Toti coach selected for provincial hockey team

An Amanzimtoti High School teacher and coach has been selected for a provincial hockey team and chosen as captain. This is the third consecutive year of selection for Jolani du Plessis, 28, who will lead the KZN coastal country districts team.

The Amanzimtoti Club player also made the SA country districts (CD) team two years ago.

Jo, as she is known at school, is a engineering graphics and design (EGD, which is an evolution of technical drawing) teacher for grade 9 to 12, a grade 10 maths teacher, the U14 hockey coach and athletics coach.

She was born in Greytown and did her schooling at the town’s junior and high schools. Her father Johan is the high school principal, who taught her EGD and geography, while her mother Petra is the vice-principal and was her Afrikaans teacher.

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“My dad was my mentor and my tutor at school. I studied and got my degree in architecture in Bloemfontein and even worked for a year at a firm, before I realised this is not where I wanted to be in life. I knew I wanted to be a teacher and teaching is in my blood, so I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. My parents are also chuffed I became a teacher.”

Jo moved from Bloem to take up her position at Amanzimtoti High about five years ago. In Toti she met Ernst and they were married in September.

She will run out for KZN when they participate in the SACD tournament from 26 to 30 June, which takes place in Waterkloof, Pretoria this year. “Our best result was a fourth place at the inter-provincial last year in Durban, which was a huge achievement, so I hope we do as well this year. It will also be great to make the SACD team again after missing out last year.”