When it comes to hockey, Celia Seerane can genuinely claim to have done it all.

The 33-year-old player from the TuksHockey club has 173 caps playing for the women’s national hockey team, scored 20 goals, was South Africa’s female player of the year in 2017 and is an Olympian.

But the hunger to play on remains. Seerane aims to help the Proteas qualify for next year’s Paris Olympic Games. After that, her competitive playing days will, in all probability, end. She will still be involved in hockey as a coach.

“I firmly believe that young people should participate in sports as the life skills taught on the pitch are massive. My focus then will be to help young players to fulfil their potential on the Astroturf. My coaching perspective differs from others in that, as a coach, I don’t believe in trying to control every player’s decision and motion. It is unhealthy because it leads to players not thinking for themselves,” Seerane explained her views during a recent interview.

From personal experience, she knows how important it is to be able to make your own decisions during a game.

“A coach’s role is to guide players to play to their strengths. So, my work is done during training and not during any match,” she commented.

Hockey was not always Seerane’s first love. She relished playing football with her brother and his friends when she was younger.

”Then the day came that the boys did not really want to ‘tackle’ me anymore because I am a girl. It boiled down to them not wanting to rough up a girl. It upset me as I did not want to be treated differently. But that was how it was,” Seerane remarked.

One day at school, there was talk about hockey. She did not know anything about hockey, so she went to talk to the coach. He explained the basics and then handed her a stick with the words “Let’s play.” From that moment onwards, the transition from football to hockey was relatively easy.

“While at Northwest University, I played Varsity football and hockey. But there came a time that I had to choose. It was not a difficult decision. What I enjoyed about football was playing the games. I, however, got bored during training. With the hockey, it was totally the opposite. I wanted to learn and improve all the time. And I still do,” she said.

To Seerane it is about winning the ball and putting the opposition under pressure whenever she is on the Astroturf.

“I love attacking at times and I like creating a two versus one scenario. I am also not scared to hit on my reverse stick. Scoring a goal is always special, especially if it is done by rushing in and shooting at the goal. I like it to score with sneaky little shots,” she explained.

Because she is not a student anymore, Seerane plays for Tuks’ second team.

“It is special to play with the younger players. It is important to me to pass some of my experience on to them. Hopefully, that will help them avoid making the same mistakes I made as a youngster,” she concluded.

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