THE future stars of netball in South Africa took part in the under-15 Sanlam Motsepe Foundation Netball league on Saturday in Rustenburg.
In the searing heat of the North West part of South Africa, a large number of girls were also heated in action battling for top honours, and in presence was former Spar Proteas player Tshina Mudau looking on as South Africa’s next netball star is born.
All of Umzilikazi High School, Ashton International College, Shayamoya High School and Sinqobile Secondary School represented the KZN province but they unfortunately didn’t make it for the final two ranking spots. Leading the pack and booking their ticket to the International Youth Netball Challenge in Singapore later this year will be Paarl Gimnasium and Leifo Iziko Combined.
Mudau who is an advocate for the Sanlam Kay Motsepe Netball Championship, believes the weekend produced a lot of talent but a lot of it needs to be nurtured as some could potentially be future Proteas players.
“We need to harvest and groom the talent as they are future Proteas,” she said.
“It’s so easy for us to get lost in being professional, and we forget where we come from, and we all come from such events, we come from schools and rural areas and it doesn’t really matter where you come from, it is a good stepping stone and a step in the right direction and the goal is to have kids participating from the age of six.”
The former Proteas player stressed the importance of continuity within the structures, and in development as it could be a long term plan to be more competitive with the best sides in the world.
“The sixth position in the last World Cup wasn’t our best finish for team South Africa especially when we had our home ground advantage, and also with all the hard work the ladies put in, it wasn’t the result we were looking for.”
“The result showed that better preparation could help us be more successful, and having the right people doing the right job, the development and feeding into the system needs to be better, preparation in a sense that - the training facilities,having a steady coach and management throughout, and we need the same consistency so that the team can jel well leading up to the next campaign of the World Cup.”
Netball in South Africa has also seen a rise in the number of male athlete participation, and Mudau hopes this could be a positive sign with one eye also on the sport being added into the Olympic Games in future.
“The mindset needs to change for us to see more males in the sport, we already have a lot of males, and a lot of talented males, the male netball brings a different aspect and dynamic and element to netball as a whole, but I still wouldn’t shy away from the focus being on women because we still need to focus on that,” Mudau said.
“We have seen many sporting codes being added to every Olympic Games, we do have high hopes that when they go to Australia it will be added as they are a very strong netball nation, they will definitely have a good fight to make sure that it is an Olympic sport.
“Perhaps maybe not the traditional netball of seven, but more the fast five’s because it’s more quicker and vibey and more entertaining for the fans and that is the element that we are looking for, I would suggest a fast and shorter version of netball for the Olympics.”