{"id":87053,"date":"2025-12-03T11:56:30","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T09:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=87053"},"modified":"2025-12-03T11:56:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T09:56:30","slug":"coach-profile-aj-van-wyk-st-andrews-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=87053","title":{"rendered":"Coach Profile: AJ van Wyk (St Andrew’s School)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo: Supplied by AJ van Wyk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

St Andrew’s School<\/strong> has an experienced campaigner in their 1st XI Head Coach, AJ van Wyk<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The school has six representatives in the 13-player Free State Khaya Majola Week<\/strong><\/a> squad, including opening batsman Naud\u00e9 Botha<\/strong><\/a> and all-rounder Andrew Sobiech<\/strong><\/a>. That’s six familiar faces for him to work with in the provincial outfit, for whom he is also the Head Coach.<\/p>\n

Discussing his experiences as a coach, Van Wyk told SuperSport Schools Plus<\/strong><\/a>: “I’d say I’ve had more success as a coach than a player. As a player, I captained Kovsies<\/strong><\/em> (University of the Free State)<\/strong> for four seasons. I think we did pretty well in that period, but I have more achievements to talk about as a coach.<\/p>\n

“We won regionals in my first year as a coach and got to compete at nationals. That was a big highlight.”<\/p>\n

“We’ve also been crowned Free State’s Switch Schools SA20 champions<\/strong><\/a> for two years in a row now. Those are two big highlights, as well.<\/p>\n

“This is also my fourth season as the Free State Khaya Majola team’s Head Coach, which is also something I’m very proud of.”<\/p>\n

From where did his passion for cricket come? Van Wyk shared some of his earliest and fondest memories of the sport with SuperSport Schools Plus<\/strong><\/a>:\u00a0“I remember the first time I went to watch a Test match. It was right here at Bloemfontein’s Mangaung Oval<\/strong>, between South Africa<\/strong> and England<\/strong>. It was Kevin Pieterson’s<\/strong> debut for England, and he scored a century. The match ended in a tie.”<\/p>\n

His first stadium experience provided AJ van Wyk with an unforgettable introduction to the game. However, he also shared, he was inspired by watching cricket on TV: “I remember watching Standard Bank Cup<\/strong> cricket on TV at home and then trying to replicate what the players did on TV outside in the backyard.”<\/p>\n

Like many young players, Van Wyk had a role model whom he tried to emulate:\u00a0“My childhood hero was Ryan McLaren<\/strong>. He always looked like the fittest player in the team.<\/p>\n

“Funnily enough, when I first coached the St Andrew’s 1st XI against Grey College<\/strong>, McLaren was newly appointed as their 1st XI coach. We managed to get the better of them on that day. It’s a fond memory I have of getting to compete against him, and I’d say we have a good relationship to this day.”<\/p>\n

Van Wyk also spoke about his own coaching hero: “I’d say my coaching hero is Justin Langer<\/strong> (former Australia<\/strong> men’s Head Coach). He’s big on team culture and spends a lot of time installing good values into his players. He teaches his players to put the team before themselves. That’s something I’ve added to my own coaching philosophy.”<\/p>\n

Lastly, he shared his mission as a coach.\u00a0“What got me into coaching was my desire to serve the game. Coaching is my way of doing that,” he explained.<\/p>\n

“At school, I had often been the captain of the teams I played in. I enjoyed being in leadership roles, and coaching was a role that I wanted to try out. It has turned out really well. I enjoy seeing the students grow as both cricketers and Christians.”<\/p>\n

“This is my seventh year with St. Andrew’s. I started as the u15A coach back in 2018. Then at the end of 2019, I took over as the 1st XI coach.<\/p>\n

“In my time as the Head Coach and Director of Cricket, my hours haven’t just been spent on developing quality cricketers. I want to develop good men. I’m trying to use sport as a vessel to mould the players into men of Christ.”<\/p>\n

AJ van Wyk had big shoes to fill when he took over as 1st XI coach and the Director of Cricket at St Andrew’s School from Gregg Hobson<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Hobson had guided Saints to the national T20 title in 2018 with a team that included, among others, future Proteas’ paceman Gerald Coetzee<\/strong> and Knights’ wicketkeeper-batsman Garnett Tarr<\/strong>. During his tenure, he had also coached a future legend of the game, Joe Root<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Hobson’s was a tough act to follow, but AJ van Wyk has done it with distinction. He has helped St Andrew’s to remain one the country’s leading cricket-playing schools, churning out Free State provincial players and a fair number of South African Schools players, too.<\/p>\n

He’s taken the school’s strong cricket legacy and kept that fire of excellence burning strongly, and he’s far from done.<\/p>\n

With the Khaya Majola Week taking place in Bloemfontein from 16-21 December, he also has an opportunity to further burnish his coaching record with Free State in familiar conditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St Andrew’s School has an experienced campaigner in their 1st XI Head Coach, AJ van Wyk. The school has six representatives in the 13-player Free State Khaya Majola Week squad, including opening batsman Naud\u00e9 Botha and all-rounder Andrew Sobiech. That’s six familiar faces for him to work with in the provincial outfit, for whom he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":87055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87053","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\/87053","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\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/87055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}