Buffalo City u19 girls primed for IPT challenge
The Buffalo City u19 girls’ water polo team head coach, Paige Meecham, says her team is eager to get the ball rolling at the 50th edition of the Schools Water Polo South African (SWPSA) Inter-Provincial Tournament.
The annual event runs from 6-10 December in Johannesburg, with the girls’ matches taking place at St Stithians College, in the Olympic Pool.
Catch the action LIVE on SuperSport Schools.
Buffalo City has been drawn in Pool A and will face the defending champion, Central Gauteng A, Nelson Mandela Bay, and Western Province B in the group stage.
SuperSport Schools Plus caught up with coach Meecham to discuss her team’s preparations and their goals for the tournament.
“The team vibe is really good,” she said. “We all gel really well together, and it feels like we have been together for years. We are all very competitive and working hard to achieve the same goal.”
The Buffalo City team features a large number of players from Clarendon Girls School and is bolstered by players from Hudson Park High, Stirling High, and Merrifield College.
Out of the 13-player squad, only four were in action at last year’s event, which was hosted in East London.
“We retained only four players from last year, three from the A team,” the coach explained. “They are Erin Batting, Jessica Schaefer, and Meka Loots, and one from the B team, Caroline Kretzmann.
“The rest of the team is pretty young compared to last year, when we had eight matrics.”
Meecham and her troops will be aiming to improve on last year’s sixth place finish. They suffered a 9-13 loss to KwaZulu-Natal in the playoffs on the final day in a game in which Erin Batting scored a hat-trick and Meka Loots also made it onto the scoresheet.
They are, undoubtedly, one of the underdogs but they will bring their best in every match, Meecham reckoned.
“We are planning to approach this tournament with fight. The girls know we can do well in our pool stage games.
“We just need to remain calm, play it chukka by chukka, and work as a team to achieve set goals,” she said.
“Our goal for this tournament is firstly to achieve our small individual goals; if we can do this, we can then achieve team goals for each game.
“With all the hard work these ladies have put in, they deserve to finish high up.”
Buffalo City’s campaign begins with a showdown against Central Gauteng A on Sunday, 7 December, at 09:00.
TEAM
Erin Batting, Kara Batting, Rania Khan (all Hudson Park), Jenna Botha, Elizabeth Cairns, Quinn Carr, Holley Jacoby, Caroline Kretzmann, Meka Loots, Megan Phillips, Jessica Schaefer (all Clarendon Girls School), Caitlyn Mthembu (Stirling High School), Janey Wood (Merrifield College).
Head coach: Paige Meecham
Manager: Stefano Zanoncelli
