SummaryOpen the quick read
- Selborne College hosts the Sterrenberg Shield (U15A) and Milton Gates Plate (U14A) tournaments this Friday and Saturday.
- Top schoolboy teams from across South Africa, including Grey College, Northwood, and St Andrew's, are set to compete.
- The events provide critical preparation for Border coaches to evaluate selected squads ahead of the Inter-Provincial Tournament.
- Matches will be held across both Selborne College and Selborne Primary venues starting Friday at 09:00.
Selborne College is set to host and defend its titles in the prestigious Sterrenberg and Milton Gates water polo tournaments on Friday and Saturday.
Featuring premier schoolboy teams from the Eastern Cape and beyond, the matches will take place across both Selborne College and Selborne Primary facilities.
The annual event serves as a vital developmental benchmark for Border Water Polo, providing local coaches with a prime opportunity to test selected players ahead of the upcoming interprovincial tournament (IPT).
This Friday and Saturday, Selborne College will not only host but also look to defend its titles in the Sterrenberg and Milton Gates water polo tournaments.
The school's U15A team will aim to retain the Sterrenberg Shield, and the 14As will look to do the same with the Milton Gates Plate.
Games will be played at both Selborne College and Selborne Primary.
Eastern Cape schools, such as Stirling High School and St Andrews College, will compete against the likes of Northwood School from Durban and Grey College from Bloemfontein.
Selborne College head of water polo Storm Siebert is looking forward to an action-packed weekend.
“I’m very excited to see the level of water polo being played this coming weekend, to see where the U15 group is at, especially against the majority of the teams in the Eastern Cape, and see where they fare against the other teams from outside the province," Siebert said.
“These tournaments are very significant for Border Water Polo as we often don’t get a lot of them here.
“Any tournament of a good level, such as this one, is vitally important for our kids to develop and grow into the open age group."
The Sterrenberg Shield is named after former Selborne pupil and water polo captain Ricky Sterrenberg, who passed away in 1982. The shield has been played for since 1987.
The Milton Gates plate is in remembrance of the late Milton Gates, who was the father of Connan Gates, an Old Selbornian who represented SA in water polo at numerous levels. The Gates family donated the plate to the school, and it has been played for since 2005.
Both Border U14 and U15 water polo teams have already been selected.
Buffalo City Schools Water Polo chair Vaughn Meecham said the tournament would help the team's coaches observe the strengths and weaknesses of the selected players for the upcoming IPT.
“From a Buffalo City Schools polo perspective, it's a great opportunity for our coaches to assess our own players' strengths and areas of improvement to be worked on," Meecham said.
“The tournament also allows us to assess the talent levels of our potential opposition — good insight for the respective coaches.”
Meecham also spoke on the importance of tournaments of this nature in the Buffalo City region.
“These are vitally important for the growth and development of our players.
“We are relatively small in terms of local opposition, and any chance we get to measure ourselves against strong opposition is a good indicator of how well our local school programs are progressing.
“Buffalo City Schools Water Polo has always been able to punch above its weight class, and we look to continue this proud tradition of producing quality players and running strong polo programmes.”
Selborne U15 will be joined by 2024 winners Grey High, Stirling High, and Woodridge in pool A of the Sterrenberg tournament. Pool B includes St Andrews, Northwood, Grey College and Hudson Park.
In the Milton Gates, Selborne U14 are grouped with Grey College, Kingswood and Grey High.
The other group includes Grey High School, 2024 winners Pearson High, Merrifield College, Alexander Road and Selborne Primary U13.
The tournament will commence on Friday at 9am.