Precious nets success in truncated year
She was recently recognised by her school by being awarded the Diamond Award for Excellence.
FOR Danville Park Girls’ High School educator, Precious Mthembu, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought some success in a truncated calendar. She was recently recognised by her school by being awarded the Diamond Award for Excellence.
In 2012, Danville learner, Sarisha Chetty was placed first in Quintile 5 Schools in South Africa for her NSC results which led to the school creating a new award – the Diamond Award for Excellence.
Since then the award is given to past pupils in recognition of exceptional achievement and this year, Mthembu, an ex-pupil of Danville was recognised for her achievements. She has now joined an esteemed list of winners including old girls, Joanna Smith and Amanda Kunene.
“This was a huge honour and it was totally unexpected. To be recognised among such talent means the world to me. It’s heartwarming the school did this and I hope it serves as an inspiration for Old Girls and the current learners to keep dreaming big and reaching for the stars,” she said. Mthembu also recently returned from the Telkom Netball League, where she captained the Kingdom Stars (KZN) at an inter-provincial tournament. The Kingdom Stars who were promoted to Division A last year found the competition tough losing 11 consecutive games. However they redeemed themselves by beating the Eastern Cape Aloes 54-30 in the promotion/relegation match to remain in the top division.
“The competition was a huge learning curve for us all, we fought hard to get to Division A and we are happy to retain our position. I think we got to see how tough the competition is and all the participating teams performed exceptionally. That last win against the Aloes was moral boosting for us. We are confident we will only get better with more game time and experience. What was also great to see is the Kingdom Queens (KZN) finished second in Division B and I can say the future of netball in the province is bright. The KZN Super League has also helped develop talent and brought the level of competition up,” she said.
When she isn’t playing netball or teaching at Danville, Mthembu works closely with her community of Waterloo mentoring and coaching her own team, the Huskies.
“The Huskies are an U13 team from the community I grew up in, Waterloo. Besides helping them develop their netball skills I’ve also used the platform to mentor the girls by giving them life skills. I’ve seen how they inspire other girls in the community and I get goosebumps every time I see them leave training and being surrounded by other young girls in the community wanting advice on how to join. Their parents have been so supportive which is also a huge plus,” she said.
Caxton Local Media Covid-19 reporting
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