School football champions already known: Burgemeester Marnixschool and Bloemendaal triumph for the first time (Schoten)

In the morning, six girls’ teams played a mini competition among themselves with teams formed by the Burgemeester Marnix School, Sint-Filippus, Bloemendaal, Sint-Cordula, Heilige Familie. The latter school even brought in two girls’ teams.

“Each team played five matches after which a final ranking was made,” explains Tom Vinck. The teacher of the Sint-Cordula school has been organizing this event for 26 years (!).

Heilige Familie 1 and the BMS both won their first three matches, meaning that the fourth match between them could be decisive. The competition was named final avant-la-lettre. It became very tense. BMS fell behind but showed resilience and with two minutes left on the clock they went up and over the Heilige Familie girls, making the final score 4-3.

That indeed turned out to be enough for the final victory. The girls from the Burgemeester Marnix School won all their competitions. The silver went to Heilige Familie 1, because of that one lost match against the later winners. Sint-Cordula took third place with 7 points.

Firsts

“The Burgemeester Marnix School has already won the fair play cup for the girls four times, but has never won another prize before. This year the time had come, because not only the final win, but also the penalty cup and the cup for best goalkeeper moved to the school on Amerlolaan,” says Tom Vinck about these firsts.

The fair play jerseys during the girls’ tournament were worn by Bloemendaal this year and they did the jerseys justice, because they once again won the trophy this year thanks to their sporting attitude towards each other and the other participants.

Downpour

In the afternoon, eight boys’ teams competed against each other in two groups. Group A was won by GO! school Deuzelpark with 7 out of 9. In group B, the victory went convincingly to Bloemendaal, which achieved no less than 9 out of 9.

“The weather changed in the afternoon and some teams had a real downpour. Fortunately, it was left over for a while during the placement competitions,” said Tom Vinck.

Just like the BMS for the girls, Deuzeldpark and Bloemendaal were also able to become final winners of the tournament for the first time. Bloemendaal dominated the final with beautiful football. They deservedly took a 0-2 lead. Yet it became very exciting five minutes before the end when a free kick was beautifully kicked in by Deuzeldpark.

“Suddenly the tension was still palpable,” Tom Vinck reports in true Sporza style. “The Bloemendaal goalkeeper pulled off a fantastic save from Deuzeld’s shot. Out of nowhere it could have just been 2-2. Yet a little later the match came to its final conclusion when Bloemendaal completed a nice attack and left the score at 1-3.”

Penalty stopper

For the first time in the long history of this school tournament, Bloemendaal won among the boys. Third place went to Sint-Filippus, which defeated Campus Kajee in the decisive match. The prize for best goalkeeper went to Sint-Eduardus and the best penalties were kicked by GO! school Groei! Campus Kajee was allowed to raise the fair play cup for the first time. These children will be allowed onto the grounds next year wearing the fair play jerseys

Mayor Maarten De Veuster (N-VA), who had words of praise for organizer Tom Vinck and his team, youth councilor Iefke Hendrickx (N-VA) and Sport councilor Paul De Swaef (N-VA) were present for the cup presentation. Tom Vinck himself paid tribute to the many volunteers, referees and permanent employees Kris De Clippeleir and Micky Van Laer who are indispensable at this event. The municipality of Schoten and café Den Trol have also been supporting the tournament for years, which is reflected in material support.

“It was a nice, pleasant edition without major problems or injuries,” master organizer Tom Vinck takes stock. “Put May 10, 2025 in your diary for the 27th edition.”