Coach Profile: Kyle Reddy (Parktown Boys’ High)
He’s young, goal-oriented, process-driven, passionate and hard-working, and he’s the coach of Parktown Boys’ High‘s impressive first hockey team. Meet Kyle Reddy.
Born on 16 March 1994, just before the dawn of democracy in South Africa, Reddy hails from the south of Johannesburg.
He has spent most of his life in his hometown, which has included attending the University of Johannesburg, where he also played hockey. Unfortunately, he suffered a serious shoulder injury early in his first year, which eliminated him from playing competitive sport.
Apart from hockey, Reddy’s favourite sport in his childhood was football, and he grew up supporting Liverpool, along with his father and younger brother.
“I am still an absolute die-hard Liverpool fan, with my favourite player of all time being Daniel Agger,” he said with pride.
However, it seems that artificial turf and hockey sticks stole Reddy’s heart when he was in high school. He had decided to play the game in grade 8 because an older friend said that it was just like football. Reddy was pretty good at football, so he decided to give hockey a bash. While getting the hang of the game, he made his first school team, the u14C side.
His start in coaching, Reddy told SuperSport Schools Plus, came in 2013. Those early years were spent at Jeppe High School for Boys, working under an excellent trio of coaches in Ryan Ravenscroft, Bryan Hillock and the legendary Mike Bechet.
“Those three men are institutions in schoolboy hockey and I’m really glad they took me under their wings and guided me,” said Reddy.
He continues to be mentored nowadays, although those reins have now been assumed by Ricky West, Miguel De Graca and Sharmin Naidoo, who share ideas with him, giving him pause to think about hockey in different ways.
West and De Graca are old Parktonians. They are always willing to offer advice or are available to have Reddy bounce ideas off of them. They have both offered him guidance, too, in the provincial setup, with Wits, which was where he started to view the game in a different light.
“I’ve been mentored by some of the best hockey minds in the country and I’m very fortunate, but it also drives me to constantly test myself, and, when we come up against each other with our respective club and school sides, it’s always competitive as one tries to outdo the other,” Reddy said.
As a coach, he’s already won multiple medals at various men’s and schools’ IPTs and tournaments.
Currently, he is the South Africa u17 boys’ manager, and toured to Malaysia with the side in November 2023, where they won the silver medal in the Mirnawan Cup after going down 3-4 to India in the final.
More recently, he rates his Parktown Boys’ High team finishing as runners-up in the 2024 Aitken Cup as the highlight of his coaching career. He’s won many medals with a lot of big teams, but that Aitken run was special.
“It holds a special place because it’s been such a long time since Parktown was in an Aitken final (2010) and it’s been a project that they hired me for in 2018,” Reddy explained. “That medal represents a process and a plan coming together and a lot of [hard] work behind the scenes.
“We’ve also, over the last five years, developed a unique style of play of high intensity and very front foot and direct hockey, which is super entertaining to watch. Something like that also is developed by creating a culture in the team where everyone works hard for each other and has high expectations but is also willing to cover your teammate’s weaknesses,” he added.
Parktown’s successes this season also led to two of their players, Ryan Venter and Zeyad Davids, being selected for the Southern Gauteng provincial team.
One of the challenges of being a young coach, Reddy said, is it’s not a position that is financially rewarding. Therefore, finding a balance between studying, working, coaching and family is a challenge and hard. A lot of late nights and milestones with the family are missed.
However, Reddy also teaches at Parktown Boys’ High and does double duty as the Head of Sport, which makes everything manageable.
Something that motivates and excites him is the opportunity to work with talented sportsmen and to help mould them into good human beings through sport.
Schoolboy coaches have a responsibility to their players, too, he explained, to help them achieve university exemptions.
“Ultimately if one leaves my team having not learned something about yourself or not being a good person, I have failed,” he said.
“It’s something I stress to my guys. Do the small things. Greet, treat people with respect, help and mentor the younger guys. Be kind and always treat people with dignity, no matter who they are or what they do.”
- Parktown Boys’ High aims to build on 2024’s successes - 2025-02-12
- Jeppe water polo team’s achievements recognised - 2025-02-11
- Affies crowned ITEC Grey College Water Polo Tournament champions - 2025-02-03
