Team culture behind UJ hockey’s success

University of Johannesburg (UJ) men’s hockey captain, Gareth Heyns has identified a consistent drive for improvement as the reason behind their varsity hockey success this year.

Under the guidance of coach Gareth Ewing and Heyns, UJ retained the title in the biennial event after defeating the University of Pretoria in a thrilling final at the Johannesburg campus.

Heyns put the triumph down to an overall team effort. “I really can’t identify any particular players,” said Heyns.

“Everyone played a key role. It was due to efforts from the performance staff to coaches, to everybody involved with the squad. Everyone pushed each other to get better and better. I think that is one of the benefits of the culture that has been created at UJ over the past few years.”

The 24-year-old national player said they now needed to focus on further developing their game as a team. “We are in the process of rebuilding and we have a few new guys in our system. It is nice to be able to do them justice by winning their first university tournament and to justify their decision to come to UJ.

“I think going forward we need to focus on refining our game. The guys haven’t played together for long but it amazes me at how well they connect with each other. That is one thing we can always work on so that everybody is on the same page and we all have one common goal on the field.”

Heyns, who is currently studying towards his master’s degree in marketing, said there would always be ups and downs and that it was unrealistic to think one could never lose. “Nobody wants to lose but I think if and when we encounter that situation we will need to be humble, mature and professional and use it as a stepping stone in our journey.”

As the defending champions, he said there had been a sense of nervousness before the tournament. “We attempted to deflect the pressure by focusing on the competition as a new event and not one in which we were trying to defend our title. If I’m honest, I was quite nervous. It is always quite a big moment knowing that you have to defend a title, but I really enjoy the pressure, especially knowing the team we had.”

Heyns paid tribute to Ewing’s role, valuing his honest approach and the team environment he created. “Springer, as we like to call him, was extremely important to our success. He is professional in the way that he approaches games and is straightforward as to how we are performing,” concluded Heyns.