Seven years ago, Julia Nomkhosi Mphike had a dream to launch a school that would chase sporting and educational excellence.
This year, her under-13 soccer team made that dream, at least half of it, into reality.
After a thrilling display of school football, St Anne’s fought for the glory of the Kay Motsepe Schools Championship crown at Soshanguve’s Giant Stadium, north of Pretoria, and triumphed.
Under their wings was the passion of the school founder and principal, Julia Nomkhosi Mphike, known for her clear goal to champion sporting excellence without sacrificing academics.
Mphike wanted the freedom to model a black-owned school in line with this vision, to produce good results and improve the lives of the community, as well as to give talented boys and girls the opportunity to participate in any sport, preparing them for the professional ranks.
So, Mphike went about building a dynamic programme to hone skills in football, rugby, hockey, netball and athletics, and that started showing results last year.
The under-13 girls exploded onto the scene in their debut Kay Motsepe tournament to win the title in Free State following a perfect run.
Their dominant performance earned them R100 000 in prize money and a swing at the national title.
Again, they would win every one of their matches to set up a title clash with Sundowns Girls under-13.
Unfortunately, they would fall 2-1 after a hard-fought game, but still walked away with R400 000 as a runners-up prize.
The competition was open to various participants in the provinces: Phase 1 – Area/local school league programme Phase 2 – Regional championships/district championships – Inter LFA/circuit Phase 3 – Provincial play-offs to determine provincial winners for the national championship Phase 4 – National championship to determine the overall KMSC winners.
St Anne’s would finally make its mark in the 2025 Magnificent Wednesday School Sports League, a high-energy competition that kicked off in 2022 at Intabazwe Stadium.
Joining 5 000 pupils from across the district, the team competed in a three-phase season from April to September. In an impressive display of skill and determination, the under-13 boys’ football team dominated their league, storming through the district finals and ultimately seizing the gold as the 2025 provincial finals winners.
The event was graced by the presence of the late Free State Education MEC, Dr Tate Makgoe; Thabo Mofutsanyana district municipality mayor, councillor Conny Msibi, Maluti-a-Phofung local municipality councillors, the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture, school principals, Safa Free State and the volleyball provincial federation.
Then the 2025 season was a story of double triumph for St Anne’s School, with their under-13 girls’ and under-19 boys’ teams both storming to victories as Free State champions.
Those wins, netting R100 000 and R150 000 respectively, secured them a spot at the prestigious Kay Motsepe national finals in Pretoria.
The under-19 boys would stumble to a defeat and be knocked out, but the under-13 girls kept the dream alive all the way to the championship win – a shiny golden trophy and a cool R1-million prize.
The victory was amplified as their coach, Kadi Monyane, earned coach of the tournament honours, while Karabo Nkuke was crowned the tournament’s best player.
