Nations Cup boosts netball
Winning the Nations Cup has come in handy for the senior ladies national netball team, as the team is glowing with confidence and gained the most valuable experience at the tournament.
“The painful thing is that we could have qualified for the World Cup, if we played with same hunger to win. If every player is determined to be the best, we could be far,” Team Manager, Sepei Gaelesiwe said in a recent interview.
She added that the more strong games they play, the better the team will be. “Also, players followed the Google class with Coach and also our coaches at home monitored the players’ program to ensure they do what Coach Jenny required them to do.”
Looking at the potential of the team, Gaelesiwe is confident that
the team will shock other teams going forward. “I believe Botswana National Team is going to shock many who never believed we can. Jenny brought a totally new approach to this team.
She is slowly instiling responsibility and confidence in each player and I believe we will no longer see anyone who is underperforming selected into the national team; no one is sure on when they can be dropped and no place is guaranteed.”
Jenny Van Dyk has been introducing younger players and not relying on the older players mainly to influence that flow and transition from different age categories.
“If we keep our plan and follow it to the later stages, we will be able to retain our athletes.
We have a very strong lineup of under 21’s coming up, then we have more of the under
23s who will get us to 10 years from now and that will sustain our teams.”
She added that there should be transitions from Under 23, giving the baton to under 21 then to under 19 and under 17. “This should be a way of feeding the senior team which will ensure our senior team is sustainable.”
“The performance really impressed because it shows that they can do much better. We know and are very aware that we have talent, the players need to just believe in themselves and follow the coach’s plan.”
Botswana, who is ranked 31st in the world played against teams ranked above them. Fiji - 15, Ireland - 24, Malaysia - 27 and Singapore - 30. “Singapore and Fiji qualified for the world cup so winning against the two showed good performance of our players.”