Zwartkop Hoërskool raring to go in Cape Town
Zwartkop Hoërskool is thrilled to be among the 96 teams that will be heading to the southern suburbs of Cape Town for the 2025 Belgotex Sport Easter Hockey Tournament.
Coach Connor Flowers‘ side will be making their debut at the tournament, which runs from 1-5 April.
Zwartkop’s Director of Hockey, Marthinus Gouws was excited about the school earning an invitation to the event: “This will be our first Belgotex,” he said. “We attended the Cape Town International Hockey Tournament in July 2024, and I believe our good showing at that event got us an invite to the 2025 Belgotex Easter Hockey Tournament.”
The Pretoria side has shown tremendous improvement in their game and has run up some big scores already this season.
They opened it with a big 13-0 triumph over Hoërskool Klerksdorp. In the past week, they outplayed Hoërskool Hugenote 7-0 in the pool stages of the NWU Prestige Sport Series and followed up with a 10-0 romp against Hoërskool Wagpos.
The competition in the Western Cape will, undoubtedly, be tougher, and Gouws said Zwarries will not set targets for themselves.
“Obviously, we would like to end up as high as possible at the end, but coach Connor and I believe in a game-for-game and quarter-by-quarter mindset. If we accomplish this, the rest will take care of itself,” he explained.
Zwartkop has built up a solid squad, including captain Handré Coetzee and vice-captain Roché Oberholzer, who have both been in the first team for three years and are closing in on 75 matches for the side. Douw Nel and Jordan Cooks, both in grade 11, are in their second year in the 1st XI.
Gouws said the quartet offers different qualities to the first side: “All four bring different personalities and playing styles to the team that complement each other, with a balance of natural defending and all-out flare.”
Zwarries have been drawn in Pool 10 where they will face Hermanus and Curro Durbanville. They open their challenge on Wednesday, 2 April, against Hermanus.
Gouws said he would have liked better preparation before the big event. He explained: “We are not where we should be as two of our games before this, our Klerksdorp and Wagpos games, were stopped at halftime as we were already up past 10 goals.
“The other game, against Hugenote, we won 7-0 with no real competition from them. I don’t want to sound or seem high, but they did not give us any realistic test in the game. It’s nothing against them or their schools, our hockey programme is just farther along than theirs.
“So, I am worried we might be entering this a bit under-cooked, but I feel we might just see real character come out in such times,” he concluded.
