Former Spar Proteas midcourt star, Precious Mthembu is enjoying her transition into coaching. Mthembu officially retired from international netball in May last year after serving the country for 15 years at the highest level and playing 97 tests for the national team.
In her budding coaching career, Mthembu led South Africa’s under-20 team that won the AUSC Region V Youth Games in Maseru in 2021 as the Baby Proteas assistant coach working with experienced Dr Elsje Jordaan and also coached the KwaZulu Natal Kingdom Queens in the 2022 edition of the Telkom Netball League.
Mthembu says coaching the KwaZulu Natal Kingdom Stars this season is made easier because she has always had a good relationship with the players.
“When I was playing with them I never had the sense of ‘I know better’ having been in the national team before. I have always set myself as being on the same level as them but they must also learn from me at the same time. Coaching them has led me to a state of allowing them to respect me when I am coaching. The respect I get from them makes my life and the job of coaching easier. I don’t find challenges in coaching these players and I am enjoying watching them grow even though there is still improvement needed from them,” she says.
Albeit not available for national team selection, the 38-year-old is still an active player in the KwaZulu Natal Super League where she plays for the Gilbert Stars.
“I have retired at the international level, obviously I am not playing in the TNL, but I play in the Super League. I am a player-coach. I have had a conversation with the players on how they would have felt if I wasn’t on the court with them and they said ‘it would be alarming and scary not hearing your voice,’ not waiting for halftime to get instructions. I am loving still playing at this level, you can still see the experience I have on the court. I still have the speed and everything else but my calling is definitely in coaching now. It would be very selfish of me to get back on the court and not develop another Precious Mthembu. Grow players in a different way and inspire them, that is where the passion must be directed to now, I may be on the court now and then but that is all,” she says.
Although the Stars didn’t have a great start to their TNL campaign, Mthembu is pleased that the team was able to score points in the first power week of the competition. They beat the Eastern Cape Aloes in their opening match of the competition but fell to the sword in their other three matches where they lost to the Western Cape Southern Stings, Free State Crinums, and defending champions, Gauteng Golden Fireballs.
“We came into the TNL knowing the majority of these players are rookies in the A section, most of them had been playing in the B section. I am not saying it’s an excuse, no it is not but I needed to be kind to myself and be kind to them with that in mind. But I told them ‘you have nothing to lose when you step on the court.’ Our aim and vision were to play their best, do what is needed and also minimise the score. I think there was a time when the scores were really good in the game, it was quite close but because of BMT and not having played together for a long time and being new in the A section, all of that counts.
"If you look at the log, it is inspiring and motivating to see that we are in the same place, points-wise, with the (Gauteng) Jaguars. I don’t think people realise that. This is a junior team, thinking where they ended up last year and to even start on a good note, winning against Aloes, we can’t take that lightly. Those are the two most important things for me, where we ended in the power week, as much as we have lost, I think we ended in a good way in terms of points wise, we can take that forward. You never know what we can do to upset the log,” she explains.
Mthembu admits that their shooting circle needs to improve when the season resumes in June.
“We just went in there to minimise the score and try to keep up with them as much as we can. It’s doable. I think the scores were not kind to us according to how we played but our shooters are one thing that’s lacking at the moment. Our shooting stats are shocking, at this level, I shouldn’t be speaking about missing under the pole. That is the homework I am doing at the moment,” she says.
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