Playing simultaneously for Australia’s Sunset Coast Lightning team as well as for the mighty Proteas, Karla Pretorius will feel quite at home in Kovsie land while being courtside for the last bumper weekend of the 2022 Varsity Netball tournament in Bloemfontein.
In the lead-up to this year’s competition, defending champions Kovsies’ coach Burta de Kock alluded to the fact that Pretorius has helped her alma mater sharpen up their defensive skills.
The hottest topic on Varsity Netball players’ minds right now, is the 2023 Netball World Cup
in Cape Town.
We asked Pretorius, player of the tournament at the 2019 World Cup in Liverpool due to her stellar performance on defence, about the sport’s biggest tournament next year in the Mother City, the preparations of the Proteas and her time at Kovsies.
This is what she had to say about…
2023 Netball World Cup:
“I am very excited because it is such an important event. Not only in terms of progress for women’s sports in our country but also for netball. Playing in front of our home crowd is something special.”
Preparations in the Protea camp:
“I wasn’t playing for a while after giving birth, so I’m freshly back from maternity leave. Netball South Africa identified a group for next year. Some of the players are based in Stellenbosch while others will join them on weekends. So it is like our home base. Together with an excellent program and great coaching, the girls are giving their all.”
The platform that Varsity Netball provides:
“It is particularly motivating that there isn’t a dominating team that overpowers the tournament. The top four teams are all in the running to win. Any of the top five can progress to the top four and we need that type of competition so that players can get a competitive netball experience.”
Playing for Kovsies:
“I have brilliant memories. Playing netball was nice and I was involved with the sport for a long time. In South Africa, the only place where you’ll be exposed to high-performance netball is at the Varsity level. It is important for any sport, and I believe that if I didn’t study at a University, I would never have gotten that opportunity.”
The secret behind Kovsies’ success:
“They had a bit of a struggle until they beat Tuks last weekend which brought everything together. The secret boils down to consistency, retaining possession while having the ball and making as few mistakes as possible. They’ll be tough to beat if they can retain their consistency.”
By Jurgen Smith
