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

Even 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 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 as important as it affects an athlete’s performance on the court.”

Leading up to the Twizza finals, two of the team’s more experienced players were injured, throwing a spanner in Mathews’ well-laid plans. “We had to bring in first-year players for the finals. However, it was a good learning experience for them as they were able to play against some of the top players in the Western Province.”

Mathews’ passion for the game and her desire to see the UWC players succeed is infectious. That’s no surprise considering she is a former provincial player who has played for the Western Province (WP), the Proteas and the South Africa u21 team that competed in the 2000 World Championships and at the 2003 INF Netball World Cup in Jamaica.

Following two major knee operations, she stepped off the court and qualified as a coach. While she is highly driven, she is also deeply committed to developing players holistically. Now she uses her experience and skillset as a former netball player, knowledge as a coach, and her insights as a former administrator of the WP Netball Executive to ensure the teams she coaches are unstoppable. She’s also had the privilege of being coached by SA greats such as Marlene Wagner, a Proteas coach and the former head coach at UWC, and SA u21 team coach Sue Schooling.

“I am completely player-driven as I believe one has to look at and develop a player holistically. I can’t have a player that only concentrates on one thing in their life. A player’s background, their academics as well as their mental wellness have an impact on them. It can’t only be about netball because, let’s face it, netball is not a long-term career.

“That’s why it’s important for me to understand the player standing in front of me as, consciously or unconsciously, what happens off the court affects performance on the court.”

During the Twizza finals, the team was captained by Courtleigh Behr, a final-year student completing a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Sport Science and Exercise at UWC. Behr usually fulfils the role of vicecaptain of the team and currently plays for the Tornados as goal defence. Over the years, she has played at various levels — for WP, in the Varsity Cup netball teams of North-West University (NWU) and UWC, and for the u19 and u21 NWU teams that won gold at the SA Netball Championships. She was also selected for the SA u18 and u19 squads and played for the Stings for two years.

During Twizza Championships’ matches, including the finals, Behr was supported by a number of formidable players, including Danelle Lochner, a former Proteas and WP player currently playing for the Southern Stings squad, and WP u18 and u21 team players Shevonne Hoffman, Renisha Daniels, and Leandre and Chane Engelbrecht.

“Reaching the finals is a huge accolade, especially since we had little training and playing time together. Most of the teams that we played against train together every day while we are only able to do that twice a week. The Durbanville team also consists of mostly Tornados’ players. The fact that our team was able to compete against them and get a good result shows that we can compete against the best. It shows us that what we are doing and the effort that we are putting in is working.”

Behr credits the team’s performance to Mathews’ impressive coaching skills and the high standards she sets for the team.

Adds Mathews: “I am very proud of what the team achieved in the Twizza Championships and I am very excited about what is coming. We really have great talent here. I always tell them, ‘You can beat any team in this country’. Once this team finds their rhythm, they are going to be unstoppable.”