2010

2009

2008

New Office!!!!

posted by Oli Walsh on May 29th, 2009

So all the tournaments finally finished on Tuesday. Iran, Mexico and Scotland all winning tournaments, something which is unlikely to happen in the near future! The kids (and their teachers) all had a great time, and bar a few on field fights managed to follow FIFA′s fair play initiative and self referee their games!

In total over 1500 happy boys and girls took part, 1602 hot dogs and rolls were cut, filled and handed out, with over 3,000 goals scored! Thanks to all the WKU volunteers who are glad the early mornings are over, a s well as all our trainers, teachers and random volunteers including bodyguards!

We then all moved into our new office, with Marcus and myself in one room, Tom and Henryk in the other and Paul sitting on his own front of house until we can get a receptionist! It really is a great site and will help us move forward as an organisation as well as giving us the chance to enjoy lunch time football breaks!

We will post some pictures soon, but feel free to come visit!

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Tournaments, tournaments and more tournaments

posted by Oli Walsh on May 22nd, 2009

You guessed it, lots more tournaments this week, so early starts, but days out of the office in the sunshine are always good, and its great to see the enthusiasm of the kids who have enjoyed the programme.

I won′t bore you by taking you through each tournament, but over 1000 kids have taken part in tournaments this weeks, which means over 1000 hot dog rolls have been sliced and viennas put in, 4 boys and 1 girl have been named player of the tournament, 1250 medals have been handed out, 60 goals have been put up (then taken down again) and over 1200 goals (some disputed!) have been scored. So thank you everyone for their help, the kids really appreciate it!

While these were going on, work continued in the WhizzKids World, Tom donned a shirt and tie and met the Department of Education, Marcus continued to put the finishing touches to the office which we move into next week and the Health Academy looks like it is nearing completion!

The (not sure about the spelling), a local recruit, has also joined the team to work with Marcus′s team so join me in welcoming him and wishing him luck.

Have a good weekend and enjoy the new photos.

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World Cup Final: Iran beat Angola on penalties....

posted by Oli Walsh on May 17th, 2009

So the first week of tournaments started badly, with the school postponing the first two as they were ′unaware′ of the tournaments, despite the Principal being told, so only one tournament last week!

The day started at 5.00, packing up the Buckie, and heading out to Edendale via the Wild Bean Cafe for a bit of breakfast. The first struggle was working how to put together the goals, but once this was done it was plain sailing!

Instead of the traditional format of 32 managers and all WhizzKids staff, we moved to a streamline approach, with three trainers and three WKU staff, plus the assistance of the teachers, some more helpful than others. there were doubts as to whtehr the FIFA fair play self refereeing would work, but apart from a few dubious decisions and a few tears from some kids, it worked out well.

England went out on penalties again, no surprise there, but the real surspirse was a final contested by Iran and Angola, not likely to be seen in South Africa in 2010, which went to penalties, which Iran duly won! Then it was up to the principal to give out ALL 192 medals to the kids, who had all had a great day out from school.

So eight down, 7 more to go, one every day next week......

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Marcus still away.....

posted by Oli Walsh on May 8th, 2009

So Marcus jetted from Rustenburg direct to London to speak at the House of Commons, and is flying back on Saturday, so has been away for nearly 2 weeks.

We did welcome back Paul, who was relieved to be back in civilization, but Daniela has still not returned, we will wait and see......

Tom has nearly finished his monster research proposal, which at last count was 26 pages, and we are gearing up for 8 World Cup tournaments in 2 weeks, as well as the usual demands!

Praying for some sunshine this weekend to go to the beach as it has been uncharecteritcally rainy here recently, not fun!!!!

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Three Day Week

posted by Oli Walsh on May 1st, 2009

So this day was a three day week, unfortunately the last of the public holidays in South Africa for a while!

With Paul and Marcus away in Rustenburg, it was just me Henryk and Tom holding the fort for the week.

The big thing is that work has started on the centre of excellence, otherwise known as our new office, which will be ready in less than 2 weeks!

Marcus is off to talk at the House of Commons in London this week and we have all our World Cup tournaments coming up so a busy week ahead.

Enjoy your weekend

p.s. Tom beat Henryk at tennis to become champion of 313 Clark Road

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