Laerskool Concordia in Boksburg was a hive of activity as 32 Gauteng schools were vying for the top spots in the DSTV Schools Netball Challenge (DSNC). Only eight schools, from both Botho and Ubuntu divisions, will represent the province at this year’s national finals of the competition.
The eight teams will compete for national honours at Hoërskool Florida, Roodepoort on the 21 - 23 July.
The DSNC is a partnership between MultiChoice and SA Schools Netball (SASN) that offers a platform for players from all schools (urban and rural areas) to get to experience the sport on the same level. The relationship, now in its third year, aims to unearth, nurture and support the next generation of national netball players.
Vosloorus Comprehensive School, Curro Academy Soshanguve High School, Tsosoloso Special School, and Phahama Secondary School will represent the province in the Ubuntu section.
Phahama came out as victors in the Ubuntu final after a close match that had to be decided in extra time. They were tired 25-25 with Vosloorus after fulltime but Phahama used their experience to win the match 30-27.
While the Tshwane derby between Hoërskool Menlopark and Afrikaanse Hoër Meisieskool Pretoria produced a tight encounter in the Botho final. Menlopark led most of the game with Affies trying hard to catch up but could only narrow the goal margin by three goals. Parkies walked away winners with a 31-28 score.
The competition 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.
Vosloorus’ goal attack, Siphesihle Zondo says she hopes her school will become the best team at the nationals.
“I think better connections, going to the gym every day, and listening to the coach’s instructions was vital for us to get to the provincial finals. I want us to be No 1 at the nationals and we can make it. We have to listen to all the coach’s instructions because we don’t usually listen to all of them and we have to work more on fetching the ball (when attacking). We also need to work on our defence,” says Zondo.
The Gauteng leg of the qualifiers also saw current Baby Proteas coach, Jenny van Dyk attend the competition. The five-time Telkom Netball League winning coach used the competition as a chance to scout and keep an eye on some of the players who will likely represent South Africa at the upcoming Commonwealth Youth Games in Trinidad and Tobago in July.
Van Dyk says the DSNC is an important platform for the sport in the country.
“It’s such an important part of development for the players on this level. I think the first team structure in our schools systems is one of the strongest structures in the world. The benefits we get out of a system like this are what we can see in the time that Covid hit. When they were not playing this amount of matches you could immediately see the extreme drop in the level of play that came out of that phase. I think the schools do an amazing job with this. I talk to a lot of the school coaches quite a lot and they are under so much pressure at all times because there are no easy games. That is the level of competitiveness you want to see in competitions like these.
A few years back, the first time these players would play on TV would be for the Varsity Netball competition, none of the other matches would be televised. With DSTV sport and the Supersport Schools App, they do it every week which makes it easy for me as the Under-21 coach to see all the different teams right from home. I don’t have to travel the whole country to see all of them play and it makes the selection process much easier as well,” says van Dyk.
Meanwhile Hoërskool Pietersburg and HTS Tom Naudé will represent Limpopo in the Botho section with the 2021 Ubuntu national winners, Hlabi Secondary School return to the competition together with Makgofe High School.
Hoërskool Duineveld and Hoërskool Upington will play in the Botho section representing the Northern Cape and Veritas Sekondere Skool and Friersdale Intermediate School will be in the Ubuntu division.