School of Excellence camp postponed

Veronica Gwaze

Sports Reporter

NORTHERN Region Women Soccer League has suspended this edition of the National Foods School of Excellence (SOE) camp to pave the way for the ongoing Confederation of African Football (CAF) Schools team selection tournament.

Scheduled for Bulawayo’s Petra College, the youth football selection tourney which started yesterday will conclude tomorrow.

With the two-week long National Foods SOE camp previously scheduled between August 15 to 31 at Ellis Robins High School, the organisers had to suspend their plans.

The SOE, meant to develop talent and be the main feeder channel into the national women’s teams by attracting and grooming players from across the country, is expected to resume in December school holiday.

The suspension serves to allow for the School of Excellency’s athletes to participate in the CAF Schools selection.

“This decision was not made lightly, but due the fact that some players are committed with the super league and also some will be attending to CAF African Schools Championship,” NRWSL chairperson Peter Gonyora

“The main purpose for the SOE is to groom talent and be the main feeder channel into the national teams hence the need to suspend this edition and allow our athletes to take part in the selection tournament.

“Our athletes are aged between 15 and 18 so we could not take away the opportunity to have them selected into the CAF Schools teams

“We will also use the tournament to assess our progress as the SOE, if we have a high number of our athletes selected into the teams then it means we are in the right direction.”

After the Under-15s selection, Zimbabwe Football Association are also expected to complete the appointment of the women national teams.

The coaches will hit the ground running as they will have to take part in the Under-17s and Under-20s national team selection between August 23 and 27.

“We could have simply postponed the camp by a few days but with the national teams’ selection also coming shortly after, it means a huge part of the school holiday will be gone,” said Gonyora.

“Everything was already in place to host 51 athletes so we engaged the stakeholders and suspended everything which means that we are all set for December holiday.”

National Foods SOE was created for young girls of ages 18-years and below to regroup during school holidays for mentorship towards the improvement of their football skills.