Fourie, Le Roux promising netball players
• By Michael Uugwanga
TWO new netballers, Jorinda Fourie and Meagan Le Roux, set the court alight with their electric performance at the MTC Namibia Netball Fast Five competition held over the weekend.
The two youngsters -both aged 17- made their debut for Navy Netball Club at Trustco United Netball Courts in Windhoek, where the MTC Namibia Netball Fast Five competition was staged.
Both players are in matric, with Fourie schooling at Pro-Ed Academy High School and Le Roux at Walvis Bay Private High School.
Their performances caught the eyes of former Desert Jewels coach and MTC Netball Premier League (NPL) winning coach Manuel ‘Mansie’ Tjivera of Namibia Correctional Service (NCS) and that of vice president of Netball Namibia, Rebekka //Goagoses.
Fourie who was born in South Africa, plays as a goal-shooter and joined Navy recently because of her friend Le Roux, while Le Roux who plays as a goalkeeper, and goal defender has been playing for Navy in the first division and was promoted to their first team this year.
Fourie who idolises New Zealand great Maria Folau said that Navy has what it takes to win the league title.
“It is an experience of a life time and it helps me to prepare for the future. I have full confidence that Navy can end up winning the league. We have amazing players in the team.
“My mom played for South Africa for eight years. She was my coach since I was seven years old. We share the same passion for netball. I chose to play for Navy because my friend played for them and we wanted to play together.
“Meagan and I are good friends and we love playing netball together.
Talking about representing Namibia, she added:
“Of course I would love to play for the Jewels. It is every netball player’s dream to represent their country.
I believe when you have passion and work hard anything is possible. My mom and Falou are my idols.”
Le Roux on the other hand said she joined the team because it has been supportive towards school netball and they are lucky to be coached by renowned coach, Charlene Minaar.
“My mother was contacted by Charles Muukua from the Navy asking her if I would be willing to play for the Navy. The Navy is very committed and takes pride in their netball team and they are very supportive towards school netball players to help them achieve their dreams.
“Also as school netball players, it is all our dream to play for the national team. I am hoping to play my utmost best at the trials and make the Urban Team so that I may be seen at the Governor’s Cup and make my dream come true to play for the Desert Jewels,” she said.
She added that she has been touring together with Fourie and that they enjoy being together even off the court.
“We have been doing sport together for a while. We have gone on tours together for the Namibian teams to the All Ages and we do athletics together and also made the first NAPSO Schools Netball team together in 2021 as GS and GA.
“We play together very well because we can read each other by just looking at each other. We know where the other one will go when it comes to playing on the field. We are also very close friends,” said Le Roux.
The MTC Fast Five was won by Afrocat Lions Netball, who defeated Navy in the semi-final.
Meanwhile, Afrocat Lions have illustrated that they will be amongst the favourites to win the 2022 MTC NPL, after winning the MTC Fast Five tournament, which is a curtain raiser to the 2022 MTC NPL that is expected to start very soon.