{"id":83661,"date":"2025-09-25T12:06:31","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T10:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=83661"},"modified":"2025-09-25T12:06:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T10:06:31","slug":"reddam-constantia-eyes-back-to-back-st-annes-water-polo-tournament-titles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=83661","title":{"rendered":"Reddam Constantia eyes back-to-back St Anne&#8217;s Water Polo Tournament titles"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_83697\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-83697\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-83697\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Reddam-team-400x300.jpg\" alt=\"Reddam House Constantia are gearing up to defend their title at the St Anne's Water Polo Tournament. Photo: Supplied\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-83697\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reddam House Constantia has enjoyed good preparations ahead of their defence of the St Anne&#8217;s Water Polo Tournament title. Photo: Supplied<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><strong>Reddam House Constantia&#8217;<\/strong>s first girls&#8217; water polo coach, <\/span><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Connor Whiting<\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, says playing &#8220;simple water polo&#8221; will be their main focus when they kick off their title defence at the <strong>St Anne&#8217;s Water Polo Tournament<\/strong> in Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The annual event, which brings together many of the country&#8217;s top water polo sides, runs <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">from 26 to 28 September<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> at the <strong>St Anne&#8217;s Aquatic Centre<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Reddam won the tournament last year after <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/reddam-constantia-crowned-st-annes-water-polo-tournament-champs\/\">beating the hosts 10-2 in a one-sided final<\/a><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">They return to the tournament as one of the favourites, and coach<\/span><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> Whiting<\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> is pleased with how his team&#8217;s preparations have gone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;The preparations have been good,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We had the <strong>Mackenzie\u00a0Cup<\/strong> last weekend, which was like the first tick on the calendar.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;The goal was to prep and do well at our home tournament. Thankfully, at Reddam, we are blessed with an indoor pool, which gives us a <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">bit of an<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> ad<\/span>vantage in the Western Cape.<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;In winter, we can train and get into the pool a little bit earlier. It&#8217;s also a bit easier getting the girls down [to train], knowing they don&#8217;t have to be in the rain or the cold. That\u2019s a big positive.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Whiting<\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> also has the luxury of an experienced squad at his disposal.\u00a0<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Instead of shying away from the pressure that comes with being the defending champion, the Reddam girls are embracing it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;The girls are very excited,&#8221; Whiting shared. &#8220;They had a lot of fun last year and created some good memories.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;Being the defending champions does give you that little bit more energy and having positive results from last year <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">gives us<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> that energy. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;Another positive is that out of the team that&#8217;s been selected, there are only two players from last year who are missing. Otherwise, it&#8217;s pretty much the same team, with two new players.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The mentor was <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">very happy<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> with his side&#8217;s performances at the<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/durban-girls-college-downs-reddam-house-constantia-in-mackenzie-cup-final\/\"> Mackenzie Cup despite falling short against Durban Girls&#8217; College in the final<\/a><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">In the past week or so, he says they&#8217;ve focused on simplifying their game plan while they prepare to tackle some tough opposition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;We had a look at what we didn&#8217;t get right at the Mackenzie Cup, especially in the final,&#8221; he said. &#8220;<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Looking at the basics, simple water polo is what I like to see as a coach, and that&#8217;s what we do really well. We play with confidence and that&#8217;s the key to any successful team.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Reddam has been drawn in <strong>Pool A<\/strong> and will take on <strong>St Stithians College<\/strong>, <strong>St Mary&#8217;s Waverley<\/strong> and<strong> Maris Stella<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;We are in quite a tough pool. It&#8217;s always difficult to play against <em><strong>Saints<\/strong><\/em>, but nothing is more exciting than playing against the other top teams in the country. So, we are very excited for that,&#8221; Whiting commented on Reddam&#8217;s group stage opposition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Capetonians kick off their title defence against St Mary&#8217;s on Friday at 08:00. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Reddam House Constantia Team<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Iviwe Oduore, Summer Wain, Holly Binneman, Sarah Palframan, Julia Luckoff (c), Abi Weatherall, Bailey Donnachie, Holly Strydom, Sam Nimb, Tayla Bosman, Lauren Helm, Jesica Bester, Aman Moonda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reddam House Constantia&#8217;s first girls&#8217; water polo coach, Connor Whiting, says playing &#8220;simple water polo&#8221; will be their main focus when they kick off their title defence at the St Anne&#8217;s Water Polo Tournament in Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal. The annual event, which brings together many of the country&#8217;s top water polo sides, runs from 26 to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":83697,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/83697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}