Cape Town - A soccer team from Cecil Road Primary School was left beaming after receiving new kit from retired sports anchor and FC Kapstadt football club owner Zaid Omar.
Omar, who attended the school as a Sub A (now Grade1) pupil back in 1979, decided to give back to the place that taught him how to persevere. Omar said Cecil Road Primary played a significant role in his career.
He has enduring memories of his Sub B teacher, who taught him and his classmates that anything was possible if they persevered, and the word “persevere”was the school’s motto.
“In 1986, while doing Standard 5, I was part of the Cecil Road School soccer team which beat Dryden Street Primary in the primary school knock-out final to win the Knock-Out Cup primary school title. I scored two goals in that final, and it was my first successful football experience that inspired my sports career.
“Today I decided to sponsor the school team with a soccer kit and soccer balls in the name of my late parents, Kassiem and Latiefa Omar, who ultimately chose the school for me, and who taught me the value of giving to society.
“They used to say ‘The more you give, the more you get’.Through this contribution, I would like to express my gratitude for the educational and sporting experience that Cecil Road Primary School provided me and my family,” Omar said.
Accepting the kit, the driving forces behind the successful boys’ teams of under 11 and 14, Yazeed Adams and Sedick Soeker, shared their excitement and how their school was on a mission to reinvent school soccer, which has been slightly ignored after Covid-19.
Adams said: “This means a lot for both our teams. As the school, we are struggling but with this new kit our boys will get to look presentable.
“The community in which our school is allocated is predominantly soccer crazy. Most of the boys here play for the same soccer club around the area.”
Soeker said: “Kids come to this school and automatically they get to be appreciated. This is a very proud moment for me, especially since other schools don't normally get this sort of exposure.
“As a school we have put up a programme. We will be launching a girls’ team soon as we are reinventing school soccer which has been somehow neglected since Covid,” said Soeker.