DAVID ISAACSON | Silent brain drain weakens SA sport, even amid efforts to grow it

South African sport is an infinite loop of mostly false hope.

I’ve been covering sport for more than 25 years and I’m hearing the same lines now as I did in the 1990s being espoused with the same high levels of gusto.

I’m inspired by the enthusiasm, but disheartened by the inaction that’s likely to follow. 

The latest spurt of sporting ambition came from sport minister Zizi Kodwa who threw a breakfast shindig for Banyana Banyana and the national women’s netball team in Sandton last weekend.

Praise was heaped on both for their efforts at their respective World Cups, where the soccer side reached the last 16 (Bafana has never got that far) and the Proteas ended sixth.

The minister made the right noises, saying how these sports needed local professional leagues so players could sharpen their already impressive skills and go further internationally.

I hope they can get it right, though I doubt that is all that is needed.

I mean, what exactly has the Premier Soccer League done for Bafana Bafana? I’m not saying there’s an inextricable link, but it is curious that Bafana were 16th in the world when the PSL was formed in 1996, and look what’s happened since.

Listening to some of the speakers at the breakfast was like listening to sporting ghosts of years gone by. The enthusiasm and the hope took me back decades.

If only we had made a concerted effort in South Africa in this sport and that code we’d be kings and queens of the world.

I’ve heard that about boxing and swimming and athletics and hockey and, yes, even soccer. It seems we excel at talking plans but not so much at implementing. 

Kodwa mentioned that he had spoken to some of his counterparts from other countries and received some good insights into their successes.

There is incredible sporting knowledge to be gleaned from around the world, but again I’ve been told about the wonderful systems in Australia and New Zealand and Cuba and Jamaica we could learn from.

Yet after all this time there is still no uniquely South African system, at least outside rugby and cricket.

One major reason that rugby is South Africa’s strongest sport and football isn’t is because of how rugby is entrenched at the top schools throughout the country. This was recognised by Kodwa, who would like schools to drive several other sports. 

School rugby is not just a system, but also a long-standing infusion of culture and tradition. There will be no easy way to emulate that in football (or other codes, for that matter) — one can’t simply get Paarl Gym, Grey College and other top rugby schools to start soccer teams.

It would take time and tremendous effort and determination which, I fear, is too great for the SA Football Association to muster. The federation would have to play its role. 

Another element that rugby has, apart from tons of ambitious and talented youngsters, is a host of competent coaches and good medical experts. That support personnel is critical. 

So while Kodwa was talking about ways of lifting women’s football and netball, it went almost unnoticed that former national swimming head coach Graham Hill had left the country to take up a post in New Zealand.

He wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, admittedly, but he has produced more Olympic medals than any other local coach. He started with Terence Parkin’s 200m breaststroke silver at Sydney 2000 and carried on with Chad le Clos’s gold and three silvers at London 2012 and Rio 2016.

He also oversaw the victorious 4x100m freestyle relay team at Athens 2004.

There was a time people criticised Hill’s appointment on the grounds he was conflicted because he was also the personal coach of the bulk of the country’s top swimmers. Then, after Le Clos left him, his position was questioned because he didn’t have many top swimmers in his private squad. He couldn’t win either way. 

Rocco Meiring, who coached Tatjana Schoenmaker to the Olympic 200m breaststroke gold and 100m breaststroke silver at Tokyo 2020, has openly spoken about the key role Hill played in her success, offering them valuable advice and guidance.

Now Hill is gone, probably at the worst time for South African swimming, with a clutch of local swimmers showing potential for silverware in Paris next year. Apart from Schoenmaker, there are Lara van Niekerk, Kaylene Corbett, Pieter Coetzé and Matt Sates.

Hill is one of only five surviving local coaches to have produced Olympic gold medals.

Another is Roger Barrow, the rowing coach who masterminded the triumph by the lightweight men’s four in London, but he too is no longer applying his expertise locally, instead assisting the Swedes as well as doing work for the world governing body.

That leaves Meiring, “tannie” Ans Botha, who took Wayde van Niekerk to the 43.03 sec 400m world record and Jean Verster, who coached Caster Semenya to the 800m gold at Rio 2016.

I’ve been arguing for a while that these are the people who should be combined into a committee driving South Africa’s high-performance sports efforts, rather than politicians and administrators.

It’s a crying shame that we are allowing such assets to evaporate, especially when we’re still talking about trying to uplift sport.

That’s the sad nature of South African sport, a collection of individuals pulling in different directions without a common purpose.

I really hope the minister can kick-start something meaningful, even if it is just for netball and women’s soccer at this stage.

Please understand if I don’t fall off my chair with excitement just yet.