Hoërskool Nelspruit boys make a clean sweep at Noordvaal Schools Hockey Tournament

The boys hockey teams of Hoërskool Nelspruit (NHS) put on a show in the A division of this year’s Noordvaal Schools Hockey Tournament, where NHS was named the school of the year.

NHS’s U14, U16 and U19 (first) boys teams took part in the tournament. The teams that participate in Noordvaal are the best-placed ones from the northern unions of South African schools hockey.

These include Mpumalanga, Limpopo, North West, West Rand (Johannesburg), Northern Gauteng, East Rand (Johannesburg) and the Vaaldriehoek. The participating schools are then divided into either the A or B sections, depending on their union’s seeding slots, with both comprising a total of 12 teams each.

NHS’s teams all qualified for the A section of their respective age groups. The U14 and U16 teams qualified as the Mpumalanga winners, while the school’s first team qualified as the runners-up. The U14s travelled to Johannesburg for their tournament at Krugersdorp High School, the U16s played at Hoërskool Pietersburg (PHS) and the U19s played at Merensky Agricultural Academy in Tzaneen.

The U14 boys were on fire in Krugersdorp this year. They won both of their pool matches against Hoërskool Rustenburg and Krugersdorp High, progressing to the quarter-finals as top of their pool. They then beat Hoërskool Middelburg in the quarter-finals before defeating Midstream College in the semis.

In the final, they came up against Krugersdorp once more, and it was a thrilling encounter. Nothing could separate the two schools in regular time, and it required an eight-second shoot-out that the Nellies duly won to secure the Noordvaal U14A title.

In the U16 tournament, NHS fared just as well in the opening stages of the tournament. They beat Noordheuwel and Eldoraigne in the pool stage, both matches ending 5-0 in their favour. Potch Gimnasium (2-1) was next in the quarters, before NHS beat PHS 5-0 in the semis.

But the final was against a very strong Hoërskool Waterkloof outfit, and the Nellies battled to the last minute. Unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be, and the Pretoria boys took home the title with a 2-1 win.

In the U19 tournament, things were far more evenly matched right from the start. NHS drew 1-1 with Rustenburg, but beat Noordheuwel 3-1 to reach the quarters as second in the pool. There, they defeated Waterkloof 1-0 before going down 3-1 to a strong Helpmekaar side.

The bronze final match-up was a repeat of the Mpumalanga provincial final, with Nelspruit taking on HTS Witbank, who had won the provincial final 2-0. But determined to exact revenge, Nelspruit triumphed over Witbank 1-0 to win bronze and ensure a podium clean sweep across the three age groups.

The school’s great results saw NHS being named the school of the year in the Noordvaal Schools Hockey Tournament’s A division. This award encompasses all three age groups and is based on the overall performance of a school.