At the recent Steinhoff Maties Hockey Club’s Awards evening Jenaed Brodell was named Most Improved Player of the year in the Maties Women 1st team.
“The award as the Most Improved Player meant a lot to me as I felt I trained hard and the senior players in the team really helped me to keep motivated and keep improving. With players like Illse Davids, Erin Hunter and Quanita Bobbs in the team the intensity was kept high at training. They are extremely inspiring players and that makes it a lot easier to train hard. It was also more of a mental challenge for me as I knew in order to improve I had to increase my confidence,” said Brodell.
It wasn’t the easiest season for the team. “The past year had its ups and downs. Our improvement and progress from the Varsity Hockey series to USSA was unbelievable and our hard work really did pay-off as it was apparent in the way we were playing towards the end of the season. We had a disappointing result in the Varsity Hockey tournament and a young team, but it was a learning curve and as a team we realised that in order to progress and achieve our goals there was hard work to be done. Everyone put in a lot of effort at training. Jenny King our coach and high performance manager Paul Revington really motivated us and as a result our improvement was apparent.”
It was Brodell’s first year with the Maties 1st team. “What I like about hockey is the friendships that develop on and off the field and the way it can bring people together. The atmosphere that the game brings and the feeling that you get when winning and achieving a goal that was set individually and collectively as a unit. Having a goal and working towards it with the rest of the team is extremely rewarding and keeps me going!”
AFRIKAANS
Harde werker Brodell kry haar beloning
By die onlangse Steinhoff Maties Hokkieklub se toekenningsaand is Jenaed Brodell aangewys as die speler wat die meeste vordering gemaak het met die verloop van die seisoen.
“Die toekenning beteken vir baie my omdat ek weet ek het hard gewerk terwyl die senior spelers in die span my baie gehelp het om gemotiveerd te bly en aan te hou verbeter. Met spelers soos Illse Davids, Erin Hunter en Quanita Bobbs in die span is die intensiteit hoog met oefensessies. Hulle is inspirerende spelers en dit maak dit baie makliker om hard te oefen. Dit was ook meer van ‘n geestelike uitdaging vir my omdat ek geweet het om te verbeter moes ek my aan my selfvertroue werk,” het Brodell gesê.
Dit was nie die maklikste seisoen vir die span nie. “Die afgelope jaar het sy goeie en slegte oomblikke gehad. Ons verbetering en vordering van die Varsity Hokkie-reeks na USSA was ongelooflik en ons harde werk het vrugte afgewerp soos dit duidelik was in die manier waarop ons teen die einde van die seisoen gespeel het. Ons het ‘n teleurstellende resultaat in die Varsity Hokkietoernooi met ‘n jong span gehad, maar dit was ‘n leerproses en as ‘n span het ons besef dat om te verbeter en ons doelwitte te bereik ons harder moet werk. Almal het hul deel en selfs meer as hul deel gedoen. Jenny King ons afrigter en ‘n hoë prestasie-bestuurder, Paul Revington het ons gemotiveerd gehou en ons verbetering was duidelik.”
Dit was Brodell se eerste jaar in Maties se eerste span. “Ek hou van hokkie om rede die vrienskappe wat jy smee op en van die veld af en hoe jy as individu deel van ‘n span word. Die atmosfeer en die gevoel wat jy ervaar as jou span wen, om jou doelwitte as individu bereik en die eenheid van die span is alles waaroor hokkie gaan…Dit is my motivering.”
