Weekly update
Last week at football practice was a good week for us and last night’s training session has been great as well. The boys are starting to get glimpes of what it’s like to really push each other in training performance wise and how high the level can be. Recently we’ve been working on a critical part of the formation we play. That being–playing through our forward. Each training session has worked on a little different piece of playing off our target man, in this case Luke Plantin, our center forward on both the Ubuntu Academy team and Fish Hoek U-13 A team. With the formation we play, it’s critical to have our midfielders and left and right wingers supporting him immediately. That’s why we’ve taken several training session to really work on this more tactical aspect of our game. It’s been good so far and I feel like what we’re working on is really going to improve our boys as footballers. This, along with many other things, will be just one of the things that separate our boys from the rest as they go onto the next level one day.
Now it’s time to go pack up the truck with the gear for tonights rather windy and cool training session!
Intern at Ubuntu Football
Austin Dietz
Becoming stronger
One of our most core values at Ubuntu is developing our boys into the next great leaders and men of South Africa. Men who are going to go on and lead their families and their communities and ultimately change their world through that. However, in the midst of playing in Cape Town’s top division, choosing to play without two of your starters can be tough. That’s why this weekend’s game against Vasco da Gama (a top side in our league) served as a solid reminder of what we’re all about. We made the decision to discipline two of our starters this weekend which meant we had to go to an alternate formation. It wasn’t our ideal formation and while we would have love to come out against Vasco with our strongest line-up, we did what we believe is most important here at Ubuntu–developing the person. We had to show them that being chronically late or not showing up for training is not acceptable and therefore it won’t be tolerated. That we function as whole unit and can’t when others are doing their part. The team knew this was why we had to make these changes this weekend and they understood.
It’s never fun being disciplined, especially when your actions affect your teammates. However, it is a part of growing up and maturing though and it’s what these 13 year old boys need. In the midst of slack parenting and low societal expectations, our boys need this discipline and refinement. Because while they can’t see it now, we know that years down the road they’re going to be better men because of it.
Despite the alternate formation and lessons to be learned, our boys still performed incredibly. Given players having to play where they did, we still played excellent and while we drew 0-0, I still see Saturday’s game as a win for us. We played well, got one more point and taught our boys an important lesson. One of our boys even said after the game, “Wait until we play them at home. Then we’re really going to get them.” As one of the boys’ coaches it was pretty cool to hear their inner sense of pride in who they are. A nice way to end Saturday’s game.
With more news coming at you soon,
Austin Dietz
Intern at Ubuntu Football
Speaking on Identity
Friday night past I had the chance to speak to the Ocean View youth. I spoke on the challenging topic of Identity. What made that week even more challenging for me though, painful I would say, was what the Lord was getting me to see. For the past few months, and without really realizing it, I had allowed a profession, a passion, something I had become good at, to define me. I was letting it give me worth among my friends and I had come to the point to where I was pursuing that more than I was Jesus. So on Monday morning, when I heard the Lord’s faint voice, asking me to put down what I had come to love so much this summer, I came to a standstill. It was that, “Are you seriously asking me to put this down….” kind of moment.
Sometimes the Lord has to do this to me though. He’ll momentarily take something away that “I love” so that he can show me a deeper love. A love he couldn’t have shown me when so much of my heart was consumed with this. And in many small ways, the Lord was preparing me that whole previous week to let this grip go. And it caused me to wake up. It’s a scary moment when you realize you were in a slumber for quite some time…but with a new awakening and new eyes to see it feels good to be alive again. It’s like I have perspective again. When I let go of what was defining me and let being loved by God regain the central piece of who I am, there came great freedom and peace. Because ultimately I know this is for my best. The bible says that like a good father, the Lord reproves him whom he loves so I know that while incredibly tough, it’s out of love the Lord’s doing this.
Through the talk though, I hope the Ocean View Youth were able to see the importance of just letting God’s undying love for us be what defines us and gives us worth. If anything, I’ve been shown how easily I can lose track of this. At the end of the day though no matter how many times we stray away from it, it’s the only thing that will never fail us and never forsake us. God’s relentless love for us.
Kind regards,
Austin Dietz
Read MoreLet the Season begin!
This past Saturday was the official start of the season! Incase you don’t know, all of our Ubuntu Academy boys play at Fish Hoek Soccer Club which is a great, local club that has partnered with Ubuntu Football.
It was a much anticipated, Saturday morning (for the boys and me) as we’ve been training since the start of January! It’s also been 4 1/2 months since I’ve gotten to see our Ubuntu Academy boys really play. So on top of spending so much time with the boys through training and rides and events, I was more than excited to see them play their first game together. When I got here in September of last year their season had just winded down. So this past Saturday we got things rolling again. Need I say, rolling with a 4-0 win over Camps Bay! After being promoted into the Superleague (Cape Town’s top soccer league) after winning the season last year and making a name for ourselves at the Strandfontein Tournament the other weekend, we had lots to get after this first game! While Camps Bay may not be one of our toughest opponents this season I was still really pleased with the boys’ performance. Their attitude going into the game was great. They weren’t nervous; they immediately got after it and ended the game strong (with a clean sheet and 4 goals). As we have several tough matches ahead of us, it’s great that we got our first win under our belt and some momentun going. We’ve got a big match up this weekend against Old Mutual as well which the boys are already looking forward to. We beat Old Mutual in penalties at the Strandfontein tournament so it should be another tight one!
Chat with you soon,
Austin Dietz
Intern at Ubuntu Football
Easter Weekend (Sunday)
Sunday, the day Christ rose from the grave! What an incredible thing the whole world stops to recognize and celebrate. The day death was defeated by love. The day death lost its sting on us. The whole weekend already was filled with Christ’s Spirit but Sunday (and understandably) even more so. For me, it was such a cool day to be a Christian. It was the day Jesus rose and conquered the grave! How cool that I get to be a part of celebrating that.
That Sunday morning I was also so glad to have a local church to be a part of (Ocean View Methodist). At this point, faces are so familiar, that even if worship doesn’t leave me trying to catch my breath, I’m so thankful for the community there. People of all kinds. Happy people, sad people, strong people, weak people but incredible people every one of them. It’s been a real blessing to get to be a part of this church. One of my most enjoyable moments on Sunday though was getting to grab coffee with two friends from Ocean View afterwards. One of them (Chevonne) helps lead the youth here at Ocean View Methodist and the other (Jamie–the one closest to me in the photo) is studying up in Pretoria at the moment. Both of them are godly women who have done some amazing things in their lives! Definitely encouraged by the both of them to continue to push and do big things in my life. It was a morning well spent–talking, catching up and listening to each other.
Later on in the day, Casey, Sarah, Kieren, Chevonne and me all headed into Town to attend the evening service at Hillsong. It’s been very cool to be a part of the Prince’s life as well and to see how they live each day here in South Africa. I definitely have a huge respect for each of them. Church at Hillsong was incredible (really was just worship that evening) and afterwards we all went out to dinner (along with Michael Jenkins and some others).
Incredible, incredible day! Thankful for this past Easter Sunday.
Below: myself, Jamie and Chevonne!
