Shooting hoops through stereotypes: Philippi’s women basketball players

Tyefi, 18, started playing basketball in 2009 after watching a match that was being played by other female players at Mzamomhle Primary School. “I was amazed as I watched the moves the girls had. I was specifically focused on a player called Buyiswa Gwangwa who motivated me to try out for basketball. I remember that team ended up winning the match. It wasn’t difficult at all for me to learn how to play basketball,” says Tyefi.

Playing for an U19 team called CNP Thunder, which stands for Crossroads, Nyanga and Philippi, Tyefi occupies the position of shooting guard and is responsible for throwing the ball in the hoop. The team trains on Mondays and Wednesdays. They will shortly be playing this season’s league matches against other teams at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology on Saturdays. “We are training hard to be in top form,” says Tyefi.

“When I first started playing, people around the township including my family, were sceptical because they didn’t know what basketball was and those who did, said that it was a sport for boys. But I told myself that this is what I wanted to do. Now people are supporting our team. They come to our matches and sometimes if I don’t go to training, I will get people questioning me about why I didn’t go,” she says.

Living with her mother and older sister, in a shack in Philippi, the Grade 10 student says it becomes difficult at times to juggle schoolwork and basketball and finds that she has to drop training sessions to pay more attention to her schoolwork.

Their coach is Thabo Marotola, who started the basketball team in 2007. “I have had a passion for basketball since I started training in the Eastern Cape around 1994. It wasn’t hard introducing the sport in the township but indeed there were a lot of stereotypes in terms of the mentality that basketball was a male sport. But you need to have the correct mindset and support to overcome those stereotypes, which is what the girls on the team did,” says Marotola.

Known as Coach by the Philippi community, Marotola says the sport and his profession has taken him all over the world and he encourages players like Tyefi, to be determined and to work hard because basketball can take them far. Supported by a non-profit organisation called Hoops4Hope, which uses sport as a vehicle for social and personal change and youth development, Marotola says basketball was an easy and amazing sport.

Asked where she saw basketball taking her in future, Tyefi says she wants to play nationally.

Photo by Masixole Feni.