By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Netball South Africa has announced Jenny van Dyk as the new head coach of the SPAR Proteas on Wednesday.
Van Dyk succeeds Australian Norma Plummer, who was in charge of the national team from 2015 to 2019 and again from 2022 to January 2024.
She coached the national under-21 team and also served as a national selector.
Van Dyk will be assisted by former Proteas captain and back-to-back University Sport of South Africa (USSA) Netball Championships winner, Zanele Mdodana.
She says she is happy about her appointment and she is looking forward to the challenge ahead.
“I am stoked, I couldn’t have asked for something better at this stage. It is something that I have been working towards for a long time. I can’t wait to start working with the team. I am an idealist, a strategist, and an analyst. I dream big, that is what I do. Ever since I was very young I have wanted to win the World Cup and it is still something I want to do.
“I know it is going to take a massive team effort and it won’t be a straight line to get to that top performance but I think it is worth the shot. I am going to make sure that I do everything in my ability to get to that performance. We know what we are up against, we know everybody around us is not sitting back but we have shown in the past that we can be competitive,” says van Dyk.
Although NSA have not set a mandate for the new coach, van Dyk says it is important that South Africa maintain its dominance on the continent by staying at the top.
Netball SA’s president, Cecilia Molokwane, says Van Dyk was appointed on a renewable performance-based four-year contract.
“We didn’t want to repeat the same mistake. They had to apply, which we didn’t do in 2019. We had to vet them because they are working with players. The safeguarding policy in sports is very important, we make sure we are not taking the wrong person who would abuse players.”
“We had to be rigorous about that. I know it was not a nice process for them but we had to do it,” says Molokwane.
She will be tasked with selecting the national team, emphasising the importance of identifying the best players, added Molokwane.