The U19A water polo team travelled to Johannesburg this past weekend to take part in the prestigious KES Invitational tournament. Hotly tipped as the tournament to win in South African senior boys’ water polo circles, the Rondebosch team were sold a dream by coach Jared Wingate-Pearse at the beginning of the season – “let’s build towards KES and make that our goal”.
Jared’s leadership out of the water was exceptional with excellent tactics as he constantly reminded the boys that this was their time. The leadership in the water was matched by the two captains, Pierre du Plessis and Matt “Moose” de Villiers as they spurred the boys on in every game. Each member was outstanding and played his part contributing to a fine team effort. The Bosch boys improved with every game remaining unbeaten in the pool stages to set up a tough quarter final with Hilton College. A (12-10) victory ensured a mouth watering semi final with neighbours and fierce rivals, Bishops. This concluded in a narrow (12-11) victory reversing the exact result from two years ago. St Johns saw off SACS in the other semi final and it was game on with Joburg’s finest.
In a hard fought final, Rondebosch never looked like losing and were mentally and physically just too conditioned to let the opportunity slip, running out (11-7) victors. Well done boys and coach – it certainly was your time!
Individual awards went to Pierre du Plessis, Bradley Warneke and Connor Arbuthnot as they were selected for the KES tournament team.
