Jabulile Baloyi current Maties women football head coach is excited about the prospects of building a strong team unit and uplifting upcoming women footballers based in Stellenbosch.
Baloyi who was appointed at Stellenbosch University (Maties Sport) in November of last year has tremendous experience particularly in women’s football as she has coached both the under 20 South African side as well as University Sport South Africa (USSA) team’s at CUCSA Games in Botswana (2018) and World University Games in Taipei (2017) and Napoli (2019).
Her experience in university sport which she has previously gained from working at the University of Johannesburg, especially in women’s football is advantageous to Maties as she understands how university teams operate and play. This further entails that she brings vast knowledge of the game locally and internationality which will be extremely beneficial to the women’s team as they look to expand their skill set and reach higher heights.
When asked about her recent appointment and hopes for the future Baloyi had this to say: “I am both humbled and excited to be joining the Maties family, especially at a time of this exciting partnership between Maties and Stellenbosch FC in a venture to grow and advance women’s football. The aim is to prove to ourselves, as a team, that we are capable of winning and positively improving on our results. My ultimate goal is to establish a team that is competitive and has a winning mentality.”
This appointment will have a good ripple effect on Maties women’s team and more importantly provide them with good guidance as the university looks to empower their student-athletes in the various codes they participate in particularly in this case women’s football. Baloyi and her team hope that they will develop and produce more quality women’s footballers in the Western Cape region in the future because of her appointment and have a thriving women’s football team environment moving forward.
This was further echoed by Director of Support Services at Maties Sport, Jerry Laka who said, “There are other sporting codes that we have developed, in recent times and now we have invested in football. It is an opportunity also to give our students, and the surrounding community an opportunity for football development.”
The few matches that were left in the season last year provided Baloyi with the ideal platform to assess the areas of concern, as the team works towards achieving their ambitions.
“We need to establish a base of players that we can attract and then retain the players that we have. Meaning we keep them for the next coming two seasons and see, what kind of a team that we can come up with in order to compete,” said the seasoned Maties Coach.
Having appointed a coach who has played at the highest level is a move in the right direction for Maties, as an evident interest in the growth and the development of women’s football in South Africa is clear. We wish Baloyi all the best in her endeavors and hope her team will be successful for many years to come!
By Kimara Singh