We will miss the great coaches

 

Last week we heard of the death of Christo Meyer. He was well-known in schools rugby circles, particularly on the West Rand. He attended Monument and went on to teach there, and coach the 1^st rugby team.

He later became the principal of Bekker School in Magaliesberg, before stepping down and becoming a teacher again, at Noordheuwel. That’s when I met him, on the committee of the then Transvaal Schools Rugby Association. That body had two parts those days – league and non-league (English medium) schools and I was a representative of the latter.

The two associations would get together for provincial affairs and Christo and I served on the Craven Week selection panel for years. He was also the force behind what was called the Roodepoort Rugby Club Coca-Cola series, a third term “stayers” tournament that somehow kept the name “Coke Series” long after the West Rand branch of ABI – the local bottlers of the soft drink – stopped sponsoring it.

Christo was one of those school teachers who dedicated a significant part of his life to setting up opportunities for children to play sport.

His passing made me made me think of some of the others, coaches and administrators who remained involved for long periods of time, and who made a difference to many young lives.

I can think of literally dozens down the years that I have been involved, first as a teacher and then as a reporter covering sport at schools. Many of them are still putting in the hours at schools across the land. If it wasn’t for lockdown they would be out there today coaching, refereeing, umpiring, organising extra practices whenever there was a spare moment and, all the time, taking an interest in the children in their care.

Sadly, many of them are no longer with us. A few years ago we lost Norman McFarland, probably the greatest thinker about schoolboy rugby, who coached the 1^st team at King Edward VII school for many years.

A few years before that John Hurry, who coached cricket at King Edward VII School for over 40 years and mentored in his time a virtual who’s who of future provincial and international players, passed away.

Theirs are stories that are, no doubt, told over and over whenever those who they once coached meet up.

There were others. Men like Buddy Hurd. He was principal of Athlone Boys’High in the 1980s when that school ruled the roost as far as boys’ schools sports in Joburg were concerned. He famously made the Athlone swimming team train on the spring day in 1981 when it snowed in Joburg – he had reportedly told them that, come rain, snow or hail, “training is never cancelled”. So it wasn’t, although he never kept them in the water for very long, of course.

I remember the late Bill Lamont, who would hurl a stream of insults at the swimmers he was coaching, but in a such way that they loved him and stayed in the sport long enough to move up to the senior squad where Bill’s wife, Mo, more often than not turned them into provincial and national stars. His protégés were there in numbers at his funeral, comforting each other with the stories of those days.

Going back some years, I remember the late “Oom” Koos van Staden. A rugby coach and selector with an extraordinary eye for talent. He became an SA schools selector later and gave many a future professional player his first recognition as a potential star.

Closer to home were two extraordinary gentlemen, also both no longer with us, that I had the pleasure of working with at Highlands North Boys’ High. Russell Kitto and Derek Tarpey would both have admitted that they did not have the time or expertise to be great coaches, but they both produced highly successful teams and high achieving sportsmen and women.

Neither was afraid to ask for help and advice from the experts, but their success came from the sheer strength of their personalities, and from the genuine care and affection that they gave to the children they were in charge of.

Christo Meyer was one of those. He will be missed.