My top 10 school sports moments in 2023

 

I’ve been compiling these little end-of-the-year top 10 highlights lists since about 2009 when the Saturday Star began running a school sport supplement. At first it was a way to fill a page during the “silly season” in December – when there had to be a newspaper, but there was no real news to fill it.

I got to enjoy doing it and there were those who enjoyed reading it, it seems, so I kept it going on this platform after School Sport was closed down. From the beginning I made it a rule that I would only include games and events that I had actually attended, or watched on TV, at the least. That became more challenging when I stopped working and there were no longer sponsored trips to weeks and tournaments and I began to rely on the rare televised schools games and the bigger interprovincial competitions that did get aired.

And then, along came SuperSport Schools. It’s been a game-changer for me and my trivial list year can include, as you’ll see, references to the School Boat Race, and the SA Schools Water Polo Champs, and I can say I was there – via my laptop and an HDMI cable.

1 So, highlight number one in 2023 was the growth in depth and quality of the SuperSport Schools coverage. I was able to watch the biggest rugby derbies, the interprovincial hockey and rugby weeks, the Boat Race and the SA Schools Water Polo tournament, while never leaving my couch. Who could have imagined?

2 The St Benedict’s rowing and Northcliff athletics records are still stuck, although there may have been a slight shift this year. Northcliff duly won the Joburg co-ed schools athletics interhigh for the 25^th year in a row, but they squeaked home by just 4 points over Rand Park. A disqualification here, or a dropped relay baton there, and the unbeaten run would have been history! Bennies were comfortable winners of the SA Schools Rowing Championships for the 29th consecutive year and they aren’t going anywhere. They also won the schools boat race for the sixth year in a row.

3 The St Stithians Girls water polo team were unbeaten in 60 games during the 2022/2023 season, That includes winning six national tournaments, including the big ones – the St Peter’s, Reef Cup and their own Saints Invitational.

4 It was quite a sporting year for the St Stithians family of schools. Their boys 1^st hockey team won the Aitken Cup – ending Jeppe’s streak – and their girls won the Pullen Trophy. That’s the first time that’s happened, and then they had four players selected for the SA U19 cricket team: Esosa Aihevba, Lhuan-Dre Pretorius, Richard Seletswane and Kwena Maphaka.

5 Speaking of dominant schools, there’s SACS hockey. Their 1^st team was unbeaten and ended the year as the number one ranked team. There were 11 SACS players in the WP team that won the U18 Interprovinicial Tournament. Six of them made the SA Schools team and a further four were in the SA U16 side.

6 The big schools rugby derby clashes are another perennial highlight for me. Thanks to SuperSport Schools I was able to see the Midlands derby between Michaelhouse and Hilton, K Day in Grahamstown, and the Paarl Interschools extravaganza. But the one I attended was the KES vs Jeppe double header – possibly the second biggest of them all. They were thrillers, played in front of capacity crowds and the honours were split, one win each.

7 A few weeks later we had the Rugby Youth Weeks, The U19 Academy Week was in Joburg and The Golden Lions beat Western Province in the “main game”, which wasn’t that surprising seeing that there were four or five players in the Lions side who certainly should have been at the Craven Week instead. The Jeppe/KES midfield combination was great to watch and how those players were not considered good enough for the A team can only be attributed to one-eyed selections. Instead, the selectors opted for a two-school strategy – Monument and Helpmekaar – which didn’t work: the Craven side lost two out of their three matches.  

8 and 9 – a couple of outstanding individuals, Jeppe’s Jaydon Brooker and David Teeger of King Edward. Brooker achieved a rare double, selection for both the Southern Gauteng U18 hockey team, and the Central Gauteng Lions cricket team. He was player of the tournament at the hockey interprovincial and made the SA Schools and U19 teams, Unfortunately, he has had to miss the Khaya Majola Week because he is away with the National U21 hockey team at the Junior World Cup in Kuala Lampur.

The David Teeger story is a remarkable one. He is the captain of the Central Gauteng Lions, and the SA U19 teams, although the latter almost got derailed after Cricket South Africa launched an inquiry into a pro-Israel comment he made when accepting an award. Luckily, sanity prevailed in that and he will lead the SA team at the U19 World Cup in January. The big Teeger story of the year, however, was when his KES teammates turned up at his house early one Saturday morning to walk to school with him. He comes from an Orthodox Jewish family and he chooses not to ride in a car on the Sabbath. So, he walks to school for home games and stays in a B&B on Friday night for away ones. That kind of commitment has to be admired – and it shows in his cricket.

10 The year ended with the SA Schools Water Polo tournament in Gqberha. It’s a massive event, played from U12 to U19, boys and girls. I don’t really approve of the scale of it, I don’t think provincial colours should be handed out so liberally. For me the two U19 finals are what it’s really all about, and they were thrillers. Central Gauteng won the girls game by two goals over Western Province  and WP won the boys – in a penalty shootout after they equalised with five second to go against Gauteng. It was edge-of-the-seat stuff.

11 Here’s an 11^th, just because I can. Back in May when Jeppe hosted Affies, they couldn’t field as many sides as the Pretoria powerhouse, so they asked Springs Boys’ High to fill in the gaps. The Springs 1^st team played Affies 3rds. Affies won, although I can’t remember the score, and afterwards the two teams posed, arm in arm, for a photo. An unlikely meeting between schools who exists in different dimensions, and a moving occasion.