FORCE OF NATURE
Coach Danlee Mathews leads UWC’s netball team to the Twizza Netball Club Championships finals By Lynne Rippenaar-Moses | Photography: Skhu Nkomphela
E
ven with minimal in-person training and no play time on the court in 2020, the University of the Western Cape’s (UWC) netball team is a force to be reckoned with. The team progressed to the Cape Town district finals of the Twizza Netball Club Championships in May this year, beating some of the district’s top super league netball teams. While the team lost 41-26 to Durbanville Netball Club in the finals, this achievement is made more remarkable as the coach, Danlee Mathews, had just started coaching the team in February 2020. Less than two months later, South Africa went into a hard lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus. During the lockdown, all sports training and competitions stopped while universities across South Africa moved to online learning. UWC remained closed for 2020, with only a few students allowed to return to residences later. “Our goal is always to win so you’re always working towards that win whether [you’re] under lockdown or not,” says Mathews, a former Proteas netball player. The Twizza Championships was launched in 2021 by Netball South Africa (NSA) and the cold drink company Twizza. Approximately 52 districts from across the country, with close to 20 clubs per district, were invited to participate. The
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next round of tournaments will be played at both provincial and national level. With UWC closed, Mathews had to ensure the team was able to stay in top condition physically and mentally. “We developed home-based training programmes to keep everyone fit during the hard lockdown and were also constantly in touch with each other through online meetings, motivational videos and messages I shared in our WhatsApp group. The players also supported each other,” explains Mathews. UWC players who played for provincial teams such as the
Western Cape Tornados, who Mathews also coaches, and Southern Stings were able to start practicing in late 2020 and raked up some match hours through the Telkom Netball League presented by NSA and the Spar National Championships. When the UWC players started training again in 2021, Mathews worked on the players’ mindset, endurance and performance. “We focused on conditioning and nutrition while our physiotherapist concentrated on rehabilitation. I need players to be fit and on point, but also prevent injuries as far as possible. Nutrition is just
