Winning can become addictive.
That pretty much becomes clear when the Tuks head coach, Jenny van Dyk, starts talking netball. Last year she made sports history by becoming the first coach to lead teams to titles at the national championships, the Varsity Netball series and the Brutal Fruit Premier League in the same year. If she has her way, none of the teams will relinquish their titles.
As a forever perfectionist she has set new goals for herself and the players. The first challenge is not only to get the Jaguars to win the Brutal Fruit-series again. Van Dyk wants the players to lift the standard of their play to such an extent to be also competitive if they get to play in the Super Club Tournament in New Zealand afterwards.
Whoever wins the Brutal Fruit-series earns the right to play the tournament. Last year that ended up being a reality check for Van Dyk and the Jaguars players who are mostly from Tuks.
“At first we battled playing in New Zealand as we were not used to playing game after game at such a high intensity. It was a valuable learning experience. In the end, we did manage to adapt somewhat which led to us winning one game and drawing another.”
Van Dyk is confident that Jaguars can defend the Brutal Fruit-title.
“It is not going to be easy. No game in the Brutal Fruit-series is ever easy. However, after what happened last year the players now believe in their abilities. Once you get a taste for winning the more you want to do so.
“I purposely made sure that every one of our training sessions has been geared towards becoming a better team. As a coach, I believe on focusing on one specific aspect of the game until the players have mastered it. The challenge is always to lift the intensity of our play. It was also important to get the right combinations sorted.”
The Jaguars is in the lucky situation that the core of the team remained intact. Erin Burger, Danielle van Zyl, Akosua Mensah and Melodine Jacobs are the only four new players in the squad.
Burger, Ine-Marí Venter, Izette Griesel and Shadine van der Merwe are part of the Protea-squad.
It is exciting to note that a total of 26 TuksNetball players will be representing four different teams in the Brutal Fruit-series.
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