Who Is Coach B? - Part 2

Hi Everyone,

I received a lot of positive feedback in response to my previous blog post. Your support has been overwhelming and appreciated.

Please keep a look out on my facebook page as I will be posting when Brylon Is playing.

This is a continuation to my blog titled “Who Is Coach B”.

If you recall, we had stopped when I was touring Johannesburg with the KZN selected team.

After touring Johannesburg, it was time to write my final matric exams. All soccer activity was therefore placed on hold (for obvious reasons). On completion of the exams, I received a call from my KZN Coach informing me that we have a game against the Golden Arrows reserve team. Keep in mind that I have not been on the training ground for about 4 months, so fitness was a problem, but this was a big opportunity for me to get closer to my dream. Game day arrived and I was nervous as hell, but knew I just needed to do what I love doing, which I did. After the game, I was approached by the Coach who offered me the opportunity to wear the green and gold of Golden Arrows. I was over the moon, but the issue was that I lived about an hour away from training, so that would mean travelling every day, but there was no way I was turning this opportunity down.

Training was 4 days a week, and because of me not having my license, I had to jump in a taxi and travel every day. I remember falling asleep in the taxi on a daily basis (especially after training). The experience I gained during my time with Golden Arrows was great and I had learnt a lot. After 6 months with the team, I left and returned to play in my hometown.

On my return to Pietermaritzburg, I started playing for Leicester City FC in the SAB Castle League. This is where my confidence started to develop again. During this time, I also got my first coaching job at Carter High School where I coached the U15A team and what a team it was. I used to call them my superstars, as they were amazing to watch (not because I coached them, but because of the talent they displayed). The team went on to have an unbeaten season, which was one of my first ever as a coach.

The following year, Carter High School informed me that that they are trying to keep cost low and as a result, they will only have teachers coaching the soccer teams. This was understandable and life went on.

It was Carter vs. Maritzburg College at Carter High School, Brylon had attended Maritzburg College so I went to watch him play. While there, I decided to see how my team from the previous year was doing. They were losing 1 - 0 and I could see that the Coach at the time had no idea what was going on, so I stepped in to assist. The game ended 1 – 1 which was a good result given the fact that most of the players from the U15 team where now playing in the Carter High First team. I left and went to watch Brylon play. The team then approached me, put their kits by my feet and said that they really would like me to come back and coach them. I later received a call from the Head of Sport to ask if I would be willing to take on that team, which I gladly accepted.

I did not stop playing, but I soon realised it was time to further my career, I could not just stay in Pietermaritzburg, I wanted more, especially after losing my grandfather (CWJ) the same year, I needed more!

I trained every day without fail. My schedule was as follows: 5am: running up and down the hill at home, 9am: Gym, 11am: I was on the grounds doing some work alone and later in the afternoon, I would attend my team training. This was my schedule day in and day out; I needed to put the extra work in if this is what I wanted. My family would record my games and I started uploading them to YouTube. In my spare time, I would send the links to teams in England and America with the hope that something could come from it and to my luck, it did. Luton Athletic Football Club in the United Kingdom contacted me. I was hoping that this could be my big break; all I had to do was get myself to England, which my parents gladly assisted with. Bought my plane ticket and sent me on my way. I spent 6 months in the UK where I played against Tottenham Hotspurs, Ireland u19, had the opportunity to play in The King Power Stadium and at the great Upton Park (West Ham Grounds). I also met some amazing people that treated me like family and made my stay in the UK so much more pleasant. Unfortunately, my time in England was not as great as I had hoped and once my visa expired, it was time to return back to South Africa where I would take the experience gained and use it to my advantage. Well so I thought…..

I had people organizing trials for me at Maritzburg United at the time and I couldn’t wait to go out there and play, so I decided one day that I would go to the local grounds and do some extra training with one of the teams to get my fitness levels where it needed to be. During the training session, worst thing that could have happened had just happened! I felt my ankle giving in and pain shot right through my body. I couldn’t walk neither could I stand on it. I was rushed to the hospital where I was told that I had torn a ligament in my ankle. My options were to, either have surgery to put it back together or just wait for it to heal and see what happens. We opted for the latter as the doctor said this would be a better option. Onto crutches I go for a good 3 months, had physiotherapy for another 3 months but the ankle was just not coming right. I would go and jog on the grounds but could not last as long as I needed to; it just wasn’t getting any better which obviously interfered with my playing time. I had to make a decision to carry on chasing this dream or stop and concentrate on studying. This was by far the hardest decision I had to make in my life. I chose to focus on my studies.

I was broken because I couldn’t play, but still had the opportunity to continue coaching and lucky for me, the Head of Sport at Carter High School had called to ask me to coach the First Team. What a privilege this was as I was once the captain of the exact team (definitely the highlight of my coaching career thus far). I coached the team from 2012 to 2013. The highlight of these two years was actually getting Carter High School back into the Annual Kloof High School Tournament. Carter was previously banned from the tournament in 2008 (won’t go into that, had some rascals as players LOL). We were invited to take part in the pre-season tournament in 2012 and used this as an opportunity to get the team back into this tournament. We made it to the finals where we faced one of our rivals, Maritzburg College, and Brylon was in the goals for them. It was a good game as both teams had their chances missed, the game had to be decided by way of penalties and if you remember from the last story, you just can’t beat Brylon in penalties. We lost on penalties but we had achieved our goal of getting Carter back into the tournament.

2013 was an even better year for me as this time I had my dad coaching at Carter with me. He never understood why I would spend so much time and put so much effort into coaching until he was actually in the position I was in to see what it is like to have young talented boys look up to you. We then went to Kloof Tournament where our aim was just to go and enjoy. Unfortunately, we had gone without a goalkeeper as our goalkeeper had walked off the pitch in a previous game while the game was still being played. I personally couldn’t take a player like that to go and play in a tournament. The team went all the way to the quarter finals where we faced Westville Boys High School who in the end beat us 1 - 0. They then went on to win the tournament.

I then got a full time job and had to stop coaching at Carter. I then went on to coach a team in the SAB Castle League team where I was assisting the owner of the team for the 2013/14 season. I only stayed there for 6 months before moving to another SAB Castle Team as an assistant until the end of the season. This was good experience for me but also wasn’t the right time as I was still very young and inexperienced.

That was the end of me having any involvement in soccer in Pietermaritzburg. I wanted to complete my degree and be a Chartered Accountant. From the soccer field to sitting behind a desk, makes no sense right!? but it is what it is. So from 2014 up until January 2017, I had no involvement in soccer in anyway. Until I moved to Johannesburg.

I would always go and watch Brylon’s Varsity Cup games and there was this guy I knew from my SAFA course that I was on in 2012. I approached him and we started catching up. He later asked me for my CV and in all honesty, I felt as though it would be a waste of time, I knew he won’t help me (you know how bruino’s are)! But I soon had to swallow my words, as I received an email from WJFC stating that they want to meet with me to discuss the possibility of me coaching there. And the rest is history as I am now an official Coach of Wits Junior Football Club!!!

Coach B