Shooting Pukke Hockey to the top

If you could put a picture next to the word ‘coaching’ in the dictionary then you may as well put Potchefstroom’s Sheldon Rostron there.

From his time in high school, Rostron has always been at the centre of hockey coaching. Starting at Hoër Volkskool Potchefstroom’s girls’ first hockey team in his playing days at Potchefstroom Boys High, he has now progressed through the ranks and achieved his lifelong goal of becoming the current South African national women’s hockey coach.

“I fell in love with the game when playing hockey for Boys High. I then started coaching at Volkies and then moved on to coach NWU Pukke at a later stage. I moved to Pretoria where I coached at Affies and Menlo Park High School.” In 2010, Rostron got his opportunity for national exposure when he was appointed goalkeeper trainer for the South African National Women’s Hockey team. This experience in various roles in the setup made him the obvious choice for head coach of the team when he was       appointed in March 2015.

“I have a passion for coaching goalkeepers and, since being in the national team, I have been focusing on every position on the field, assisting in every role imaginable,” he said.

Rostron’s main goal in Potchefstroom is to better the potential of the men and women’s hockey team at NWU Pukke.

“I want to make sure that both teams are successful. The short-term goal is to set up the structure to ensure professionalism in every aspect on and off the turf. We want to use different technology to keep track of our training. We want to develop quality players who have winning characteristics that suit the way the Pukke play,” he explained.

According to Rostron, he also wants to create hype around hockey as a sport at the University as well as in Potchefstroom.

“We have excellent, world-class facilities and the best thing will be to attract quality players and to establish the academy as the country’s best.”

Rostron maintains, though, that this will take hard work to accomplish and that two features are key for him as a coach when identifying new talent.

“I believe speed and fitness are the most important. If you have those qualities, you can win the other battles on the field. A very fit team can outperform any team. I do not have time for egos in a side,” he added.  “My next goal will be to coach a national team for the Olympic Games.”   Unfortunately, this will not happen this year as they did not meet Sascoc’s qualifying criteria.

Notwithstanding, this hard working hockey lover will now want to make 2016 a year to remember, not only for NWU Pukke hockey but also for South African hockey in general.

“I believe we are surely starting to gain more exposure with our hockey with TV rights and broadcasting. The scope is to continually improve the professionalism in the sport.”

Favourite food: Meat

Music: Coldplay

Best places travelled to: China, Argentina and the Netherlands.

Worst place travelled to: Ghana