{"id":29683,"date":"2023-04-05T12:34:50","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T10:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football.supersportschools.com\/?p=976"},"modified":"2023-04-05T12:34:50","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T10:34:50","slug":"fighting-teenage-pregnancies-alcohol-and-drug-abuse-through-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=29683","title":{"rendered":"Fighting teenage pregnancies, alcohol and drug abuse through sport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-977\" src=\"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Football-Schools--300x157.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"209\" \/>GQEBERHA \u2013 The Victoria Park Soccer Challenge Girls Cup Champions, Vulumzi High School, are playing for more than just a victory on the field but more so for a victory off the field.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <strong>Victoria Park Soccer Challenge<\/strong> kicked off on Friday, 31<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">st<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> March 2023, at Victoria Park High School in Walmer, Gqeberha.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Schools from all corners of the country gathered and competed as Victoria Park once again hosted the impactful tournament.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Originating from the gang ridden streets of Motherwell, the biggest township in South Africa, <strong>Ntombekhaya Tose<\/strong> marshaled her troops to the Girls Cup Final where they beat Alexander Road High School five goals to nil.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tose, a teacher and coach at Vulumzi, had done this many times in the past but this time round, the decorated coach led an all-girls team with a different purpose in mind.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alcohol and drug abuse prevail in the townships in South Africa mainly because of the vandalized sporting facilities which were built to keep township kids off the streets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Coaching an all-girls team, Tose is determined to play a part in her girls\u2019 lives to help them avoid the snares of township life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Too many times, young girls growing up in townships fall victim to teenage pregnancy and alcohol abuse for a host of different reasons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tose believes sport is the solution for her girls to build a fruitful life for themselves and their families.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe are able to run away from the negative things like alcohol, teenage pregnancies,\u201d Tose told SuperSport Schools in an exclusive interview. <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-979\" src=\"https:\/\/football.supersportschools.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/IMG_0453-300x207.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"276\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe use sport as our traditional weapon to fight all these things.\u201d She added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A netball player in her youth, Tose is a passionate sport fanatic and coach.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Her drive is to expose her girls to sport as a career path that they all can venture into. Tose emphasized that some girls may not be as talented academically as they may be in sport, hence the need for more investments into sport for girls in the townships.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAlso, we use sport to make learners feel valuable because other kids aren\u2019t A students. You need to test and explore the child\u2019s talents whether that\u2019s in the classroom or out in the field,\u201d said Tose.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI like to work with young ones, inside and outside the classroom. I feel it is my duty to lead and inspire these young girls to see themselves living a better life than what they are exposed to in the townships.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sport is still a male-dominated industry in South Africa. Whether it is out in the field or in admin offices, there\u2019s more men than there are women.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tose believes this is mainly because girls are not exposed to the many opportunities of sports from a young age quite like young boys are.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Her dream is to see the girls involved in sport in some capacity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cFootball to me is no longer just a game to play for enjoyment but it can serve as a source of employment,\u201d said Tose.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBeing a school based in Motherwell where there is a high rate of unemployment, some of these girls may not be that good in the field but they may be good doing administrative work in football for example.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWithin football, I want to push these girls to get into admin should it happen that they don\u2019t make it to the professional scene as players.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The journey to a prosperous society and sporting environment is accelerated by the likes of Ntombekhaya Tose who strive to use sport as a vehicle for change.\u00a0 <\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GQEBERHA \u2013 The Victoria Park Soccer Challenge Girls Cup Champions, Vulumzi High School, are playing for more than just a victory on the field but more so for a victory off the field.\u00a0 The Victoria Park Soccer Challenge kicked off on Friday, 31st March 2023, at Victoria Park High School in Walmer, Gqeberha.\u00a0 Schools from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":29491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}