Periodically I'm going to be telling you about the players in the Academy. I'll make it a bit more formal as we go along, but I want you to start getting to know Joshua Jonathan today. Joshua is a 12-year-old from an area called Overcome Heights. It's part of Capricorn that is the oldest informal settlement in the Western Cape. Joshua lives there with his mom, grandmother, 2 aunts, some siblings, and a few cousins. All in one tiny wooden home. Joshua attends one of our partner schools, Zirilda Park and is in Grade 7.
Joshua is a little bulldog of a player. He has a little fire in him. He's a great tackler, strikes a great long pass, and has good skills; but Joshua HATES his left foot, so we're working on that.
At the end of last Thursday's practice we had a box of pears waiting for us from one of our partners. The players were VERY excited and loaded up on them. Joshua particularly filled his bag up. I was taking him and Juan home that day. As we drove, I noticed that Joshua was eating a bunch of pears and I asked, "how many have you had, 4?" He said, "No, 10." Then he just kept eating! Juan's family owns a little spaza/tuck shop so we stopped and got a drink. One of my goals before Easter is to have some quality time with each of the boys and this was my time with Joshua. We parked near his house and just talked about all the stuff going on in life. Well, the soda started mixing with the 12 pears he had eaten and his stomach started churning! He stepped out and relieved himself but that only delayed the pain. Eventually he said, "Coach, you gotta take me home." We drove home quickly for him to make it to the bathroom in time! It was such a funny experience of how a kid's REAL hunger caused him to make himself sick. Somebody offered him some pears and he couldn't take the chance that he may not get to eat them all. We laughed about it again at practice on Monday.
Joshua is a neat kid, with lots of personality, I'm so looking forward to getting to know him more!
Cheers, Casey
Joshua is a little bulldog of a player. He has a little fire in him. He's a great tackler, strikes a great long pass, and has good skills; but Joshua HATES his left foot, so we're working on that.
At the end of last Thursday's practice we had a box of pears waiting for us from one of our partners. The players were VERY excited and loaded up on them. Joshua particularly filled his bag up. I was taking him and Juan home that day. As we drove, I noticed that Joshua was eating a bunch of pears and I asked, "how many have you had, 4?" He said, "No, 10." Then he just kept eating! Juan's family owns a little spaza/tuck shop so we stopped and got a drink. One of my goals before Easter is to have some quality time with each of the boys and this was my time with Joshua. We parked near his house and just talked about all the stuff going on in life. Well, the soda started mixing with the 12 pears he had eaten and his stomach started churning! He stepped out and relieved himself but that only delayed the pain. Eventually he said, "Coach, you gotta take me home." We drove home quickly for him to make it to the bathroom in time! It was such a funny experience of how a kid's REAL hunger caused him to make himself sick. Somebody offered him some pears and he couldn't take the chance that he may not get to eat them all. We laughed about it again at practice on Monday.
Joshua is a neat kid, with lots of personality, I'm so looking forward to getting to know him more!
Cheers, Casey
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