Sishuba ready to lead St John’s Aitken Cup challenge
St John’s College first-team hockey captain, Owethu Sishuba, is relishing the chance to lead his side out when they do battle at the Aitken Cup this weekend.
The prestigious tournament, which pits Johannesburg’s top sides against each other, runs from 16 to 18 May at the University of the Witwatersrand, with some matches also taking place at King Edward VII (KES).
Playing in the A-section of the tournament, St John’s will set their sights on going two steps further after they took home bronze in last year’s event.
They have been drawn in Pool C with Helpmekaar Kollege, Northcliff High School, and Hoërskool Noordheuwel.
“It’s exciting times for us as a team, and at Aitken, we want to compete with the best of the best and to be considered as such,” Sishuba told SuperSport Schools Plus.
“In terms of our goals, we want to take the competition game by game and keep on improving as we progress. The aim is to yield positive results for the team and the school.”
The task of doing well at Aitken will be more felt by coaches Gilbert De Villiers and Anthony Woodhouse, who are on a mission to take this St John’s outfit to the next level.
They’ve had a decent run so far this year and produced some good performances at the Nomads Hockey Festival in March.
Their last outing, though, was a disappointing 0-3 loss against St Andrew’s School, in Bloemfontein. Despite that defeat, Sishuba said he’s pleased with the progress the team is making.
“That loss to St Andrews was hard, but, as always, I and the team are eager to get back onto the Astro and to prove ourselves. Our season has been good in that we’ve built on the foundations laid last year by our coach, Mr De Villiers, in his first year.
“With that said, there is still a lot that we can improve on, and more importantly, there are still a lot more opportunities to do so.”
The Blues, as they are known, will enter the tournament as one of the underdogs, with Jeppe High School for Boys, St Stithians College, and KES the leading contenders in the eyes of many.
Sishuba, however, isn’t too concerned about outside noise and wants his side to focus on the job and improve on last year’s outing.
“For us, this tournament is the pinnacle of schoolboy hockey, and after just falling short last year, being in an Aitken final and winning it is the goal this season.
“You can expect us to play hard and play for the badge. No matter the result, our boys have been trained to play with grit and play until the end.
“We don’t play for ourselves. We play for the badge, so I think when you have a mindset like that, it’ll be hard for teams to break us down,” he concluded.
St John’s will open their challenge against Helpmekaar Kollege on Thursday, at 16:00, at KES.
St John’s fixtures for the Aitken Cup
Thursday, 15 April @KES
16:00 – St John’s vs Helpmekaar Kollege
Friday, 16 May @Wits
10:30 – St John’s vs Hoërskool Noordheuwel.
16:30 – St John’s vs Northcliff
TEAM
Owethu Sishuba (c), Siza Gule (vc), Connor Cooper (vc), Kamogelo Thobejane, Andrew Turck, Dylan Viljoen, Daniel Chemaly, Max Pitman, Michael Stubbs, Ben Nagel, Tapiwa Mutetwa, Connor Mackenzie, Alec Loveland, Motheo Mparutsa, Scott Bray, Alan McFerren, Khanya Lebina, Kevin Van Vught.
