The Pretoria team hosted a send-off ceremony at the University of Pretoria, where the team came along with their loved ones to send the team off ahead of their match against Kovsies in Bloemfontein.
This is where they revealed their theme going into the tournament: neon. Head coach, Jenny van Dyk explained how the theme hoped to inspire the team. To glow and bring some colour into the life of others as well. Neon is a happy colour, a colour that makes you feel good, but it is also a colour which means business and makes you take notice, which is what the team aims to do.
The little glow stick is just a little straw, with nothing special to it, in order to get a reaction out of it you need to do quite a lot to the little stick, you need to break, you need to shake, toughen it up a little bit, and then eventually, it will become a glow-in-the-dark stick said van Dyk.
“it is going to be tough, we are going to be shaken and broken, on court and off court, but together as a team, we can make this work,” explained Van Dyk when speaking to her team performing under pressure, keeping your composure and taking the challenge on as a team are aspects the team look to focus on.
Fellow first time Varsity Netball player, Shongile Hlungwana spoke of the family unity in the team being something really exciting, while fellow first-year player, Juzelri Garbers echoed these sentiments. “I think we are really really well prepared,” said Hlungwana. “The team spirit is high. And while some of our players are playing for the Proteas (Lenize Potgieter, Izette Lubbe and Lindie Lombard) we are not worried about that at all, because the girls believe in ourselves and each other.”
Catch Tuks every Monday in the 2016 season of Varsity Netball.
By Theriso Lethuloe
