Hoërskool Randburg learner Ruben Jacobs captained the South Gauteng yellow team and won the division B of the South African School Hockey Association tournament that took place at Kearsney College in KZN.
The hockey association provides a great platform for young talent to show and grow players’ potential. The regionals at Kearsney College were also called the ‘North Tournament’. Participating provinces included KZN Inland, and Coastal, Northern Free State, Mpumulanga, Limpopo, South, North and Eastern Gauteng. Some of the provinces sent A, B and C teams.
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Many hours of practice and discussing strategy with coaches paid off as Ruben and his troops took home gold. He explained that the talent was exceptional, and he was over the moon to walk away with the gold medal.
“The players do not know each other well before they are selected and are from many different schools. The challenge is to get the team to play well together. You can have 11 skilled players but if they do not communicate and play well together, you cannot be a strong team. It also takes a lot out of the players to play two games a day for four days in a row. My challenge as a captain was to keep the players motivated and to make sure they play with the intensity they need to win matches.”
Ruben started playing hockey in Grade 2 and it was more about the friends and being part of a team. He fell in love with the sport in Grade 4 when he played for the Tiger’s Club.
“I started looking forward to everything that involved hockey. I love to outskill my opponent. I played from a young age. My parents took me on Wednesday nights to practise for club hockey. Different coaches bring different approaches and because I played both club and school hockey, I had exposure to quality coaching which ultimately improved my specific skills in both attacking as well as defence.”
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He stated that the sport has also taught him perseverance and how to deal with disappointment. “You will always win or lose games and it is to learn how to win or lose gracefully. As captain, I have learned to know when to question a decision made by a referee that I might disagree with and when to stay calm. I learn to read the situation and manage to have a win-win result.”
He added that being a captain was a great honour and he was proud but also nervous as he wanted to do the right thing even though it was not the easy thing to do.
“We were successful in the tournament, and I am very proud but also very grateful for the opportunity to be able to partake in an event like this. The experience gives me a self-belief that I can achieve anything.”
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