Player Profile – Dané Janse van Vuuren (Oranje)
At first, Dané Janse van Vuuren didn’t enjoy goalkeeping. She was an outfield player who enjoyed being in the thick of the action. That’s what she had been for the six years of her hockey career.
“When I was 11, our Bloembears indoor team needed a keeper. Everyone had to try out, and the coach chose me to be the keeper at my first indoor regionals. I was very mad and upset when I found out I had to play goalkeeper,” Janse van Vuuren recalled.
The feelings of antipathy towards her new role vanished once she was on the court. The shot-stopper performed beyond expectations, which convinced the Bloembears’ coaching staff that they had found their full-time goalkeeper.
Still intent on being an outfield player, Janse van Vuuren resolved to hide her success between the posts for the Bloembears from her school team. However, she was trying to hide a lamp under a bushel.
“They found out and made me practice with the u13A team. After that, it wasn’t a choice if I wanted to play keeper anymore. Now I know it was the best thing that happened to me,” Janse van Vuuren admitted.
She didn’t just grow into the position; her love and passion for it developed at an exponential rate. She so immersed herself in the art of goalkeeping that she often wore her goalkeeper kit while watching international matches at home.
Janse van Vuuren was not short of role models on the home front. She is the niece of celebrated coach, Elsie Coetzer, whom she accompanied to Thursday night coaching clinics and mini-games from the age of five.
Her surroundings provided her with an unlimited dose of inspiration. It was, however, through watching international matches that her worldview expanded, and she realised what she could achieve as a goalkeeper.
“My favourite goalkeeper is PR Sreejesh, the Indian goalkeeper,” she shared. “Mainly because he is still playing hockey at the age of 37, and I admire his determination and confidence. I hope I will also enjoy and play hockey at that level and age.”
Her coach at Oranje, Morné Odendaal, is in no doubt that Janse van Vuuren can reach the levels attained by Sreejesh.
“She is the type of player every team needs. She is dependable, selfless, and fully committed to the collective,” Odendaal said.
“Dané is strong-minded and resilient. She builds her confidence through hard work and dedication. She does not chase recognition or personal accolades; instead, her focus is firmly on team success.”
Odendaal’s comment is delivered with the voice of a coach fawning over a beloved player. Janse van Vuuren has consistently proved her capabilities. At the 2025 St Mary’s Waverley Festival, she pulled off incredible saves to force a 0-0 draw with Paarl Gimnasium. A few months later, she did the same in an indoor match for the Bloembears against the Foxes.
Earlier this year, Janse van Vuuren played out of her socks to deny Rhenish goals, despite the Stellenbosch side’s persistent forays into the Oranje half in a semifinal contest at the St Mary’s Waverley Festival. She then executed brilliant saves in the penalty shootout to help the ladies from Bloemfontein punch their ticket to the final.
The St Mary’s Waverley Festival was the first of two titles they won in two months. The other was the All Girls Festival. Those twin victories made Oranje’s 2026 outfit the first team to hold both titles in a single year since the 2017 season, when the Bloemfontein school also achieved the rare feat.
“Every game is her best game. Her consistency is relentless, and her presence in goal directly shapes both the team’s confidence and our tactical structure.
“With Dané in goal, we can play a more open, attacking brand of hockey. She gives the team the freedom to take risks, knowing there is absolute reliability behind them,” Odendaal explained.
Identifying some of Janse van Vuuren’s best qualities, Odendaal mentioned her calmness, confidence, and control. He isn’t the first nor will he be the last to praise her good work in goal. Janse van Vuuren doesn’t let the kind words get to her head and keeps her feet firmly on the ground.
“I have learned to be disciplined, humble, work hard when no one is watching, and to see an opponent as a fellow hockey lover and not as my enemy,” Janse van Vuuren said about her approach to the game.
The girl who didn’t enjoy goalkeeping a few years ago is now one of the best shot-stoppers in the country, and it’s not because she now enjoys it. That’s a small part of it. The bigger part is that she now loves it.
