Tuks’ netball team tops the Varsity Tournament log heading into a bumper weekend – featuring all eight teams – which they will host at their Rembrandt Hall home court.
The blueprint to Tuks’ dominance seems to boil down to teamwork and being able to stick to the agreed game plan for the full 60 minutes. This creates confidence amongst the players. Each appears to have an unflappable belief that they can positively make an impact at any time during any game.
The Stripe Generation’s head coach, Jenny van Dyk is a fair but hard taskmaster. If there is one word she prefers not to use in her vocabulary, it is losing.
“Our training is aimed at getting players to perform to their best not only in local tournaments. They also need to be able to step up when they get selected to represent the Proteas. It means that even when under pressure, they got to be able to play to their best ability.
“Therefore, every player should continually think about what their shortcomings are and what can be done to improve on it. It boils down to making the most of every opportunity. The same goes for me as a coach.”
Akosua Mensah, playing as goal defence, seems to have totally bought into this. She has yet to fail during the Varsity Tournament. At the moment, the Tuks player appears to be any opposition’s nightmare when they are on the attack having perfected the art of intercepting the ball at crucial moments.
Mensah, however, is never going to be one for personal accolades. She credits what has been happening on the court to excellent communication and teamwork between vice-captain Marlize de Bruin, Jasmine Ziegelmeier, Lungile Mthembu and herself.
“We are playing as a unit. Our mission is to make things as difficult as possible for any goal shooter. I am only able to do what I do because I know they have my back all the time that gives me the freedom to go for intercepts.”
According to Mensah, there was never a moment they could rest on their laurels against Maties.
The game was basically won during the first quarter when the Maties players tend to be sloppy in the way they executed moves. It enabled Tuks to take a 17-8 lead in the first quarter. From then on it was basically tit for tat with Tuks scoring and then Maties and vice versa with no team relenting.
This Sunday Tuks is taking on UJ at 16:30 before facing NWU at 19:00 on Monday.
For match updates during the Varsity Netball bumper weekend, follow @varsitysportsSA on social media and track the #ShowYourColours hashtag. Tickets are available via the Varsity Sports App (iOS and Android) and here: https://varsitysportsa.plankton.mobi/. SuperSport 210 will broadcast two matches a day on Sunday and Monday.
By Wilhelm de Swardt (TuksSport Media)
