Tuks captain Caroline Paul grabbing opportunities with both hands

Despite it being a rollercoaster season for UP-Tuks, captain Caroline Paul relishes the opportunity to lead her team for the first time on home soil for the next round of Varsity Netball 2025. It takes place on Sunday 7 September and Monday 8 September at the Rembrandt Hall in Pretoria.

The team is in a rebuilding phase having lost key players to national duty and even though the former champions have only one of their three fixtures so far, Paul said they are as determined and hungry as ever within the new squad.

“For most players it’s their first time wearing the stripe and playing Varsity Netball. We are working hard to make sure we reach the goal we have set out for ourselves. As for the experienced players, we try and uplift the new players to play at the standard we want them to play in.

“The way coach Amanda (Mynhardt) runs and approaches the game, she understands that it is a different generation she is working with. The core principles are still there, like the winning culture at Tuks.”

The responsibility of being captain is not lost on Paul.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet; I think it will hit me when I am already out of the chair. It’s a huge role I think the biggest thing is remaining yourself as that is what got you to that position.”

Paul has come a long way from losing her mother at the age of two to captaining the three-time champions. Growing up in the township of Kagiso on the West Rand, she didn’t initially think playing netball was something that could be regarded as a career. This all changed when SPAR Protea coach Jenny van Dyk, the then coach of Tuks, selected Paul after many trials and tribulations.

For Paul, it was all worth it.

“It was only in Grade 11 when I started taking netball seriously. We went for Gauteng Schools trials … I did not make it and I cried. In matric I went for trials again and gave it my all. It was the biggest year of my life, I made the team and got scouted by coach Jenny. For a second I thought she was joking but later the same day she sent me the contract.

“My first year at Tuks, I did not make the first team. (It was) only in my 3^rd year that I made the squad but I did not play. In 2023 I finally made my debut in the last five minutes, I went in and turned the ball. I will never forget that day as it revived something in me.”

Upcoming fixtures HERE.  

by Lehlogonolo Ditshego