Coach Profile – Megan Sileno (St Anne’s DSG)
After a colourful journey with her players, St Anne’s Diocesan College water polo coach Megan Sileno has whispered into the ears of SuperSport Schools Plus that she will be taking on a new challenge at the end of 2024.
The Cape Town-born coach recently led her girls to a silver medal at the St Anne’s Water Polo Tournament, facing a strong 20-team field from across South Africa.
Sileno, who attended Arizona State University in 2008, followed by Stellenbosch University from 2009 to 2012, played many sports at a young age. “All but hockey,” she said.
She was introduced to water polo at school when her netball coach decided to turn their team into a water polo team during the summer months.
Her love for the sport grew and she excelled as a player. As a result, coaching became a natural consequence. When she was a student at Maties in 2009, she coached for the first time, taking charge of the u15A Western Province and Rhenish Girls’ High School first teams.
“I was supposed to be coaching the Western Province u16B team, but they decided to split them up into u14, u15, u16, and u19A teams. Just by luck, I got to coach the u15A team, which was quite nerve-wracking and a bit of pressure, but it was a very good little team and we ended up winning gold at the end of that year, which was exciting.
“We were in a few finals, and we won a few gold medals while I was still in Cape Town,” she fondly recalled.
Later, a move to KwaZulu-Natal presented Sileno with a new challenge. She grabbed it with both hands.
“In 2017, we moved up to Hilton and that’s where the challenge of my coaching career started. I was still very young, very new and I feel like St Anne’s and I almost started developing together. I always had good players and that helped, and it didn’t matter that I wasn’t too experienced as a coach. I got down the development side of my coaching when I moved up to Hilton.
“I did not have the excellence. We started from scratch, with some decent players, but they were raw as well, so heading to tournaments with inexperienced players showed my faults and lack of experience as a young coach. So, over the last seven years, I have grown into a good coach.
“I’ve always been a good water polo player and that got me as far as it could have as a coach. Now, I have learned the timing of when to do things, what things to do, when things are not working how to change them up. The St Anne’s community and I have grown more into each other,” Sileno told SuperSport Schools Plus.
“I think my experience of being at St Anne’s and running my programme has helped me develop into a good coach. I think I have come a long way,” she added.
Sileno recalled some of the memorable moments of her coaching career, including the birth of her son just before a tournament.
“I was 20 months pregnant with our first child,” she giggled, “and we won the St Anne’s tournament in 2018. Back then it was not the top tournament. The top Johannesburg and Cape Town schools were not there. They used to come in the past but they started going to another tournament.
“When I arrived at St Anne’s that was going to be my challenge, to get them all back to the St Anne’s Tournament and I have accomplished that, and now it’s the top tournament in the nation.
“Winning that one and my son being born the following week was special and it was awesome.”
Digging deeper into her well of memories, she said she had to hand the coaching reins to her junior coach for most of the games at the Top Schools Tournament in Durban, as she had to deal with some medical issues after the birth of her son.
“My junior coach led the team and I watched from afar in the hospital with my little boy. He responded well to medical assistance, and it was on Sunday and we were in the final. I sat with a nurse, with whom I had become friendly, and she could see how much I wanted to be with those girls. She encouraged me to stop fussing. My little Jamie was fine. He was being fed and all that, so she pushed me to the car, and I drove down to the final.
“I made it just when the girls were starting their warm-up. We were very excited to see each other, and we ended up winning that final. We beat Durban Girls’ College, which St Anne’s had never done. That’s probably one of my favorite memories of being a coach, just sharing the delight and the ecstasy of that moment”
“I had a special captain, Isabella Bertossi. Her belief that we could do this got the girls on board. That was awesome. We had some ups and downs but we came a long way.
“And another favorite memory is us making it to the final in this last tournament. For St Anne’s, that was unheard of – getting a silver medal in the top tournament and beating some of the top teams that they never actually thought they could do – so, to share the belief and determination with the girls is something I am proud of,” she said.
Now in her mid-thirties, Sileno has built up valuable experience, and she has made her mark. She reflected on the challenges she has faced on her coaching journey. 
“There are lots of challenges as a young coach. You get to be a top coach by going through all of that – the inexperience, realising that games are won and lost, and especially lost on decisions that you have made, and you do a lot of reflecting, and those are big challenges as a young coach.
“Coaching young girls is an emotional rollercoaster and one of my biggest challenges at St Anne’s is just getting the girls to believe that they deserve to be where they are.
“They can get into a game, and they can be amazing and then two games later, just because they are playing a top team, they will completely fall apart when they know they can do better. That’s a huge challenge for me. It’s getting these girls to believe that they can do it.
“There is only so much you can do when you are outside the pool. It has to come down to them and the decisions they make in the pool and how they carry themselves through it. That, also, has been a big challenge, and I think I’ve done a good job now.”
The St Anne’s Sports Coordinator and senior team coach represented the South African women’s team from 2006 to 2024, including at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2021.
Earlier this year, she was again selected for the national team that contested the World Aquatics Championships in Doha.
“I look back on seven years as my journey with St Anne’s comes to an end,” Sileno said, “and I think I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be in my walk through life.
“I’ve built something special at this school and I am confident it will continue with the culture that has been created within the programme. The buy-in from the girls and parents will ensure that it gets passed down through the teams to come.”
Though she is leaving her coaching job at St Anne’s, she is not leaving coaching.
“My family and I are off to Johannesburg to start work at St Stithians College. Coaching is still on the cards for me up there. I plan to build on the programme that is already established and put my spin on it.
“My career as a national player may be coming to an end. We just can’t seem to break through the politics to let our young athletes fly. But maybe on the coaching side of things, I can make an impact. It is sad to be thinking of hanging up my cap for good but, as for coaching, I don’t think I’ve even scratched the surface,” Sileno concluded.
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