Heideveld’s Junction Rovers AFC will get their Bayhill Premier Cup 2024 campaign under way when they meet SSS Academy tomorrow, Thursday March 28, at Erica Park, at 1.45pm.
Group E contenders, the Rygate LFA afilliated Junction Rovers, along with SSS, will also face the University of Pretoria and neighbours, Elsies River United in the early rounds of this year’s competition.
Captain Ameer Charles, 18, and his teammates can barely wait to get going following a good run in the play-offs earlier this year.
“The play-offs went as well as could be expected. We prepared to face each game, made adjustments as we saw fit and thankfully, it paid off,” he said. “We managed to top our group and recorded no losses.”
Ameer, who has been playing soccer since the age of 5, also spent time with Hellenic FC, whom he captained at under-12 level and Oriental Gunners before joining Junction Rovers just over a season ago..
Over the year’s he’s done well for himself on the pitch, captaining Hellenic to victory in the Cape Town Tygerberg under-12 knock out final, and was named Mitchell’s Plain LFA under-9 player of the year and under-9 player-of-the-tournament at Rygate Cubs.
Doing well at Premier Cup will undoubtedly be the cherry on top of an otherwise promising junior career.
“This will be my first time participating in the Bayhill tournament. Having watched some of the matches from previous tournaments, I think any player can be really chuffed to be part of such a prestigious event,” he said.
Junction Rovers general secretary and team manager for the club’s Bayhill team, Cindy-Lee van Andel, has nothing but praise for the youngsters.
“Our junior structure is healthy and growing and this bodes well for future development,” she said.
“In developing them, we strengthen the clubs senior structures and also provide opportunities for them to escape the social ills within our communities,” Van Andel said.
“In 2023, we managed to progress to the regional Third Division play-offs and gained promotion to the Second Division ABC Motsepe League. This was a huge achievement for us, a dream our late chairman, Peter Groepies, could witness before his untimely passing.
“For me the best thing about working with the youth is that we give them a positive sense of belonging. I love watching the joy on their faces when they play and achieve something together as a team,” she said.
“We have almost 200 registered juniors and this number continues to grow. We have divisions from under-6 to under-18. In some divisions we have two teams,” she said.
“For now the focus is on the Premier Cup and we are extremely proud of them,” she said.
“Our approach was simple, take it one game at a time and play to our strengths. I think this worked well for us in the play-offs. We managed to win two and draw one game to finish top of our group,” she said.
Coach Graham Keet agrees, saying: “We try to the best of our abilities to keep the boys busy and away from bad elements. One of the big challenges we face as a club, is losing your boys to gangs.”
He said the goal for now is to build on the success they had in winning promotion to the ABC Motsepe league and qualifying for the Premier Cup.
Keet and co rounded off the preparations for this year’s competition with a 1-all draw in a friendly match against District 6 FC at their training field at Cockscomb Circle in Heideveld.
“For me it’s seeing youngsters still enjoying the beautiful game and progressing to the next level,” said the no-nonsense coach.
The Bayhill Premier Cup kicks off on Wednesday March 27, at Erica Park, in Belhar, with the finals due to be played at Athlone Stadium on Easter Monday, April 1.
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