THE Central Schools' Soccer Association (CSSA) recently held its first awards ceremony for schools at Hotel Thule in Windhoek.

The best-performing schools walked away with medals and trophies at a ceremony mostly attended by players, coaches and a few parents, with top government officials who were invited visibly absent.

Despite that, the awards ceremony continued as scheduled, with the president of the CSSA, Marcello Wakudumo, saying that there were a lot of changes in the game at school level this year.

"The quality of football, player discipline, and the referees' and coaches' conduct in general have improved. The committee has fully executed its duties in administering the game throughout the season and we also had games played by girls and boys between the ages of 15, 17 and under-20. All the games were officiated by Fifa- and NFA-accredited referees," he said.

Wakudumo said the association also managed to stage the under-17 regional football trials for the both boys and girls successfully.

"I want to assure you that schools' soccer is the only platform where the prospect of development is applied in its real sense, because we as educators and coaches know these players better than most other structures," he stressed.

Wakudumo urged businesses to come on board and assist the association to develop football at youth level.

For the awards, the Hochland High School girls' team beat Eldorado 4-0 in the final to become champions.

In the boys' under 15, Delta won the trophy after beating Jan Möhr 1-0 in extra time, while their under-17 side won that category after beating Concordia 4-3 in extra time after a 3-all draw.

The Concordia under-19 side beat Dawid Bezuidenhout 5-4 on penalties to become the champions.

The best player of the CSSA is goalkeeper Andy Balzar of Delta, who played a big role in his side's gold medal, while Penda Shimutwikeni was the top goal scorer with 48 goals in total throughout the season.

corry@namibian.com.na