BLACK LEOPARDS F.C
PRE SEASON TRAINING – BY BOEBIE SOLOMONS

START OF SEASON

The squad reported for training in Makhado on 20 June 2007 from their off season break. The break was 4 weeks in which they rested and enjoyed themselves away from football.
The end of last season was quite a hectic and stressful situation for the club so the players and Staff must have welcomed the break.

We started our season with a physical test on the 21 June2007 whereby we assessed their fitness condition of every player after the break.

I am happy to say that we are retaining most of the players of last season which gives a good base to work from. We are looking to strengthen in certain areas to give us enough quality back up.
In addition to that we are looking at acquiring young talent from the area of Limpopo to prepare them as our future players that must take over from our present crop of players in the future.

TRAINING FACILITY

Our present training facility is undergoing a major face lift at the moment. We are going to have a very good training facility now that will help us to take the club to a new level. The present facility was definitely not conducive for the advancement of the club.

This should take a few months, but I hope that it will not take too long as it could keep us back a little.

We are presently training at the Rugby fields opposite the Show grounds for which we are very happy about. As you know there are not many fields in Makhado that we can use for our type of training.

We hope that we build a good relationship with the Rugby so that it does not jeopardize our chances of training there.

For the moment our supporters must please adhere to the rules of the Rugby field if they want to watch our training.

TRAINING

Training is going very well and the boys are working very well to take their game to another level. Everybody is committed and focused as we are tired of fighting relegation every year. We feel that we should be fighting for trophies or better place on the log than fighting for relegation.
We are determined to start the season on a high note hence we have also lined up quite few friendly matches to prepare us.
These matches will be focused on preparing us and not burning us out before the season starts.
Our first such friendly match will be against Free State Stars on Sunday 8 July2007 in Qwa Qwa.

TRIALS

We conducted trials on 28 June 2007 at the Show Grounds in Makhado. Over 200 players pitched up. There was some very good talent on display.

We selected a squad of 25 players who played a friendly match against our Pro team the next day to see how they compare with our players.

Some of them gave a good account of themselves but you could see that most of them battled because of the lack quality coaching and high level competition. The players that play in the Mvela and Vodacom Leagues coped a bit better.

We have identified a few players that we will be calling back to monitor their progress and coach them in order to see whether they can play a role for us now or in the future. A few of them are already training with the Pro squad now.

Another trial will be held on 10 July at 13:00 at the Show Grounds.

CONCLUSION

Thank You for supporting the team. We need your support desperately this year. Together we can build this club into a force in the PSL and make our area proud.

Our team motto for this year is

“ OUR GOAL IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN OUR ROLE”

This means that the TEAM comes first before anybody.

Thank You and wish us Well.

BOEBIE SOLOMONS
(Head Coach)