Having not had the easiest journey to become one of the most respected netball players in the world, retired Proteas skipper Bongi Msomi is determined to make the journey of those coming after her as smooth as possible.
Msomi, probably one of the most recognisable faces in South African sport, called time on her illustrious netball career in December having achieved a lot in her 12 years with the Proteas.
A dependable wing defender or centre until her retirement, Msomi represented SA in four World Cups, including the 2023 edition at home, and three Commonwealth Games.
Msomi, who had already been serving as a coach and manager for the University of Johannesburg netball team before retiring, will not be lost to the sport despite her retirement.
If anything, retiring from playing has afforded her more time to help unearth future netball stars for SA.
Having had to deal with a lot of challenges in trying to become a professional netball player, Msomi understands that budding players need all the help they can get.
The former captain was once told she was too short to be a netball player during her developmental stage.
But she had one teacher, S’thembiso Mncwabe at Chief Luthayi High School, who believed in her and pushed the teenager to follow her dream. Mncwabe also helped her with training kits, among other things.
Msomi wants to do the same for others through her new project in KwaZulu-Natal.
“My project is called the Bongi Msomi Legacy. A couple of people know about it, I started in 2018 when I came back from playing for a club in Australia,” Msomi said.
“It was more about just running netball clinics and to touch base with all the up-and-coming netball players out there.
We’ve got a male and female team who are part of the KZN Netball Super League, which runs for a year. We are branching out to reach as many townships as possible, obviously looking to make sure that whatever support or guidance they need we can share it with them.
— Bongi Msomi
“They would literally just come and book for me to come and run a clinic either in a club, schools or whatever teams they have,” she said.
“I created this platform to make sure that whenever I have free time in the national team set-up plus my work, I can just use the project to guide me in terms of where I can be in trying to teach girls and boys (using) my experiences in netball.
“It can either be coaching or just be about sharing experiences, life skills and all that. That’s the first part of it.
“As we go forward, I’m now more based in Hammarsdale, where I started, just looking after the netball players there. I started a club, and the project looks after the whole club,” Msomi said.
“We’ve got a male and female team who are part of the KZN Netball Super League, which runs for a year. We are branching out to reach as many townships as possible, obviously looking to make sure that whatever support or guidance they need we can share it with them.”
Msomi retired around the same time the national team lost some of its most experienced and valuable members also to retirement.
Veteran coach Norma Plummer and Proteas stalwart Phumza Maweni also called time on their respective careers.
Msomi remains confident the Proteas are in a good space to be able to move forward under the leadership of a new coach and captain that are yet to be appointed.
“I can’t guarantee that (the change will be smooth), but from where I come from and what I leave behind, I have to take pride and say the girls should be ready,” Msomi said.
“In saying this, if you saw the Test series that we played (recently) against England, there were fantastic young girls coming through. Great talent and that gives me hope.
“I remember thinking to myself and leading the side for a few years, I wanted all great things to happen and the biggest thing I wanted was to make sure that whenever I see a player leave, I don’t think it happened before, but it should be when they leave, they have done all they can to make sure that we groom a young player to come on board.
“And I do honestly feel that the players that are there are in a good shape, in a good position to take on the roles,” she said.
“In terms of leadership, we’ve created a space in our team over the years where everyone can have roles (to play). There are social groups in the squad, a social group which deals with birthdays or anything to do with celebrations, engagements or whatever it is.
“We’ve got a clothing group which deals with what we are wearing today, there’s a duty list group.
“In my understanding, the idea of that was to make sure everyone in the team feels like they can lead in a certain role.
“And you can’t teach people how to lead, obviously it does come with the character, and I guess the talent that they have.
“The set-up that we have put in place has allowed everyone to grow to be able to take on whatever they want to take on as we go on.”
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