UCT women’s football squad members, striker Tara Haoust and midfielder Babalwa Mteto, were among the coaches barking instructions from the sidelines at Saturday’s She-Bobo girls soccer festival, at UWC.
The two were part of UCT’s Coke Cup championship side that lifted the women’s winners’ trophy, at Athlone Stadium, a fortnight ago.
On Saturday, they took on a different role, guiding Salt River Blackpool FC’s junior sides through their paces at the first girls only soccer festival in the city. The star players are among a number of teammates coaching at various clubs.
With 280 junior players representing 12 community clubs from across the city, She-Bobo presented an ideal opportunity for the little ones to display their skill and for young coaches to sprout a few unwanted grey hairs.
Teams from Bellville to Blikkiesdorp and Salt River to Southfield took to the field, but ultimately it was Khayelitsha’s RV United who won the under-10 division and Gugulethu’s Cape Town Roses the under-8 section.
Saturday’s action kick-started the launch of a league catering for young girls.
Mteto, 24, from Nyanga, has been playing since primary school and has been coaching at Salt River Blackpool for the past year. Although primarily focused on her own game, she’s also been making moves to improve her coaching credentials.
“After speaking to coach Ahmed Parker, I was able to study and attend workshops that equipped me to be a qualified coach,” she said.
“It’s important that opportunities are created for young girls because an opportunity was created for me and it helped me to get out of the environment I grew up in,” she said.
Saturday’s event was all about the kids and they enjoyed themselves, which was very good,” she said.
Although new to coaching, Tara, 18, also believes the She-Bobo platform and similar initiatives are needed to push women’s football in the right direction.
Like Babalwa, the young striker got involved with the Salt River-based club after Parker invited her to help out with the under-8s a few weeks ago.
“We are three coaches from the UCT team, we’ve got Shannon (Mills) who’s with the older girls, Babalwa who’s with the under-12’s, and myself who’s with the under-8’s,” she said.
“I think young girls don’t get enough recognition, due to the lack of leagues or tournaments for their age group. I think the She-Bobo tournament was definitely a step in the right direction for women’s football. Ages 8-12 is definitely a development stage for young footballers and we should prepare them for even bigger opportunities. So it was pretty cool to be part of that experience,” she said.
Salt River Blackpool chairman Iqbal Kasker said the festival created the platform for a girls only league where clubs who have the same vision as theirs, to compete and play regularly.
“She-Bobo was a brilliant event. We started our women’s programme in 2020 with girls aged 13 years. These girls are now playing senior women’s football and won the women’s First Division league this year. Based on their success we now started our second phase with girls aged from 6 to 12 years. The problem is that there are not many teams that cater for these age groups,” he said.
“We have created a safe zone for girls to play football. They don’t have to be worried or feel intimidated playing with boys and can develop at their own pace. Our approach was to link up with institutions like UCT. Our coaches are women. They are first team players from UCT. One of our successes is when our very own Basheera Esmael signed for UCT First team as a 14 year old. Our aim is to create opportunities for young girls and women through education and sport,” he said.
