If one had to pick a surprise package of the 2024 Varsity Netball tournament, it must surely be Wits. Only in their second year of Varsity Netball the Wities have made huge strides as was evident in their round 5 clinical 86-24 win over TUT and they have pushed more fancied opponents, like defending champions UP-Tuks and log leaders UJ with some excellent quarters.
The team’s growth has been incredible. Head coach Elsje Jordaan says it is all hard work and dedication.
“I’ve been really happy with what our squad has delivered, with a great improvement in our performances as a whole, managing to cut the margins compared to last year. I do feel we now need to be a little bit more consistent in our play and from there we will get better.”
Wits has a balanced but young squad with a handful of players who were still at school last year. This has seen a better return on performance, according to Jordaan.
“The squad has worked really hard, with our support staff also contributing a tremendous amount to making us a better team. We have a young squad, with eight first years in total, while five are in our travelling squad. We are excited about the future with our improved recruitment.
I’m generally happy with the squad but we will certainly have to keep refining our recruitment process to keep getting better.”
Jordaan says the team's high-performance level is the difference this year.
“We’ve become better from a high-performance perspective, which has led us to massive growth, where we now have our players from last year gaining more experience. Our players have gotten more exposure at a high level, we’ve managed to cut the margins and just keep working (at it). This whole process has required us to be patient.”
Wits as an institution has grown in great strides in the netball space, which Jordaan is impressed with, especially with netball getting more popular amongst students.
“Wits has seen a massive growth, where we now have more quality players looking to join our club. We are also improving gradually, even knocking on the door in the top division of club netball. More recently, we just missed out by one point in gaining promotion into the top division, which is a reflection of the growth. So, netball at Wits is in a good place and we are excited about what is still coming.”
Jordaan credits the difference Varsity Netball has made to netball as a whole.
“Varsity Netball has been a great platform for the development of young players in a high-performance space. It’s allowed players to get exposure, recognition and quality coaching that has been an incredible benefit to youth development in netball.”
by S’fiso Nyawo
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