INTRODUCING SILVER STARS HOCKEY CLUB A Registered Non-Profit Organisation (NPO 152-477)

PRESENTING AN OPPORTUNITY FOR AN IMPROVED QUALITY OF LIFE IN DIEPSLOOT,

SILVER STARS HOCKEY CLUB NPO 152-477 Silver’s Dream

Silver Malele, an unemployed resident of Diepsloot, located on the northern outskirts of , started coaching hockey in 2001 a on dusty gravel Diepsloot road, in pursuit of his lifelong dream. It started with 6 children aged between 7 and 11. Gradually more children attended as they realised there was an opportunity for them to meet new friends and to learn about and play hockey. Silver Stars hockey club was born! Fueled by the children’s enthusiasm, Silver has since and still volunteers onto several coaching learnership opportunities to ensure that he can provide the children with adequate stimulation and knowledge, both on the hockey field and for daily life.

From the beginning Silver has engaged with the Diepsloot children about their lives and encouraged them to share with the group, inspiring them to remain positive under trying conditions where life on the streets always seems to be an easy alternative. He still runs life skills clinics in the holidays and continues to talk to the children about the basic issues of growing up.

Diepsloot was initially established as a transit camp for people that were displaced from Zevenfontein in 1995, but has grown since. The sprawling densely populated area now comprises both formal and informal settlements with Johannesburg City estimating that at least half of the residents are unemployed. The formalised residential area houses approximately 7 139 families while the informal area attracts an estimated 350 000 people.

Mission Statement

Our main goal of the Silver Stars Hockey Club is to attract children away from the “shady” and criminal elements that are associated with society through playing hockey and to consistently achieve a level of hockey that will enable them to participate in mini-hockey tournaments and junior league fixture games.

We aim to provide hockey coaching to children aged between 6 and 17 living in Diepsloot and in so doing equip them with life skills whilst establishing long lasting friendships through sport.

We would also like to eventually provide the older children with an opportunity to continue to train as seniors through the club and enter teams into the senior league.

It is the intention of the Club to provide the players with the opportunity to develop to a level in which they can participate in the schools district hockey trials thus affording them the exposure and opportunity to be selected for provincial and ultimately national representation.

We would also like to see the children being offered a chance of school scholarships through the sport and eventually for university as well.

Silver Malele is the head coach and Siobhan Brown is the club liaison and finance/administrative manager.

Silver Stars Emerges as a Hockey Club

There are currently around 120 children attending the Silver Stars training sessions, their ages range from 7 through to 17. The children’s level of hockey continues to improve and they are certainly a club to continue to watch in the future. There has been resounding success not only in the growth in numbers, but also in terms of skill and playing capabilities. The younger children from the Silver Stars hockey club (ages 7-13) eagerly participate in mini-hockey round robin tournaments held on Saturday mornings at various clubs around Gauteng. They always enjoy these outings and they participate with much determination and enthusiasm. There are approximately 50 children that take part each week-end. We have an under 15 boys and girls and an u17 boys team playing each Friday night at various astro turf hockey venues around Gauteng.

The children have always practiced on a patch of gravel ground at home in Diepsloot and play on grass and astro turf against teams who have far more exposure to these surfaces. We have had various educational institutions offer us the use of their astro turfs free of charge, which is very necessary as there is a huge difference between the two playing surfaces. Silver continues to need more experience in coaching at a high school level, that involves hockey on the astro and we are trying to send him to any courses offered as well as those youngsters who are showing an interest in coaching and umpiring.

SILVER STARS HOCKEY CLUB NPO 152-477 Silver admits that he was amazed but not surprised at the steady interest shown amongst the children of Diepsloot in playing hockey rather than the more traditional sports codes. With the growing number of children showing interest in developing their hockey skills, the dusty gravel streets of Diepsloot have become completely inadequate.

The University of Johannesburg’s Hockey Club (UJ) became involved with Silver Stars in 2007 by offering their facilities in Melville as a training ground and providing a range of equipment (sticks, kit, balls, and goalie kit), coaching, moral support and encouragement as well as much needed finance for transport costs to transport the children and coaches from Diepsloot to Melville and back, and to tournaments in which Silver Stars now regularly participate.

During 2007 the younger children between the ages of 6 and 13 were able to attend a mini-hockey round robin tournament for the first time. Sports Horizons, a leading sports retailer based in Bryanston, generously donated sticks and balls and Southern Gauteng Hockey donated sticks, bibs and balls as well as coaching assistance. Many parents and other clubs and schools continue to donate sticks and clothing to the children as well. Silver takes charge of all donated kit and equipment and distributes it accordingly. The majority of the kit and equipment is returned for safekeeping to Silver between practices, matches and tournaments.

In 2008 the Silver Stars Hockey Club was included in the Southern Gauteng Saturday mini-hockey and the Friday night junior league fixtures. UJ continued to provide transport money required to get the children to each tournament and league fixtures and sponsored a year-end function at the School for all the children to celebrate a successful season of hockey.

In 2009 training slots were secured at Saint Stithian’s College for the juniors to practice as well as practice time on the UJ Orban fields for the mini-hockey, all kindly donated by the relevant sports clubs.

The 2010 season saw 4 juniors from the club being selected to represent Southern Gauteng in the Inter Provincial Tournaments held during the July school holidays - one u14 boy and girl, one u16 girl and an u18 boy. St David’s Inanda also offered the use of their facilities to the Juniors for training sessions and hosted a clinic for us.

Our proudest moment in the 2010 season was being named runners up at the prestigious annual Jack Cheetham Memorial Award ceremony. This is an incredible achievement considering our extremely limited funding, which almost resulted in us terminating the project earlier that year.

The 2011 season saw our ultimate shining moment thus far, when Silver was awarded the SA Sports Volunteer of the Year award that he received at the gala ceremony held at Sun City. This is a true testimony and acknowledgement of his dedication and passion for the children of Diepsloot.

The 2012 season was extremely challenging but we managed to raise enough funds to get the younger children to a few of the round robin tournaments and the juniors still managed to take part in the league. Unfortunately we weren’t able to send any children to the school district trials but in 2013 we were back on track and the children attended all tournaments and we had 5 children make it through to a district/provincial team.

2014 started off as a big challenge as funding was extremely limited. As always we managed to pull through and attend mini round robins as well as take part in the junior league. Our success story for 2014 was with Attie (14), who was offered a full scholarship at Jeppe Boys High School where he is currently a pupil and is doing really well on various sports fields. His studies are a challenge but the school is addressing this and providing the necessary tutoring to assist him.

No children were sent to trials in 2014 but we have been fortunate enough to send them this year, 2015. We have a boy chosen for the Southern Gauteng u13 team, 3 boys chosen for the District D10 u13 boys team and one boy chosen for the District D10 u12 team. We also have 2 girls chosen for the u18 District D10 team. The boys’ high school trials are still underway.

Our biggest challenge has always been and still is the exorbitant transport costs in getting the children to practice venues as well as their league games and mini-tournaments.

SILVER STARS HOCKEY CLUB NPO 152-477 Our Vision

Silver’s vision is to establish a hockey training academy within Diepsloot where he can develop the necessary skills to afford the children of Diepsloot the opportunity to participate in sport. In addition, participation in sport will assist the children in their social development while providing them with an opportunity to participate in a healthy form of exercise. His wish is to see the hockey club continue to grow from strength to strength along with the following:

• to see the children playing in their own playing kit synonymous with the Silver Stars Club colours and logo to identify themselves within their own and the hockey community • to see each player equipped with their own new stick and ball • to be able to provide the junior players with shin pads and gum guards • to provide each child in the club (mini and junior) with the correct footwear • to provide all teams with a properly equipped first aid kit • to have a proper, dedicated field to practice on, ideally in Diepsloot or provide dedicated transport for the children to travel to the nearest fields and train regularly • to be able to give the junior players more practice time on the astro turf • for Silver to continue to attend coaching courses to improve his level of coaching • to see the junior players achieve at a district and provincial level and in turn give back to the younger players by way of coaching • to be able to identify junior players who can attend umpiring and coaching courses • Support for these players to develop as coaches, umpires and managers at a higher level in the hockey community • to enter teams into the senior leagues and give the older children a chance to continue playing hockey and integrate into the hockey community and possibly give them a chance to further their education or be given work opportunities

Our Needs

• Transport – either in the way of a dedicated bus/taxi service or the funds to finance the taxis. Transport to practices and matches are at present undertaken through the local taxi services. Private cars from the community are used when individual children need to be transported to trials and district/provincial practices. After matches on Friday evenings each child is delivered to their home as the matches sometimes only end at 22:00 and their safety is of utmost importance • A basic meal/drink for the children when they participate in the rounds robins and league games. Some children go to games having eaten nothing! • Training aids – beacons, balls, bibs and movable goal posts • First aid kits – one each for the mini and junior teams • Water bottles and carriers for each junior team • Club playing kit to identify the children within the hockey playing community • To give each child (each season) a set of shin pads, a gum guard and their own hockey stick and ball as these items perish, are lost and they outgrow them • Correct footwear for each child (each season) • Goalkeeping kit • Goal keeping clinics • Provision of additional coaches to assist Silver, particularly for the juniors on the astro turf • To develop a playing field within/close to Diepsloot and so provide the community with an additional field for more children to participate in other sports as well as hockey

SILVER STARS HOCKEY CLUB NPO 152-477

25 May 2010

To Whom It May Concern:

RE: SILVER STARS HOCKEY CLUB

This letter serves to confirm that Silver Stars Hockey Club, under the direction of Silver Malele and Siobhan Brown as Treasurer/Trustee, is affiliated to Southern Gauteng Junior Hockey for Clubs. Silver Stars has been participating in mini hockey round robins and Friday night junior leagues for the past three years.

Please feel free to contact me should you require any further information.

Kind regards

FIONA HARRISON CHAIRLADY: SOUTHERN GAUTENG JUNIOR HOCKEY FOR CLUBS

SILVER STARS HOCKEY CLUB NPO 152-477

SILVER STARS HOCKEY CLUB NPO 152-477

OUR SUCCESS IN 2015

All 6 children played at a representative level during the July school holidays. Well done!

TSHIFIWA

MASENG

DOLF

SILVER STARS HOCKEY CLUB NPO 152-477