Exceeding expectations

IT WAS inevitable that Beverley Peters of Chatsworth would be a talented sportswoman, given her family background.

Her father, Dennis, was committed to football, her brother, Lindsay, was a great footballer, and her older sisters, Leanne and Judy, were fleet-footed athletes and accomplished at netball.

But Peters’s exploits on the local circuit in professional beach volleyball exceeded her family’s achievements, earning her wide recognition.

Peters and her Czech-born partner, Alena Schurkova, were a celebrated pairing, top-ranked in the country for lengthy spells in the 1990s.

With their athleticism, agility, never-say-die attitude and synchronicity, they won numerous titles.

Their fame secured them financial backing from RayBan and Hooch. The latter took them to an international contest in New Zealand.

Peters also excelled at indoor volleyball. She was a fixture in the South African women’s team and often led the side post-democracy.

She devoted her attention to the indoor game after high school.

Some of the spectators hero-worshipped her, especially when she played matches at the University of Durban-Westville.

Representing KwaZuluNatal and leading South Africa at two All Africa Games and the African Nations Cup were pivotal moments for her. She played spiker in the six-a-side format.

But she rates being named queen of the beach in 1997 – when the country’s top 16 beach volleyball exponents were invited to the Ola Queen of the Beach tournament in Durban – as her greatest achievement.

Playing with different partners was the biggest challenge, but Peters fared best of the lot and won the title.

Peters’s sister, Leanne, was the first to inspire her, when they all lived together in the family’s two-bedroom Westcliff home.

Leanne wore her green Natal blazer, which she achieved for athletics from the old non-racial sports body Sacos (South African Council On Sport) to school.

Judy followed with her Natal blazer for athletics and Peters was determined to emulate her siblings.

That determination drove her as a competitor and a team player, her championship qualities becoming evident in an inter-provincial indoor volleyball competition in 1992.

That tournament presented the first opportunity for black and white players to play together on the court.

And with national selectors present at UDW, the players were all fired up, eager to be picked for a “rainbow” team to compete at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Practising beforehand, Peters leapt into the air to spike a ball, landed on a teammate’s foot and sprained her ankle.

As the team vice-captain, she was terribly disappointed about the lost opportunity to make a name for herself. The team, valuing her as a player, also needed her to be fit.

She endured a cast on her ankle for 24 hours, as well as painful physiotherapy sessions.

She remained on the sidelines during the initial stages of the tournament, but came in to play for the crucial knock-out rounds, seeing action in the quarter-finals and the semis.

KZN progressed to the final to take on Gauteng. With her team losing, she was brought into the fray amid shouts in the auditorium of “give it to Beverley.”

The KZN coaches responded by changing their setter and brought Tongaat’s Judy Moodley into that position. The move was a masterful one. Moodley and Peters clicked and KZN were able to push the contest into a fifth set and eventually won.

Peters had done enough to make the South African team that travelled to Nigeria.

Peters and Schurkova were more than volleyball partners. They were good friends and their ability to “read each other’s minds on the court” gave them an edge.

Peters said their superior conditioning, athleticism and agility compensated for their lack of height.

Peters’s family was not well off and, at times, only one parent would be able to find work. Her father worked mostly in the hotel business and her mother in the clothing industry.

While Peters was among the top performers in the classroom, sport provided her with a pleasant distraction from their poverty. It also helped that they had a loving family, and she enjoyed regular get-togethers with extended family.

Peters and her youngest sister, Jennifer, were blessed with blistering pace and were untouchable on the athletics track.

Victory after victory in races at school ensured their mother’s kitchen cupboards were loaded with an array of plastic cooking utensils – the prizes on offer on sports days.

Both won Natal caps for athletics in primary and high school. Peters’s 100m sprint record, which she set on the Curries Fountain cement track, stood unbroken until the days of unity in sport.

For her sprinting prowess, she was awarded national colours from the SA Senior Sports Association.

She also earned provincial colours in netball and volleyball in her matric year.

She enrolled to study sport science at UDW, but that was only possible through the resourcefulness of her mother.

“My mother was unemployed when I enrolled. She took a job at the Catholic Church’s provincial headquarters so that I could go to university. She worked so hard and even got me a small bursary.

“Her sacrifice and determination motivated me to do well. I just wanted her to be proud of me”

After university, Peters taught at Chatsworth Secondary and completed her honours in sports science.

She resigned from her job in 1997 to study biokinetics full-time. Part-time lecturing and her winnings from beach volleyball sustained her over the years.

Having completed her masters in biokinetics, Peters opened her own practice last week.