The IIE's Varsity College Netball Club’s Comets will make their Varsity Netball debut this week when they take an exciting step into the unknown in Stellenbosch.
The team is coached by the experienced Janine du Toit who will lead the team into the competition that pits the best university netball teams in South Africa against one another.
Looking at their preparations for the upcoming competition, Du Toit said they have had to make sure that they are looking after each and every player holistically.
"We follow our set-out training schedule and try to balance the student-athlete program," Du Toit said. "We had a great training camp leading up to our Varsity Netball campaign. We are working hard on fine tuning our skills and plays ahead of our opening match this Sunday."
VC Comets will open their campaign against NWU on Sunday afternoon before they take on UP-Tuks in their second match of the tournament on Monday before a week's break until game three.
With two tough games to start the competition, Du Toit knows that the team has to keep things in perspective during their debut in the competition.
"The whole Varsity Netball tournament is going to be a testing ground for us. We are the new team with very little high level competition experience.
"We are staying motivated by our team goals that we established at the beginning of the year," Du Toit added.
The fourth fixture of the competition will see VC come up against defending champions Kovsies at the UP-Tuks Rembrandt Hall on 7 September.
With every game being a big game though, Du Toit is happy with how her team is shaping up going into the competition.
"The team has a really good mixture of various levels of players. I have really experienced players in the squad that are familiar with high level participation.
"We are a fairly new team that is being built for future participation. The first years have gelled nicely with the older players to form a strong team dynamic," the coach mentioned.
Being the newbies in the competition, the expectations will be tempered and Du Toit wants her team to make sure they don't look too far ahead.
"We are going to take it day by day and match by match. We can only learn from our mistakes and improve.
"Our aim is to keep the margins small and to play with a lot of heart. The team has a lot of grit which makes them a special group of players."