Table Tennis Coach Wins After School Sport Coaching Excellence Award 2017
Table Tennis Coach Wins After School Sport Coaching Excellence Award 2017
What do a master ballroom dancer, a rugby and cricket whizz, and an ace table tennis player have in common? Hailing as far as afield as Vanrhynsdorp on the outskirts of the Nama Karoo, Mfuleni and Grassy Park in Cape Town, these three: Thembekile Bulo, Danritch Booysen and Meeka’eel Abrahams are the three finalists in the After School Sport Coaching Excellence Award 2017, a joint initiative of the Western Cape After School Game Changer and the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport.
Danritch Booysen, a young tennis coach from Vanrhynsdorp, scooped the inaugural After School Coaching Excellence Award for the work he does with learners in this small West Coast town. The award is the joint initiative of the Western Cape After School Game Changer and the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport to honour the specific role that coaches play to ensure extended education for learners in the Western Cape.
Booysen began his career in 2011 as a volunteer coach in the after school programme of Maskam Primary School. In addition to his coaching duties, Booysen now holds the position of manager of the school’s MOD Centre – the Mass participation, Opportunity and access, Development and Growth (MOD) programmes run by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport at selected school premises offering a range of after school activities to learners.
Under Booysen’s direction, learners from Maskam Primary are dominating table tennis in the district. In 2017, 11 players qualified for the district team, with one player progressing to the provincial team. Booysen has introduced a range of activities to learners at the Maskam OD Centre, including chess, cricket, music and gumboot dancing.
Discussing Booysen’s win, Bridget Hannah, project coordinator for the After School Game Changer, said: “Even though Mr Booysen is based in Vanrhynsdorp on the West Coast, a very isolated part of the province, he has managed to provide many opportunities to achieve mastery in table tennis for a wide range of learners over successive years, at district, provincial and national levels. Starting as a volunteer in the school before becoming a coach and then the centre manager, Mr Booysen has shown consistent commitment to development and mentorship of learners at the school.
“Mr Booysen has worked very well to integrate the school management team and the MOD Centre showing that he has good communication and stakeholder skills, setting a benchmark for best practice in MOD Centres,” she added.
Among the finalists were also Meeka’eel Abrahamsis a teacher who coaches rugby and athletics among other sporting codes at Sid G. Rule Primary School in Grassy Park. In 2017, under his watch, 17 athletes qualified for the athletics district championship, 7 further qualified for the provincial athletics championship and 1 athlete qualified for the national primary school athletics championship. Meeka’eel has crowded in the support of both the school and the district to support the teams he coaches and manages. He is the Metropole South district chairperson for primary school athletics and is passionate about the benefits of after school programmes.
For more information about the After School Game Changer and to get involved visit: www.westerncape.gov.za/after-school-game-changer/.