‘Green and goals’ for hockey star Donna
The South Coast has a habit of producing international quality sporting stars.
DONNA Small of St Mike’s is a homegrown talent who has excelled on a global hockey stage.
She was one of the stars for the South African U21 women’s hockey team which took part in the U21 World Cup in Santiago, Chile last week.
SA finished 14th overall out of 16 but were competitive throughout.
“We were hoping for a top eight and then failing that to finish higher in the bottom eight so 14th was a little disappointing,” she said.
Still, most of the games were close.
They were involved in a dramatic penalty shoot-out win over France in the 13 to 16 positions play-off.
This meant SA could play New Zealand for 13th place, which had beaten Zimbabwe 16-0 in the same round. (Ouch).
Unfortunately, a bit like the beleaguered Springboks, the team went down 8-2 to the Black Sticks, but the match was not as one-sided as the scoreline may suggest.
The gold medal was won by Argentina, defeating the Netherlands.
One of the highlights of the tournament for Donna was the two goals she scored in a 3-3 thriller against England.
And she did at least fulfil one of her Bucket List’s wishes – to sing the national anthem.
“We had to do it without a ‘voice’ (professional singer) and battled along as loud as we could,” she said. Was she the leading vocalist? “Definitely not,” she laughed.
Donna comes from some serious sporting stock – her father Greg was a very skilled hockey and cricket player, while her mother Karen is certainly no slouch with the stick.
Her brother David is a cricketer of some note, having made his mark at Maritzburg College.
Her parents, brother, and boyfriend Josh Fourie travelled with to watch the hockey, and do some sightseeing, with mom Karen providing regular updates on Facebook.
“They were by far the loudest in the crowd, especially Josh and Dave,” she said. “The support was great.”
There’s a lot to be said for her Sheppie hockey grounding.
Donna, who is the granddaughter of long-time South Coast residents Mervyn and Gloria Tarboton, matriculated at Creston College, where she was head girl and obviously hockey captain.
She clearly hasn’t forgotten her roots, asking her mom to relay a message from the World Cup to Gareth Olivant, who was the sports director at Creston at the time Donna was there.
His comment back then was: “So are you going to work towards making the World Cup in 2016?”
That was back in 2013. Nice how it turned out.
But it’s more than just her hockey skills that are so impressive.
She was interviewed at the tournament after one of the games and came across really well, a complete natural in front of the camera – interesting, articulate but humble.
Her days as head girl certainly put her in good stead.
In terms of her studying, she is going to do her honours in corporate communication.
The future looks bright for her, and it may not be long before she is competing for the national team.
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