Meet 14 year old Sphamandla Biyela who lives at Shakashead. His dream is to be a teacher and soccer coach. Sphamandla is currently doing grade 9 at Groutville high school. Every afternoon from 14h30 – 17h00 he coaches young boys aged 11-13 years at Shakashead sport field. Sphamandla told me that his passion and love for coaching started last year after the first wave of covid19. He realised that most of the young people that he knew started to smoke but they have a love for soccer, so he took initiative to coach them. Young as he is and with no prior knowledge of coaching he took a leap of faith and started a team called Young Stars and they are doing well in their soccer matches so far.
Sphamandla believes that he has the responsibility to help shape the lives of young boys at Shakshead not only through soccer but also academically since he is also doing well in school.
Martin Luther said -“Everybody can be great… because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace”
Sphamandla is a living testimony of these words. He is indeed an ACTIVE CITIZEN.