High-Performance League aims to take Boland hockey to the next level

After their teams made strong strides during the 2024 SASHOC National Weeks, consistently finishing at the upper end of the various tournaments, the Boland Schools Hockey Association has set its sights on even higher achievements and has launched a High-Performance League for players in the region.

The league is set to kick off on 8 November. After a sharp and intense two weeks of competition, the finals will be played on the Maties AstroTurf in Stellenbosch on Friday, 22 November. 

The league is the first of its kind in the region, and it will see players from u13 to u17 challenged by a series of highly competitive matches.

Boland coaches will take charge of each of the sides, and their main objective will be to implement systems and structures, with a key focus being the 2025 SASHOC National Weeks.

Besides helping players, the league will also assist coaches enhance their skills by putting them through their paces and ensuring everyone is aligned with the same goals.

Speaking to SuperSport Schools Plus after the announcement of the High-Performance League, the Chairlady of Boland Schools Hockey, Adele Bothma, said the idea of a high-performance league was motivated by a desire to build on Boland’s successes during 2024.

“We recognise the need to continuously enhance our structures and systems with a focused effort on improving the high-performance format,” she said.

“More than 200 players will compete in the High-Performance League. The committee looks forward to building on this format and including many more players in the future.

“Out of 12 teams this year, seven Boland teams finished in the top three places [at SASHOC National Weeks], highlighting the strength and development of our hockey programme.”

The coaches set to take charge of the teams are familiar faces within the Boland system.

The u13 boys will be under the guidance of Scott Patterson and Michael John Alexander, while Lou Foster, Scott Hendricks, and Michaella Beart will take charge of the u13 girls. 

The u15 boys’ section has three teams, which will be overseen by Rowan McLachlan, Mick Ouwerkerk, and Kyran Fortuin, respectively.

In the girls’ U15 section, Darren Davies and Chris Gerber will serve as the coaches, while Alvin August will do duty as an assistant coach.

Matt Smith, Fred Olivier, and Dewald Raath will guide the three boys’ u17 teams, while in the girls’ senior section, Jackie Scheepers‘ team will compete against Mignon Collinse‘s side, with Marc Landman serving as an assistant coach.

Mentoring of the coaches will be managed by Jarred Pitout, Michael Baker, and Jacques Grobler.

Pitout said he believes if the High-Performance League is properly utilised, it could work wonders for Boland hockey.

“The plan is to contact our players eight months before tournaments, track them through high-performance, and guide our coaches on this journey, too,” he explained.

“Boland is making a conscious effort to engage our coaches to become a community that can rely on one another, be supportive, and be the sounding boards because we need to break the mold of all of us competing for our own gain.

“I believe that if Boland can get this right and the coaches buy into our vision, we are standing at the beginning of something great that can make our Boland Schools Hockey programme one of the greatest,” he concluded.

Fixtures for the Boland HP League

Round 1 

Round 2 

FINALS 

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Avuyile Sawula

Avuyile Sawula is a multimedia sports journalist, broadcaster, and writer. He possesses a journalism qualification from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. During his time in the media industry, he has worked for various online media publications covering a variety of sporting codes. He also has a broadcasting background having worked as a news journalist at one of Cape Town’s commercial radio stations. His reporting beats include hockey, rugby, water polo, and cricket. Apart from writing, he has a knack for creating sports content, and video editing.

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