Parktown Boys’ High aims to build on 2024’s successes
The Parktown Boys’ High 1st hockey team closed the 2024 season with a big 6-1 win over Northcliff at home and, more impressively, they won 4-1 at Hoërskool Garsfontein, who made the Hibbert Shield semi-finals earlier in the season.
Parktown also reached the final of the Aitken Cup for the first time since 2010.
It was a good year that boosted optimism for Parktown hockey. Up against strong opposition, they played 34 matches, won 19, drew six, and lost nine.
Now coach Kyle Reddy‘s charges are back on the turf, training and preparing for what they hope will be an even better season this year.
“We started to prepare from the start of February, just a bit of pre-season, juggling between summer sports and academics, to get time on the turf,” Reddy told SuperSport Schools Plus.
“It’s been hampered by the weather, the storms in the afternoon, but we have managed to get some time in.”
Although many of last year’s standout performers were in grade 12 in 2024, Reddy is optimistic about the team he is building to take up the mantle for Parktown Boys’ High.
“I am quite excited about the season,” he admitted. “It’s a very different team from last year’s, with many boys having matriculated and gone to university. It will be a younger side, with some exciting talent in terms of some grade 10s that I will be thinking about.”
Reddy said he has not yet selected his first team: “We will probably get the final team together closer to March, but there is some great talent coming through from the u17 ranks. There is also an exceptional group of boys that has remained from the 2024 team.
“Thokan Rayhaan and Ndyebo Pongwana, who last year made the South African u16 squad, are still at school, in grade 11 now, and Zeyad Davids, who was in the u17 SA team, will be there, too. He is in matric now. But I think we have 12 kids who were part of the squad who have matriculated,” he added.
“We remain optimistic. It’s good to rebuild and start with the new group of lads. We will see closer to the time what the team looks like and what the season has in store.
On 15 February, the Heart of the Lion boys will play a pre-season match against Northern Cape High School. Reddy described it as an opportunity to observe which players are putting their hands up for the team.
“We’re getting a big squad together to roll out against them, and seeing how the boys cope in the system will help me make decisions,” Reddy said.
