Never undermine your opponents.

Meet the former Captain of the People's University - Jabulile Goodness Mazibuko, known to many as Jay both on and off the field. She was born and bred in the township of Alexandra best known as Gomora. Mazibuko started her primary school at Zenzeleni primary until grade 6,then progressed to Pholosho secondary School and then went to complete her matric at Minerva high school. She was afforded an opportunity to study at the University of Pretoria, where she started playing for Tuks ladies team. While playing with Tuks she was trusted to lead the team as captain just before she moved to Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) . Jabulile completed her National Diploma and Advanced Diploma in Sports Management at TUT between the years 2015 - 2019, she's currently enrolled for a Post graduate Diploma in Sports Management as well. "I grew up playing football with my brothers in the streets even though I was a lady of sports in school - I played netball and also did athletics. Then my brother looked for a girls team that I could play with - which was Highlands Park. I had to leave that team because I was struggling with transport fee, then it happend that I met a coach - Samuel Modiba know as 'Dollar' who recruited me to play for Alex ladies." " Our club got an invitation for trails,luckily I was selected to go to those trials in Pretoria (HPC). I remember I got there late then the coach said I can't trail but one of the coaches said it's okay I can join the team and show them what I got. After couple of weeks I received a call to come back because I passed the trails and they were impressed with my performance, sadly the inability to balance everything out lead me to repeat grade 10" she said while sharing how she started playing football. After settling down at HPC everything was just moving from glory to glory, Jabu got an opportunity to play for the u17 National team that qualified to play in the World Cup in 2010 for the first time. The world cup took place in Trinidad and Tobago and she was selected to be the vice captain of the team. Just right after the 2010 world cup, she got another National call up to play for the U20 where she was selected to be team captain. It was right after Jabu received certificate of participation in the National level from HPC that she started taking her football career seriously. Like any other player, Jabu has always been looking at TUT from afar, fascinated with their style of play and how it's players carries themselves in the field and in 2015 she got an opportunity to join the Red machines. When asked what was the biggest challenge about playing with the red army her response was: " adapting to their style of play and also to gel well with the players and the management. While in the midst of one of my biggest challenges, I've had great highlights one of those being named captain and the first to lift the SASOL league trophy after winning the national championship" said Jabu. Mazibuko said she never felt like being the ladies captain was such a heavy duty because the entire team understood that they had a role to play, they were always prepared and were working together tirelessly to reap the rewards of each game they played. Jabu lifted the 5th Varsity Football Tournament trophy for TUT and which she described it as a 'bonus' because the team that played 4 years before their team have set a standard which they made sure they maintained hence the results. In the year 2018 TUT was invited to Spain to play in the Girls Cup, when asked what did she learn from the tournament she replied to say: "I've learnt not to undermine my opponents and the beauty of always sticking to the game plan. To add, the standard was not the same so we taught ourselves to play at a high tempo,and guess what? our team was very fit and in that case most teams couldn't match us. But above all, we did not deprive ourselves from having fun while giving our best in the game." Jabu said that all the games she played were life changing because each game afforded her a chance to improve and work on herself as a player : "I took all my games serious. I must say all the games that I played in the playoffs made me fall in love with the game more ,and I had confidence in myself that one day I see myself playing abroad. But what's a player without great teammates, I'm grateful to have shared the field with them" she said. Mazibuko has been playing in the national team for quiet sometime, she was asked to share her journey and how she grew in that space "adopting to playing for the u17 was not difficult because most players were players from the HPC ACADEMY - We did everything together so I knew them well even how they play. My first National call up for the senior team brought to tears because playing for the senior team was my dream and I can only thank God that it came true. So playing for the senior team was a bit different from the junior team because in the senior team I didn't know most of the players and they were older than me. But I told myself that I'm not here to make friends but to work,only few players made me feel at home both on and off the field" she said. Mazibuko believes that ladies football is very interesting but it needs to be exposed more. She was asked how's playing football beyond varsity level and she said "playing outside varsity for me is really boring because now you need to adapt and fit yourself into to a new family, TUT has turned into a home for me and playing alongside the ladies at every game felt like playing with family - However that doesn't mean I want to be tied there forever, if an opportunity arises I guess I got to grab it with both hands. As much as we plan,but God decides." Jay's note to self: "If you judge someone it simply means you don't have time to love them. Everything in life, including football is about hard work, and if you put in the work it will pay off. Love and Light."