Bonolo Moabi on her experience at the Indoor AFCON Hockey Tournament
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Wits hockey has seen some individual success recently, with Bonolo Moabi being amongst the club's success.
The Rynfield, Benoni born Bonolo recently represented the South African women’s indoor team at the Indoor AFCON tournament.
Bonolo is currently in her final year of studying towards a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations, Politics and Psychology. She has been playing hockey for Wits University for 4 years now, having also enjoyed great success throughout her career individually so far. Rynfield’s very own star has been in and around the national team setup for 2 years but has regularly been picked to represent the Gauteng province since the age of 12.
Bonolo Moabi took the time to shed some light on her experience at the AFCON tournament and what has really kept her going so far in aiding a successful career and striking the balance in achieving what she sets out for herself.
“Playing in the AFCON tournament was such a good experience! My teammates are really good people and I care for them dearly. So everything felt rather smooth. We came there with a goal in mind, and everyone knew what we had to do so it was amazing all round.”
It takes a lot to represent your country in sport, Bonolo feels humility has carried her well in unlocking her dream so far.
“I acknowledge the honour completely, but I feel like having humility is a very strong trait of mine so it’s definitely something I don’t lead with, I just carry it.”
Playing against some of the best on the continent is no easy task but for Bonolo, it’s come with great lessons.
“I’ve drawn plenty of lessons but amongst those, it’s that the smallest mistakes can cost you a goal especially after playing with Namibia, you can’t be having lapses of concentration during the game. It's 40 minutes of pure hard work.”
With Bonolo being a student athlete, there are many difficulties along the way, but she manages striking the balance between her playing career and academics through communication.
“It’s very tough, but communicating with my lecturers is a big thing, trying to find ways to balance both is important and can be very taxing. Most of my teammates are either students or working so we have moments where we all do work together.”
Despite having already achieved so much, the rising star still feels she’s got a lot more to achieve and improve.
“I’d still like to play in the World Cup as well and help improve our world ranking, we are currently 6th, and I would like for us to at least be in the top 4.”
Bonolo is also grateful to Wits for contributing towards her success story, in which she explains how the institution has assisted her.
“Yes definitely, the High-Performance setup has definitely helped me a lot, as well as introducing me to my Wits teammates who have become some of my closest friends.”
It’s been a great career for Bonolo so far and her advice for young upcoming student athletes is to work hard and look after yourself.
“Just keep working hard for it and make sure to take care of yourself during the journey, it’s tough to get there but nothing beats the feeling of wearing the green and gold and playing for your country.”