KZN’s future leaders have been presented with the opportunity to strike it gold in sports and academic excellence through the launch of the AmaZulu Community Trust’s KZN Future Stars program on 10 February 2016.

The program which was announced at a media launch at the Moses Mabhida Stadium will see the AmaZulu Community Trust collaborate with the KZN Department of Sports and Recreation, SAFA and a host of primary schools.

“There’s a number of benefits that the U12 year old participants stand to reap besides obtaining a step towards playing football in future.”

“Ours is to stay true to own of our main objectives as a club, which is to go beyond and uplifting the community and the youth,” said AmaZulu Community Trust Chairman, Lunga Sokhela.

KZN Department of Sport’s Manqoba Bhengu says they have thrown their full weight behind the program.

There are bursary opportunities and life skills workshops that will be conducted on a regular basis.

Scholars who have a good academic record and show great potential of playing at professional level will stand a chance to receive a scholarship to study at Glenwood High School and be part of elite football program.

There will also be a Coach the Coach workshop, Life Skills workshop to be conducted for coaches and school’s sports coordinators.

AmaZulu first team Head Coach, Steve Barker has endorsed the effort to invest in youth through education. Barker had two players who pursued their matric education last year in Nkanyiso Zungu and Mpendulo Dlamini while Dylan Stoffels and Zola Jingxi will be completing their matric this year.

Two months ago former AmaZulu and Mamelodi Sundowns player Jethro ‘Lovers’ Mohlala revealed on social media how hard it took for him to recover from bad life decisions after a long and decorated career playing in professional football.

The program will go a long way in trying to alleviate such pitfalls that have been associated with some of the country’s footballers in the past.

There will be weekly training sessions to be held at schools based in the Ilembe and Zululand Districts which will be monitored by AmaZulu former players. Scouts, development coaches will also play a critical role in talent identification during the interschool tournaments.

Visit www.amazulutrust.org for more information about the AmaZulu Community Trust and other community development projects.

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