After a two year hiatus, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, St Mary’s School, Waverley, has announced the return of the hockey festival sponsored by Standard Bank.
The St Mary’s Hockey Festival, is South Africa’s premier girls’ school hockey event, it 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
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.
