Although Martha Mosoahle-Samm has had many accomplishments in her netball journey, being appointed as the head coach of the national Fast5 team is her most cherished achievement in her career. Mosoahle-Samm and her side are in New Zealand where they will be looking to better South Africa’s showing in the last edition of the Fast5 Netball World Series in 2018.
The mentor who led the Free State Crinums to a bronze medal at the 2022 Telkom Netball League has had other coaching positions, including being the Spar Proteas assistant which was led by Bennie Saayman.
“Definitely being the national coach of the Fast5 (team), where I am seated right now. I have been an assistant coach before for the Fast5 team, and I have been the Under-19 national coach. I have helped a bit with teams and I think the highlight of my life is definitely being the Fast5 national coach,” she says beaming with pride.
Her journey into the sport was paved by her now late older sister, Jwalane Mosoahlwe. Her talent and commitment to the sport compelled teachers at their school to convince her to take up the sport. She obliged and a few years later, she took netball seriously and carved a path for herself to become one of the great netball players to come out of Bloemfontein.
“I started playing netball at the age of seven because of my role model, who is my late sister. She was a great athlete and a very good netball player. In Grade 1 a lot of my teachers were always talking about how good of a player my sister used to be and they were hoping that I would also play as good as she did. That is where the love started,” she remembers.
Her incredible talent saw her rise in the netball ranks, making several provincial teams and eventually the national team.
“I started taking netball seriously when I was 14 years and from 14 years I started making the big teams. I remember I think I was one of the first black kids to play (in a mixed team) after apartheid when blacks and whites were allowed to play together. I think I was privileged enough to be one of the first ever black players in the Under-15 team. From Under-14 Free State to Under-15 and I made Under-17,”
“My biggest achievement was making the South African Under-19 team. Being the only black player in Free State at that time and being the only player selected from Free State into the national team was an amazing achievement,” she says.
Mosoahle-Samm saw the importance of learning Afrikaans for her to be able to understand and be able to blend in and advance in the game.
“It was difficult in the Free State when I was the only black player. I had to adjust and thank goodness I grew a lot because I had to learn how to speak Afrikaans because I was the minority and I had to understand what was being said. I think Go had bigger plans for me because I just gelled in. Being the only one from the Free State was also a big achievement for Free State. I remember our first tour, for SA Under-19 team was in Namibia and then on our second tour, we went to England the same year. It was amazing,” she says.
Mosoahle-Samm advocates for school sports to be given priority in order for the next generation of sports stars to be discovered and nurtured early. And through netball, she was able to draw the eyes of several universities which offered her full bursaries and the University of the Free State won the bidding war to keep her in the province.
“Netball showed me things that I thought I never would see. Netball put me on my first flight overseas, my mother was a domestic worker. Netball put me through school. I have got a Master’s degree because of netball,” she says.
While riding on the wave of the best time in her career, Mosoahle-Samm is aware that the team still needs to get the job done at the Christchurch Arena on the South Island of New Zealand. South Africa will be looking to improve their overall performance where they have only won 14 matches out of the 50 they have played. The Fast5 Proteas is yet to beat the host nation. The closest they came to a victory against the Fast5 Ferns was a three goal loss in 2018.
“As a coach, you can never do enough. It’s 20h10 in New Zealand and we are sitting here and we are planning. I must say we had a very nice practice match against New Zealand and we beat them so it’s a bit of a boost for us. But you know the job of the coach is never enough, so I can say we are happy with what we are seeing right now. They are becoming clever in the Fast5 game, the calibre of players that we have and the opportunities that we have offered them are going to help us a lot. They know that they need to perform, they know what is expected of them,” she says.
Mosoahle-Samm reckons that for South Africa to grow and have a stronger national team in the shorter and faster format of the game, the country needs to develop domestic Fast5 competitions and leagues so that there are specific players who regularly play this format and not have to select players from the traditional form of netball.