Posted on April 12, 2018

Posted on April 12, 2018
Growing Swallows Youth development Academy struggle with training space
Sport - Football | 2018-04-12
THE rapid progress of Swallows Youth development Academy, a youth academy and Auas Primary School in the center of Katutura, is being hampered by a lack of facilities and space.
Swallows Youth development Academy has grown by leaps and bounds since it was launched in 2008 and now caters for more than 160 children from under 7 to under 17 age group level. They have become one of the strongest youth clubs in Windhoek, winning numerous age group titles over the years, and most recently won the under 17 category at the Sport Klub Windhoek Youth Tournament last month.
This year they have also entered the senior Khomas Second Division for the first time, competing mostly with young boys, and won the Khomas leg of the Dedmarine Namibia Cup before being eliminated by Omaheke Nampol.
Over the years they had been training on a gravel field next to Auas Primary School, but it became overgrown and dilapidated, after being used as a dump site several years ago.
The club's founders and coaches Mr Xoagub and Naobeb managed to get permission from Auas Primary School to train on their gravel field, but the space is limited, while they also had to make use of two concrete netball courts to squeeze all their teams in.
Furthermore, the school fields are locked up and not available for training during school holidays, making it even more difficult to train, and now the coaches has appealed to Namibia's business community and worldwide to the community and the School redevelop their gravel into an artificial turfs inside and out the school this is a massive project in Katutura they (Coaches) say where there is a Will there is Always a way

.
“We always used to clear and clean up the field at the beginning of the year, but about four years ago some construction trucks started dumping their waste their and since then we couldn't use it anymore and this is very unsafe as there are big trees and grass growing and it not safe.
“But we have grown a lot and now we are looking for sponsors to help us to build a artificial turfs in Katutura.
Several players who went on to represent the country national team(Brave Warriors) used to train an play on the field as youngsters and some of them have now also added their voices to Naobeb cleanup campaign.

Players like Jerome Louis, Lazarus Xoagub,Skelo Hoaseb,Jacobus Stien,Michael Pienaar, Riaan Cloete and Arnold Subeb all played there in their youth and Pienaar, who went on to captain the Brave Warriors at the 2008 African Cup of Nations finals in Ghana, is also fully supportive of the initiative.

“I started my football career there, and a lot of Brave Warriors used to play there. We used to play for location teams and the matches were very popular, the place was jam-packed over weekends,” he said.
“I fully support this initiative because Swallows' academy is growing, but the
kids don't have an opportunity to play the game anymore. So we are looking for support, for anyone who can help us clear the gravel field,” he said.
Naobeb can be contacted at 0812230960 and Lazarus Xoagub 0812345643

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SWALLOWS YOUTH DEVELOPMENT ACADEMY