Gauteng concluded the DStv Schools Netball Challenge (DSNC), powered by Bestmed Medical Scheme, in partnership with Puma coaching clinics series.
The four-part series of training sessions are aimed at schools participating in the Netball Challenge national finals, set for 25-26 July at Hoërskool Dr. E.G. Jansen in Boksburg. Western Cape, KwaZulu Natal, and Limpopo are the other provinces that held the sessions.
The sessions are a partnership between the leading German sports apparel, Puma, and Multichoice to help prepare schools from the Ubuntu stream before the DSNC national finals. The DSNC is a partnership between Multichoice and the South African Schools Netball (SASN).
The Baby Proteas centre, Karla Victor, and Gauteng Golden Fireballs assistant coach Nomsa Zungu took four schools from Gauteng and Mpumalanga through a series of skills, positioning, and drills. The 37 players will play in their first DSNC national finals for Tswelopele Secondary School, Kgetsiyatsie Secondary School, Diepdale Secondary School from Gauteng, and Mpumalanga’s Chief Ampie Mayisa Secondary School.
The 2022 DSNC Botho winner with C&N Sekondêre Meisieskool Oranje shared her experience of winning the league and how she got to the top of her game. She says these clinics are important to sharpen the players’ skill and knowledge of the game and they can also pass the knowledge on.
“I think it’s important for us professional players to share our knowledge so that they can also improve their skills. They can also share what we taught them to other players in their schools. We worked so hard to win that tournament. Karla Pretorius came in and was working on our defence. We put in the effort and the hours,” says Victor.
Zungu was impressed by the level of hunger and coachability the players had. She says she feels honoured to be coaching grassroots players.
“These kids are talented and you can see that their coaches are coaching them. You can see that some of them are sponges and are taking it in. As soon as you stop and try to fix an error you can see that they want to learn. They are keen and hungry to learn. A big thank you to Netball Schools for this because they get to be coached by equipped coaches. This a privilege for me as well to see this raw talent because I am used to high performance,” says Zungu.
Diepdale goal shooter Ntando Mbatha says the experience was a welcome change that shone a light on new things to learn.
“I learnt that team work is the most important thing in the sport. As teammates we need to take care of each other, shouldn’t give up, and be responsible. It is nice to be trained by new people, we get to learn new things that we didn’t know,” says Mbatha.
Kgetsiyatsie’s Onkatlile Maponya reckons the session can help them do better at the nationals after they took home the bronze medal at the Gauteng provincial finals.
“The session was fun and productive. I hope the session will work to our advantage when we go to the nations. I learnt that we have to work as a team and work on our attitudes towards the game and each other. When the chips are down, we usually drop our heads and today we learnt that we have to fight to the end and play for each other,” says Maponya.