Achievers of the Week

ST STITHIANS GIRLS’ COLLEGE WIN GOLD MEDALS AT THE OLD PETRIANS TOURNAMENT

St Stithians Girls' College have won GOLD medals and the coveted trophy at the largest all girl tournament in South Africa. The Old Petrians tournament winners played a hard match against Pearson in the final but finished with a phenomenal score of 14-7. They came out on fire really wanting this one so badly after four years of coming so close!  In 2016 they won silver medals, in 2017 they achieved a 4th place, in 2018 it was silver again and finally in 2019 they won gold beating last year’s champions Pearson High School.

Zànne Smit was selected as Goal Keeper of the tournament. Jordan Wedderburn won the trophy for Best Defender. Jennifer Everett and Tatum Lomax joined them in the tournament team.

Exceptional goals from all of the players from the most acute angles made it difficult for Pearson to close the gap. It certainly appeared to be a textbook game with the St Stithians Girls’ defending like trojans and scoring like champions much to the delight of the local crowd who were supporting this Gauteng school who have dominated all of the local and national tournaments this season.

Congratulations to this special team who are passionately coached by SA’s Mens’ Water polo captain, Mr Pierre le Roux, Life Orientation teacher and water polo master in charge at St Stithians Girls’ College.

To be able to score 14 goals in a major national final against a team that has several SA ladies’ representative players, is true testament to the belief that the coach has in all of his players and the formidable force that they present when they play together as a unit. Travelling to Montenegro and Croatia in their grade 8 & 9 year has made a significant difference to this team and their love of the game.

The team is captained this year by Jennifer Everett who dominates the play up front. The vice-captain is Zànne Smit who had a phenomenal tournament in the cage keeping St Stithians goal difference the lowest in the pool stages.

The top 4 teams this year were: St Stithians Girls’ College from Gauteng - Gold, Pearson High School from the Eastern Cape - Silver, Herschel School from the Western Cape - Bronze and Reddam House Constantia in 4th position.

Photo credits: Bruno Fernandes

BACK L-R: Mrs Natasha Panzera (Sports Director at Saints), Bianca Kennerley (U16 SA player), Samantha Varrie (U16SA Squad), Jenna Loughor-Clarke, Shakira January (U16 SA player), Zànne Smit (U17 SA player, Goal Keeper of the Tournament & Saints Vice Captain), Jennifer Everett (U17 SA player, Tournament Team & Saints Captain), Kathryn du Plessis, Franki Gush, Olivia Sim, Natasja Troskie (U16 SA player).
FRONT L-R: Ms Jess Penney (Manager), Jordan Wedderburn (U16 SA player, Best Defender of the Tournament), Nicolle Cronje (U16 SA player), Tatum Lomax (U16 SA player & Tournament Team)

Other Points of Interest:

Mrs Natasha Panzera (Figge) held until recently the greatest number of Midmar swim wins and is an ex- SA long distance swimmer having swum the likes of 25km races in the Mediterranean for her country at World Champs.

Mr Pierre le Roux holds the record for the most capped South African water polo player having played for the South African mens’ team since his schooling days at St John’s.

Ms Jess Penney matriculated at St Peters College and captained her school side in 2016.  She was also named as SAs Most Valuable player at the SA Schools Tournament in the same year.

INDOOR HOCKEY - LADIES INTER PROVINCIAL - TOP GOAL SCORER

CLOÉ DE SOUZA – WINS THE TROPHY FOR TOP GOAL SCORER AT THE LADIES INDOOR HOCKEY INTER PROVINCIAL TOURNAMENT ON HER DEBUT!

Youngest player selected to represent Southern Gauteng Ladies Indoor Hockey, Cloé de Souza in matric at St Stithians College won the trophy for top goal scorer at the National Indoor Hockey Tournament.

Cloé is also St Stithians College’s Equestrian and also Field Hockey captain for 2019.

Southern Gauteng Ladies were also the tournament champions, winning the gold medals this year.