Another top 10 in 2022

 

I once heard former Springbok coach Nelie Smith say that when he was a Springbok selector, once they had chosen the Bok team, they would pick another team from the players left out that could quite possibly beat their selection – and then relook at their choices.

In that spirit, and because my recent blog listing 10 schools sport highlights that stood out for me in 2022 got quite a nice response, here are another 10 that could well be better than my originals.

In chronological order:

1 In March there was a function at Jeppe to mark the end of Mike Bechet’s reign as 1^st team cricket coach. He was in charge of 1033 1^st team games in all, at Jeppe and Maritzburg College. He was the epitome of an old-school teacher-coach: stern, uncompromising and altogether ethical. But ever-caring about the players in his charge.

2 In May the racing lanes at Roodeplaat Dam were completely cleared of Water Hyacinth. It took a massive effort by the rowing community, over many months to get there. There was talk at one stage that there will never be rowing there again, yet in November the Gauteng Champs were held there. Quite amazing!

3 I attended the Golden Lions Craven Week capping ceremony in June. The team captain, Xander Schoeman, and the Lions senior provincial captain, Reinhard Nothnagel made speeches. They are both Monument boys and it showed. Their talks were based on the solid values you need to succeed as a rugby player, and as a man. They say good people make good rugby players – these two will go a long way.

4 The Craven Week was on again and the “final” was as good as any I’ve seen. Western Province beat the Blue Bulls 29-21 in a great advert for the game. It was WP’s 6^th “title” in 11 years and their stars, for a change, came from Southern Cape Town, not from Paarl.

5 At that same Craven Week, King Edward’s Thabang Mphafi was selected for the SA Schools side. He was the captain of the KES 1^st team and the school’s deputy head boy. He was at the school on a TAG Foundation bursary and would probably not have reached those heights if he had stayed at school in Welkom, where he came from. I’m not a fan of recruitment of rugby players by schools, but some programmes are more than just about results. TAG is one of those.

6 In July I watched the Jeppe vs Parktown derby. It’s Parktown’s centenary in 2023 and their theme is that they are not done yet. Jeppe won the hockey and rugby games quite comfortably, but they lost the spirit-in-the-stands war, and I’d say the politeness and charm of the boys on the day contest ended even. From what I saw Parktown is certainly not done yet.

7 The St David’s Challenge Cup football tournament was back in August. Norkem Park were beaten 1-0 by Jeppe in the final, but they made lots of friends over the weekend. It’s a development success story, a school programme supported by the community that it’s in, attracting talent and providing top coaching. The boys sang and danced and added energy, and they just never went away, in any of their games.

8 The very next weekend, St David’s hosted its Time Cricket festival and, this year, the teams played two two-day games each. St David’s director of cricket, Dave Nosworthy, is adamant that cricket skills and tactics are best taught in longer forms of the game and that the obsession with limited overs cricket is detrimental to the development of good players. You can’t argue with that.

9 In September there were three St Stithians old boys – Kagiso Rabada, Wiaan Mulder and Ryan Rickelton – in the South African cricket side that played England. Saints continues to breed international players – there is one in the current Ireland team and there was another in the Holland team that dumped us out of the T20 World Cup. Only one of the three is in Australia at the moment. Perhaps the other two should have been too.

10 Vlado Trninic coached the Gauteng U19 boys team to victory at the SA Schools tournament in December. It was his last provincial assignment. A few weeks before, at the province’s capping ceremony, a procession of the players he has coached at Easterns, St John’s College, OJ Eagles and Gauteng paid tribute to him. They included many internationals. The remarkable thing was that, almost to a man, they spoke of the impression he had made on them outside of the pool more than about what he taught them in it. That’s the mark of a good coach. He’ll be missed.