DEDICATION
4.3 Girls’ team sport
4.3.3 Theola – netball
“I was selected and I said I cannot go there because of transport. I feel hurt and sad, but I got hope. I will achieve my goal.”
Theola is a quietly spoken individual who is shy and conservative. She stays in the rural township of Gamalakhe,45 Margate, which is on the KZN south coast. She has two older brothers and one older sister. She stays with her parents who only had primary school education. Her mother stays at home and her father works for the Ugu46 District Municipality. She comes from a low-income group, but she says:
We are not poor we are okay; my dad gives us love and anything we want. The1
Although selected for the KZN U18 team in 2006, she was unable to attend training sessions held in Pietermaritzburg due to financial constraints, so never made it to competing against other provinces:
I was selected but could not go there because of transport. I feel hurt and sad, but I got hope.47 I will achieve my goal. It is love. When you do have ball and ground you can learn netball. The2
45 Gamalakhe Township is in Port Shepstone, a town situated on the mouth of Umzimkulu River, the largest river on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is 120 kilometres south of Durban and inhabited by the black race group.
46 Port Shepstone is part of the Ugu District (DC21), which is a municipality district in KwaZulu-Natal (see Appendix17).
47 Social spaces of sporting excellence – Due to financial constraints Theola could not make the provincial squad training sessions.
86 Theola attended schools in the township and it was in Grade 5 that her love for netball began because of her school coach, and this love has allowed her to excel in the sport.
At present her netball is of a very high standard and she is excelling at club level. She hopes to make the senior South African team but still sees the transport issue as a problem:
Last year I achieved the Best Player Trophy for Sport and Recreation Tournament KZN, at Port Shepstone. The3
Netball is the only sport she has played and she speaks passionately about how sports can change the lives of the children in the township, as they are prone to drugs, smoking, drinking, pregnancy and crime. She is part of the Gamalakhe Active Community Club that keeps children in the township occupied through sports, cultural and social programmes:
Netball can help your family. If you do not have food, you come to the sport field. You feel comfortable and talk to others about the problems of your family and you get help. I always tell myself that I am the best in this area, I do not do drugs and I do not do anything funny that can disappoint my family, so I am in sport and I like sport. The4
Besides contributing to her excellence in sport, her coach has also been influential on her outlook on life and has provided her emotional support. She has also shown Theola the difference sport can make in the lives of children:
My coach always tells me that when you are in sport, it is the best thing, especially for girls. Boys like sport. In my area I am the only girl who likes sport and I try to tell the girls but they do not understand. They say that they are coming to the training session but they sit and walk around in the street, they have boyfriends, they do not like sport, they do not understand. You cannot change a person. The5
87 4.3.4 Samiya – volleyball
“When I was 10 I would plan my life and I always knew I will be an architect and a national player.”
Samiya is a lively and vibrant 15-year-old Indian girl originally from Richards Bay. She has a hunger to succeed. She believes that it is important to have a vision in life, no matter how young.
When I was 10, I would plan my life and I always knew I will be an architect and a national player. Sa1
Her family, which comprises her mother, father and little sister, have now moved to La Mercy so volleyball venues are closer to home. She is very grateful to both of her parents for the sacrifices they have made to promote her volleyball career. Her parents have completed their matriculation exams and her mother does part-time teaching and her dad is a panel beater. When asked whether she can say which of her parents had the most impact on her volleyball achievement, she says:
They are equal. I know finance is not supposed to be an issue but because I live far away from the action, a lot of money is put for travel and volleyball does not give back to you. But I have to travel to get the experience and be provided with the opportunity to train. Sa2
Samiya’s mother is also very involved with volleyball. She travels with and manages the volleyball side when they are on tour. For Samiya the involvement of parents in their children’s sport is very important:
My mom manages the team when we go on tour. My parents are very involved, which I think is very important for a scholar because I know so many young people have talent but have no one to look after them and push them in the right direction. Sa3
Samiya has moved schools in order to promote her volleyball career. She started her schooling at Bayes Primary and then went to Ritvlei High where she started volleyball in Grade 8. She remained there until Grade 9 and then went to a private school, Joval College, and did Grade 10 here. She excelled very quickly in volleyball:
88 I got selected for SA and I was voted the best defence player in the whole country. This was just a year after I started playing at 13 years old. People said that it will take me four years before I would get selected. But I always take the negative things people say, so I train and I use it to mould me and make me play better. Sa4
Although she was young, she was playing in the senior teams and as a result she was noticed by clubs in the central Durban area. This meant that she had to travel long distances to get to training sessions:
I was not playing for a club because I was living in Richards Bay. They heard I was playing for senior teams and so they wanted to know if I wanted the exposure of playing with seniors all the time. My parents agreed and it meant travelling every weekend to Durban,48 which my parents did for a whole year before deciding to relocate. Sa5
It was because of the travelling that her parents decided to move the family to La Mercy, where Samiya attended Glengarry High School in Verulam,49 where Donavan Nair one of the educators at the school, is part of Volleyball, Africa. Because of this move, Samiya excelled in her game:
Last year when we went to Cape Town, our U19 team beat Western Province and I was voted the best attacker in SA and this year I will be the best blocker.
That is the only thing now and I know I will do it. I am training hard and now when it comes to training I have to juggle it with schoolwork and that is getting a bit hectic. Sa6
Samiya is very positive about her volleyball team, which she affectionately calls her family:
I would not call it a team, it is a family. When you travel with people and spent time with them, there is a balance in the team. We know each other’s weaknesses and we help each other out. There are different races but we do not see it like that, it is one team. We learn Zulu and we teach them Hindi. It is fun. Our team is very well grounded for our age but when we go for a tournament we know we
48 Social spaces of sporting excellence - Samiya’s parents eventually decided to relocate so that her sporting obligations were easily met.
49 Verulam is a town 27 kilometres north of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and is part of the eThekwini Metropolitan Area. Verulam is inhabited mainly by people of Indian descent. The population is over 63,000.
89 are there to win and we win. We understand the sacrifices our coaches put into training us. Sa7
When asked about the racial complement of the teams she said:
There are Coloureds, Indian and African. But in Natal there are no white players. They play beach volleyball. We do not like to play beach volleyball because of the sun and the heat is too much. We cannot take it. In our SA team there are all different races. Sa8
School does not seem to play a role in the development of sport for the learners:
Most schools do not offer sport and PE and you wonder why with overweight and diabetes there is no sport at school. If SA does not improve their development there would not be any good sportspeople coming out. Sa9