Soccer players of Ida’s Valley FC swopped their training session for community outreach last Thursday (2 April), when the club’s promotional team traded cleats for kindness at Noah House in Ida’s Valley.
The community-outreach initiative proves that over the holy Easter period, football’s work is as much about uplifting as playing.
Head coach Charl Beukes and assistant coach Gladwin Wanza, along with several promotional team players, walked into the home as neighbours, not athletes. Wanza opened with a moving prayer for Easter and for the residents’ health, setting a gentle tone.
For about two hours the coaches and players washed elders’ feet and offered hand care, a gesture that carries particular weight at Easter, recalling the washing of feet often observed during Holy Week, then spoiled them with treats.
“I simply want youngsters to love and respect elders, as it was in years gone by, so they become better men in society and create a better future,” Beukes related. “I’m the [football] coach, but also their coach in life; my work isn’t just to make footballers out of the gift they’ve been blessed with; I need to groom them into respectful, disciplined young men and soon-to-be adults, shifting mindsets away from gangsterism. Initiatives such as this help.”
One resident said it was the first time athletes had come to share time and give back to elders, a warm feeling, and that they’d love to support the team on the field too.
Beukes added that this first visit to Noah House will become an annual affair: “Easter is holy. Elders are our history; if we forget them now we forget ourselves.”
Ida’s Valley FC’s promotional side currently tops the Stellenbosch LFA Promotional League in their stream and returns to league play this Saturday (11 April). But at Noah House Thursday’s memory lingers: clean hands, full stomachs and the certainty that football’s measure isn’t only on the field.
