Maties coach Zanele Mdodana is making a significant contribution to her team’s Varsity Netball campaign while in isolation.
The former Proteas captain tested positive for Covid-19 last Wednesday but is asymptomatic.
‘I’m feeling strong and healthy,’ she tells VarsitySportsSA.com. ‘Sometimes I wonder how I can have the virus and feel fine, but I’m focusing on keeping my mind and body in good condition. I just miss my girls so much!’
However, Mdodana is in regular contact with Maties assistant coach Adele Niemand and performance analyst Morné van Tonder. During matches, the head coach uses the Microsoft Teams app to communicate with her assistant, who passes on her instructions and feedback to the players.
‘Adele wears an earpiece so I can talk to her and also type messages,’ she says. ‘I go to the change room [virtually] at half-time, but I leave the talking to her and Morné. We don’t want to overload the girls with too many voices.’
Mdodana says the biggest difference between being at the court physically and virtually is that she’s not doing the actual coaching when it comes to the latter.
‘Coaching is a personal experience for me. I want my girls to tune in to my voice, see my facial expression and look at my body language, so this is a challenge for sure, but we are making the most of it.
‘It’s a trust situation,’ she adds. ‘The girls know what is being said [by Niemand and Van Tonder] is what I want and that we are all reading from the same book.’
Mdodana trusts her assistant coach implicitly.
‘We played together and we were roommates,’ she says. ‘I have been blessed and fortunate that Maties Sport allowed me to choose my own assistant coach. I know the girls are in safe hands.’
Maties have embraced the pressure that comes with being tournament hosts, according to Mdodana.
‘That is why I’m a high-performance coach and they are high-performance student-athletes,’ she says. ‘Who wants easy?’
Photos: Varsity Sports
