The Free State will be on the hunt to find schools that will represent the province at this year’s DSTV Schools Netball Challenge (DSNC) national finals.
The DSNC is a partnership between Multichoice, South African Schools Netball, and the Department of Basic Education which offers a platform for players from all schools (urban and rural areas) to get to experience the sport on the same level.
The competition, which is in its fourth year running, has also been seen as a hunting spot for selectors from the various national teams and universities who are looking for new talent.
The DSCN is divided into two streams, Botho and Ubuntu, which offer an opportunity for the haves and have-nots to go to the top of the competition.
Hoërskool Fichardtpark in Bloemfontein will see 25 schools from five regions battle it out for four places available for the nationals set for 12-13 July at Hoërskool Florida in Roodepoort.
Free State Schools Netball president Constance Manyoba is hopeful the province will have a big impact in this year’s tournament.
The province has already had a winner, C&N Sekondêre Meisieskool Oranje in the 2022 edition in the Botho division while in the Ubuntu stream, they had Teto Secondary School take home the silver medal in the same edition.
Manyoba believes that their teams will do well. “Looking at the standard of netball that is being played here, I think most of our teams will finish in the top 10. One in the top five and the other in the top 10. The standard of coaching that we have and the standard of competition in the province. In the last two years, Free State has engaged in extra leagues to assist our biggest schools to be able to play more matches so that they can be properly prepared. The Under-19 is an open age, most of the players started playing in the first team when they were 16 years old. This gives them a chance to build up until the Under-19 age group,” she says.
Manyoba says the province is proud of the strides it has made by producing players who have represented the country at various competitions. “Free State can pride itself not only with Karla Victor, but there is also Elmere (van der Berg) who plays overseas. She also started young. It shows that we are nurturing talent here in the Free State. When a child is talented, we protect them so that we don’t lose them. We introduce them to high performance immediately when they are chosen for national teams. We are developing more players and thanks to the federations and the club developments,” she says.