The SPAR Madibaz players continued to show their dominance in the Nelson Mandela Bay Netball Association’s competitions by scooping a dozen awards at the organisation’s annual prize-giving last month.<\/p>\n
Leading the way for the Nelson Mandela University club was Jeanie Steyn, who was named the region’s player of the year.<\/p>\n
The number of awards continued a 15-year trend during which the university had become a dominant force in local netball, said Madibaz netball manager Melinda Goosen.<\/p>\n
“Although we did not win the league, you will find that most of the region’s provincial teams were made up of Madibaz players,” she said.<\/p>\n
“The exception is the team that play in the Brutal Fruit competition, because its composition is split 50-50 with Buffalo City.”<\/p>\n
The success of Madibaz netball was due to the all-round contribution of players and management staff, she added.<\/p>\n
“For example, all the players who won awards have come under the guidance of (coach) Lana Krige, who has made a big impact on the sport at the varsity.<\/p>\n
“In addition, we have people such as Euleen Grobbelaar, who is our top technical official and does great work on that front in our club.”<\/p>\n
Grobbelaar received the award for valuable technical official at the NMBNA prize-giving.<\/p>\n
Goosen also praised player of the year Steyn for her efforts during the year.<\/p>\n
“Jeanie struggled with a niggling injury, but she never stopped giving her all. That sort of commitment helped the club come through the year with top honours.”<\/p>\n
Goosen said they were happy with the playing standard their teams had produced this year, including the Varsity Netball competition, in which they ended fifth on the final log.<\/p>\n
“Now we are looking to build for next year. We place a lot of our focus on recruiting local players because we have an abundance of young talent in the Eastern Cape.”<\/p>\n
But they had to compete with other universities, which were also on the lookout for promising young players, she added.<\/p>\n
“Fortunately, for next year we have been able to attract a number of players from Brandwag and Nico Malan who have made SA Schools’ squads. We are very happy to have them on board.”<\/p>\n
The Madibaz award winners were:<\/p>\n
Valuable technical official: Euleen Grobbelaar
\nU19 player of the tournament: Bridget Hart
\nU19 player of the year: Sibulele Mandeka
\nU21 player of the tournament: Lucy Twani
\nU21 player of the year: Melodine Jacobs
\nMost determined player: Arne Rust
\nMost promising player: Hlumisa Sithonga
\nMost valuable player: Philine van Niekerk
\nMost versatile player: Eloise Webb
\nCaptain’s award: Bridget Hart and Sibulele Mandeka
\nPlayer of the tournament: Nobulele Phuza
\nPlayer of the year: Jeanie Steyn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The SPAR Madibaz players continued to show their dominance in the Nelson Mandela Bay Netball Association’s competitions by scooping a dozen awards at the organisation’s annual prize-giving last month. Leading the way for the Nelson Mandela University club was Jeanie Steyn, who was named the region’s player of the year. The number of awards continued […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":58746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1895,3121,1900,1902,2890,1892,1908,3119,2800,1896,1897,3120,3122],"class_list":["post-14519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-more-sport","tag-arne-rust","tag-bridget-hart","tag-eloise-webb","tag-hlumisa-sithonga","tag-jeanie-steyn","tag-madibaz-netball","tag-melodine-jacobs","tag-nelson-mandela-bay-netball-association","tag-nelson-mandela-university","tag-netball","tag-netball-news","tag-philine-van-niekerk","tag-sibulele-mandeka"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}