The Ugly Truth...

I got into a bit of a war of words with Ryk Neethling on twitter last week. I rate him highly as a South African legend of the pool but he tweeted something that angered me and I challenged him on it. He tweeted that facilities don't really have that much to do with whether a person becomes a great swimmer or not. He had one or two on twitter back him up. I thought about this for a moment, and then responded that surely that cannot be true. The fact that most South African Olympic swimmers, past and present, are white must have more to do with facilities than with natural swimming talent. When you consider that in the past, not too many black families in the townships had a pool in their backyard so potential swimmers would never have had a chance to develop into swimmers the way that kids in white middle and upper-class families did. Add to this the fact that many black kids never had great swimming pools at their schools the way that white middle class kids did. Surely this lack of facilities, more than natural swimming talent, was at the root of why swimming South Africa is very white. Ryk conceded he had a pool in his backyard, but that all that did was result in a near drowning that he reckons spurred him on to learn to swim.     It must have been one of those weeks, because on Sunday I got into a bit of a set-to on twitter with a Theo Garrun, editor of the Star School Sports supplement, who wholly disagreed with me that soccer is a second-class-citizen in most top government schools in South Africa. He was clearly annoyed and countered with the fact that many top rugby schools allowed soccer to be played at their schools, just not during rugby season. To me that is not good enough. I explained that top government schools continue to give soccer the proverbial bird by only offering rugby – and as an alternative winter sport, hockey – and that it is not acceptable. I continued by saying that I was not sure how top government schools get away with it, considering that soccer is our true national sport, and that hockey actually has no role being the second, or even third, choice. It seems that the 'Good Old' Boys Unions' have clearly had a big influence and ensured that rugby remained in place and that soccer, a black sport, has no place in their institutions.    I had a couple of people tweet me that these schools have traditions that need to be protected, and that there are rugby schools and soccer schools and pupils are free to choose which to attend. But why should choosing a particular sport mean having to get a lesser education? That is just not right. To be quite frank, that sounds very similar to some 'traditional' values this country's old regime held high, except it wasn't so much rugby schools and soccer schools, rather white schools and black schools – and never the twain shall meet. I think what irks me most is that while so called 'white schools' opened their doors to all races more than two decades ago in the spirit of uniting cultures – a reconciliation and a melding of cultures – it seems, for the most part, this has simply been a process of assimilation.  Dress like us, talk like us but we'll be damned if you play 'your sport' in our school - rugby stays!   Now, I have nothing against the sport of rugby. For those lads who want to play it, fantastic. It's a good, honest game. All I'm saying is give soccer a chance – the same chance rugby gets. And this is where I cut back to facilities. If these top government schools allowed just one perfectly manicured hockey field or one of their hallowed rugby fields to be turned into football pitches; if they invested as much resources in soccer; then, as with South African rugby and South African cricket, the South African school system would also become a natural academy system for South African footballers. Our cricket team is the number one Test team in the world. Our rugby team is always ranked in the top three. Our soccer team... nowhere! And the only difference I can see is that from grassroots up, for many years, the 'haves' have had access to the best facilities and opportunities while the 'have nots' have had to make do.    Towards the end of our discussion, Theo Garrun tweeted - Final word: I agree soccer is not getting a fair deal at 'previously white' schools. It must change, but wild allegations don't help.   The truth is that I am wild about soccer and until every top government school in this country offers South African kids both soccer and rugby as an option for a school sport, these 'allegations' remain the ugly truth and I will scream it from the rooftops.   Shapa Clint