Rhenish hockey girls hit the 2023-season with force
Sixteen hardworking girls, one force to be reckoned with.
The Rhenish hockey girls have made a name for themselves in the early stages of this 2023 hockey season.
With a little bit of a slow start at the St Mary’s Hockey Festival that took place at the end of March where the girls had placed ninth overall.
The team quickly redeemed themselves when they took part in the Eunice all girls hockey festival on 28th-30th of April 2023 and had great plays of hockey beating most of their opponents, one being against St Mary’s Festival champions, Eunice, with a 2-0 win and had placed 2nd overall, taking home the silver medals.
Head coach, Chris Gerber, says, “This team is extremely special and has what it takes to be the best in the country, but it’s not just about their hard work, what stands out is the unique way they stand together in tough times and uplift the people around them.
They want to learn and be better and all of them will go very far. They always have smiles on their faces and they enjoy playing and playing well.”
The team is mixed with both experienced players and younger players having a total of 11 players returning to the team from 2022 where every player in the team understands their role and thrive in doing their job as well as they possibly can the team says that there is always room for improvement and want to work on their structure for upcoming games as well as brining in some players and giving them more exposure.
The teams goals for 2023 are simple, “We want to improve every single game and play as a team, but the ultimate goal will be to win the top 12 tournament” which is one of the later fixtures that they are looking forward to the most alongside their winters week fixture against Hoër Meisieskool Bloemhof.
It goes without saying that these girls have a powerhouse for defense, but their attacking play is just as strong, Rhenish girls have won their match against Collegiate High School in their Interschools Derby 3-2 (Baylee Engelke 1; Leah du Plessis 2).
Had a very impressive win with seven goals against DF Malan where Leah du Plessis scored a skillful number of five goals, Baylee Engelke one goal alongside Raquel Pestana with one goal for her team.
The team also pushed through a very intense match against Herchel, one of the teams Rhenish lost to in the St Mary’s Festival, this time beating them with only one goal difference 4-3 with Kaitlyn van Binsbergen securing 2 goals, Justine Basson and Raquel Pestana both with one goal.
Going into this weekends game against La Rochelle on Friday at 18:00 at La Rochelle the team is looking forward to the challenge La Rochelle Girls bring, “Hopefully we can work hard to keep our shape and structure for this match, be clinical in the circle and make sure we are defensively secured.”
The team players:
Jasmine Aitken, Melissa Muller, Shene du Plessis, Montana de Kock, Puck Bakker, Baylee Engelke, Raquel Pestana, Halle Williams, Leah du Plessis, Kaitlyn van Binsbergen, Olivia Visser, Justine Basson, Anna Petika, Ruby Cilliers, Alex Eagles, Grace Hobbs.
The team management:
Chris Gerber – Coach (Head of Hockey)
Ross Camel – Assistant Coach
Jinne De Kock – Manager
Christiaan De Kock – Trainer
