Schoolboy stumped over sports scholarship deal

13 July 2015 - 09:33 By MATTHEW SAVIDES and KHANYISO TSHWAKU

A promising East London cricketer's dreams are in jeopardy because he can't find a school that will enrol him. Grade 11 pupil Damean Kapp, 17, has been sitting at home after being shunted between three top schools.Kapp and his mother, Tessa du Preez, are accusing government school Glenwood High of luring him to Durban with a sports scholarship only to renege on its promise after he had left East London's Selborne College.According to them, a "gentleman's agreement" between Durban schools is behind Kapp being without a school.The agreement between the principals is aimed at countering poaching of senior sports players by allowing only pupils who joined the school before Grade 11 to play for the first team.Du Preez, in an e-mail to now-retired Selborne headmaster Sam Gunn, wrote that Glenwood had offered Kapp a bursary and asked him to approve her son's move.But a few days after Kapp arrived in Durban he was told by Glenwood principal Trevor Kershaw that he could not be enrolled. Kershaw confirmed that Kapp had visited the school but denied offering him a scholarship.Westville Boys' High enrolled Kapp in January on a sports scholarship, with boarding. But at term break his scholarship was cancelled because of his poor academic performance.Westville's head of marketing, Hennie Havemann, denied that a scholarship had been offered, but The Times has seen a series of e-mails discussing the scholarship, his poor academic performance and his eligibility to play for the school's first team.Selborne College's deputy headmaster, Max Norman, said he was unaware of an application for Kapp to return."If an application were received now it would have to be considered on its merits. If it is correct that he has not attended school for all this time, he would have dropped well behind his age cohort and an alternative such as an FET college might be a better fit."Raymond Booi, a Border Cricket administrator and under-19s coach, said the province had earmarked Kapp as one of its players for age group tournaments - but the fact that he did not have a school was a problem."We couldn't pick him for the squad. It was a big loss," said Booi...

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