicaland), Mos-oa-Tunya (Matabeleland North), Vimbai (Mashonaland West), Howard (Mashonaland Central), Manunure (Midlands), Mzingwane (Matabeleland South).
The schools qualified for the finals after winning the inter-provincial finals held early this month.
The schools will be divided into four group of three with group A made up of Dewure, Mos-oa-Tunya and Prince Edward while Group B comprises Marondera High, Mzingwane and Manunure.
Mwenezi Secondary School, Vimbai and Howard will battle it out in group C and Group D features Kandava, Gifford and Gaza.
The group stage matches will be played on a round robin basis and the winners from each group will progress to the semi-finals on Saturday. The third and fourth place play-offs are set for Sunday as well as the finals.
Coca-Cola brand manager, Mona Karingi, said they were expecting tough competition in this year’s edition with new faces making their way to the finals.
“The competition is going to be stiff. Most of the teams that took part last year failed to qualify showing the stiff competition in the tournament from the preliminary stages.
“Dewure and Mos oa Tunya are the only two schools that are back from last year’s competition,” said Karingi.
This year saw the sponsors increasing the money prize for the competition.
The winners will get US$6 000 while the first runners up will walk away with US$4 000 and the third-placed team will get US$3 000. The ourth placed teams will get US$2 000 and the rest of the teams will get US$1 000 for participating.
The most disciplined team will walk away with US$1 100. The player of the tournament, best goalkeeper, top goal scorer, best defender and best midfielder will get US$100 while the best coach pockets US$200. Dewure beat Dangamvura from Manicaland 2-1 in last year’s finals and will be out to defend their title.
Online Reporter