KNYSNA NEWS - The popular Spar Eastern Cape Schoolgirls Hockey Challenge has taken a giant leap forward by incorporating an Adopt-a-School programme aimed at developing players at less-resourced institutions.

Knysna High, which recently hosted one of the five regional legs of the 2024 tournament, is one of the schools leveraging the new platform to help grow the sport at lower quintile places of learning.

Sports coordinator Sanette Milachowski says the school had identified Chris Nissen Primary in White Location as its beneficiary. The school introduced hockey as an official sports code this year but struggled with a lack of facilities and equipment, she says. 

"We will buy sticks, balls, bibs and beacons and get them down to our field on Fridays."

In addition, Knysna High's first-team hockey girls will be mentoring Chris Nissen's boys team.

Growing the sport in and around the town is important, Milachowski says, as only Knysna, Wittedrift and Oakhill currently have access to the necessary facilities to compete. 

By reaching out to schools from less-resourced communities, the net can be cast wider to identify talent and create future stars.

Spar sponsorship

This was the vision that the national director of the Schoolgirls Hockey Challenge, Les Galloway, had for the Eastern Cape and Garden Route regions when it was first introduced in 2016.

She explains that Spar's sponsorship had always granted the host school a gratuity to pay for aspects like security, medical support and staff putting in the extra hours.

"What we are saying to our hosts this year is, 'Here is X amount of money from Spar and we would like you to invest it with a less-privileged school you feel has the potential to grow its hockey'."

Galloway emphasises that there are more than enough tournaments around South Africa that cater to the high-profile hockey schools. The intention of the Adopt-a-School initiative is to reach every single institution that offers the sport, no matter whether they are well-off or not.

Developing players

This way the organisers assist in developing players, ultimately enabling them to participate against top opposition at tournaments such as the Schoolgirls Hockey Challenge. These events also offer coaches an opportunity to interact with one another while showcasing the players who had benefited from the development drive, Galloway says.

The challenge comprises 45 schools divided into the following regions: Border Coastal, Border Inland, Gqeberha Central, Gqeberha Inland and North, and Garden Route.

The regional tournament winners will come up against one another in a grand finale at Victoria Park High in Gqeberha on 13 and 14 July.

Spar Eastern Cape advertising manager Roseann Shadrach said the development programme is massive for the group as it allows it to "make a meaningful impact in the lives of these youngsters".

Shadrach explains that the goal was that it will become a legacy project where one can look back in 10 years from now to see players who had come through the system competing at a high level.

With proper mentoring, she says, girls from an "adopted" school could be playing provincial hockey in no time, which will give them the springboard needed to represent their country in years to come.

"And it all would have started here."

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