SA Schools Challenge Trust’s mission statement to give back to schoolboy rugby

The SA School Challenge logo appears as an official sponsor of the Monument Centenary Rugby Festival. To find out a bit more about the trust and what it stands for, here is the mission statement:

The SA Schools Challenge Trust (IP349/2021) is a registered trust in the Republic Of South Africa

Vision Statement

The need for a SA Schools Challenge Trust was identified a few years back. The “Top” rugby schools in South Africa were running out of willing as well as competitive competition while rugby as a school sport was dying at a rapid pace at the smaller schools.

Taking the above into consideration the Trust is committed to the promotion, participation and enjoyment of rugby at all junior levels.

The Trust will provide training and development opportunities to improve and develop the skills of all participants, through fair competition; access to high standard coaching, and equity at all levels.

Our ultimate goal is that every player enjoys their rugby.

Mission

“Building long-lasting friendships, establishing bonds, developing skills and fostering values for life.”

Our aim is to provide a fun, safe, enjoyable environment that encourages all participants to reach their full potential (no matter what their aspirations may be), promote and foster individual and team excellence and enjoy rugby.

We will do this by providing the best possible competition structures as well as the best development opportunities in an environment that aims to foster children’s wellbeing – developing friendship and lifelong bonds (as well as protecting both the traditions and the future of rugby).

Trustees:

Bart Schoeman (Chairman): Bart is currently the owner of Sports Consult 365. Bart is a registered agent at SARU and is actively involved in the contracting and mentoring of young talent in South Africa and abroad. Bart was employed at the Lions Rugby Company previously as High-Performance Manager & Assistant Coach to their u/21 and SuperSport Challenge Competitions.

Chris Vorster: Chris is the Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Stadio Holdings. Stadio Holdings is a listed company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Stephan Nothnagel: Stephan is the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Royal Energy Group of Companies. Stephan is a qualified CA(SA)(University of Pretoria) and is a practising member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants. He is an accomplished South African businessman with significant experience in the petroleum industry. Before joining Royale Energy in 2006, Stephan worked at Engen where he was responsible for business planning and analysis management of a number of profitable business units within the company.

Shane Wafer: Shane has expert knowledge in the fields of sports and commercial law. He has represented clients successfully before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the likes of WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) and FIFA. He specializes in drafting pleadings and argument before courts of arbitration for sport as well as at the High Court of South Africa. Shane has incredible attention to detail and has confidently represented a number of prominent sporting figures in a wide array of contractual and doping disputes.

After completing his studies at the University of Pretoria graduating with an LL.B. Law Degree and making the Deans Merit List he completed his articles of clerkship at Couzyn, Hertzog & Horak which saw him gain tremendous experience in general and commercial litigation, assisting clients in an array of matters before various national courts such as the High Court, Specialized Commercial Crimes Court as well as in the Magistrate’s Court. In 2017 he was admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa.

2022

Hopefully, we will experience a normal schoolboy rugby year in 2022. This will enable the Trust to start working to the achievement as set out in our mission statement.

SA Schools Challenge 2022

We have identified the “top” eight rugby playing schools in South Africa and will establish a league in order to ensure much-needed quality games for these schools.

The current schools identified are: Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool, Grey College (Bloemfontein), Hoërskool Garsfontein, Hoërskool Monument, Hoërskool Outeniqua, Paarl Boishaai, Paarl Gimnasium and Paul Roos Gimnasium.

In order to ensure that these schools are not only an “A-Team” school, we also introduced some qualifying criteria.

All schools must have a minimum of:

3 x u/14 teams

3 x u/15 teams

3 x u/16 teams

4 x u/19 teams

A win by the u/14C team will earn the school the same league points as the u/19A team. This will ensure that all players will get the same quality of coaching.

Coaching the Coaches.

It is the Trust’s opinion that if we want to introduce rugby to all the communities in South Africa we must coach the coaches who are active in our previous disadvantaged communities.

We will host eight coaching clinics where top high school coaches will share their experience with targeted coaches. Our partnership with the SA Legends Association will help identify the coaches all over South Africa.

The clinics will be hosted at our top eight schools. After every clinic, the top 5 coaches will be identified. These coaches will be attending a 7days high-performance camp at the end of November 2022. Three coaches will be selected for our second phase.

The top three coaches will be placed at our top eight schools for a 12-month internship. Several of our top eight schools have already committed to this initiative.

From 2022 onwards the identified “coaches in training” will attend all our festivals where they will be allocated to the coaching staff of the attending schools. This will expose them to not only top local coaching, but also expose them to international coaching at some of the top schools abroad.