St Mary’s Hockey Festival
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After a two year hiatus, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, St Mary’s School, Waverley, is delighted to announce that the hockey festival is back. The St Mary’s Hockey Festival, South Africa’s premier girls’ school hockey event, will take place from Thursday 7 to Sunday 10 April. This year, 32 schools from around South Africa as well as Windhoek High School from Namibia, will be sending their best girls’ teams to participate. The festival celebrates its 21st anniversary this year and was initiated by ex-national player and Olympic coach, Ros Howell. The majority of games will be played at St Mary’s School, Waverley.
Both government and independent schools participate and the festival is seen as an opportunity to showcase schoolgirls’ sport. The boys’ schools have their rugby tournaments. This is the girls’ equivalent to these events. The following schools will be participating in the 2022 St Mary’s Hockey Festival:
- Afrikaanse Hoër Meisieskool, Pretoria
- Brescia House School
- C & N Sekondêre Meisieskool Oranje (OMS)
- Clarendon High School for Girls
- Collegiate Girls’ High School
- Die Hoërskool Menlopark
- Durban Girls’ College
- Eunice High School
- Herschel Girls’ School
- Hoër Meisieskool Bloemhof
- Hoërskool DF Malan
- Hoërskool Garsfontein
- Hoërskool Waterkloof
- Kingsmead College
- Our Lady of Fatima DCS
- Paarl Gimnasium
- Paarl Girls’ High School
- Pearson High School
- Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High School
- Pretoria High School for Girls
- Roedean School (S.A.)
- Somerset College
- St Andrew’s School for Girls
- St Anne’s Diocesan College
- St Cyprian’s School
- St Johns Diocesan School for Girls
- St Mary’s DSG, Kloof
- St Mary’s DSG, Pretoria
- St Mary’s School, Waverley 1st XI
- St Mary’s School, Waverley Festival XI
- St Stithians Girls’ College
- Windhoek High School
St Marys School, Waverley, festival team
This festival is a training ground for future provincial and national players. From previous festivals, 40 girls have gone on to represent the senior national women’s team, most at the Olympics, FIH World Cups and at the Commonwealth Games. Springboks who played at the festival in their school years include Celia Evans, Cindy Brown, Roxy Turner, Kelly Madsen, Louise Coetzer, Shelley Russell, Dirkie Chamberlin, Lisa-Marie Deetlefs, Ongi Mali and Zimisele Shange to name only a few.
A dedicated hockey festival app gives details of all teams, fixtures, pools and rules, etc. as well as live scores that will be updated on the completion of each game. This app can be found in smart’s devices app stores by searching for St Mary’s Waverley Events. Entrance to the festival is free of charge. Food and drinks are on sale throughout the day.
St Marys Waverley, first team player, Danielle Grobbelaar
