Words by Sharlene Versfeld
Meet Brady Wiseman – captain of St Anne’s, the defending champs, of the Pietermaritzburg North Regional of the SPAR KZN School Girls’ Hockey Challenge. The second regional of the seventh annual tournament that takes place at on Saturday, March 11.
Captain of the St Anne’s First XI, Brady Wiseman, is looking forward to her fourth SPAR KZN School Girls’ Hockey Challenge when the team takes to the astroturf at UKZN on Saturday, March 11.
The feisty centre-back, who was selected for the first XI in Grade 9 and is also in the school’s First Waterpolo team, says she has always loved playing sport. “I started playing hockey in Grade 3 at La Lucia Primary and my mum played netball, my dad played rugby, and they both were provincial swimmers, and my brother plays rugby competitively too, we are a sporting family. It’s kind of like our hobby.”
Brady received her full colours for hockey back in Grade 10, and is in the KZN provincial hockey and waterpolo team. She says she “loves the team aspect which enables me to play with friends and the competitive nature too. Our coach constantly reminds us to never give up on the field – to persevere to the end, no matter the score, and that makes every game such fun, no matter the score.”
Having been selected for the First XI in Grade 9 means that Brady has already got three SPAR tournaments under her belt, “I love the SPAR tournament. It is so well run, and a lot of organization and effort is put into it to make it worthwhile for us schoolgirls. We are able to play short games against a variety of schools, which makes it very exciting for us. We play against teams that have a variety of hockey styles and experience, which helps us to grow our own game. And besides it’s just great fun.”
Her team, who have made it to the finals five times, will be defending their title against Voortrekker, The Wykeham Collegiate who have progressed through to the Grand Finals once, Treverton, Alexandra and Grace College.
And she is really hoping their team will do well this year to be able to make it to this year’s Grand Final as she was unable to play last year due to an injury. “I was so disappointed as I had to sit on the sidelines, but I was very proud of my team-mates – they did well and we achieved what he set out to achieve and that was to make it to the top 4. We loved being there, it was so much fun.”
The 17 year old who hopes to study sports science at Stellies next year says she lives by the motto ‘live life to the fullest and, is inspired by Michelle Obama, “because she fights for what she believes in – she is such a positive role model for us young women of today.”
Catch the north regional on the UKZN astroturf on March 11. Running concurrently is the Pietermaritzburg Central Regional at Epworth with Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High defending their title against Epworth, Howick High, St John’s, Russell High and Maritzburg Christian School.
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