{"id":88739,"date":"2026-01-19T07:30:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T05:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=88739"},"modified":"2026-01-19T07:30:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T05:30:25","slug":"2026-sacs-nite-series-promises-to-thrill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=88739","title":{"rendered":"2026 SACS Nite Series promises to thrill"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_88741\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-88741\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-88741\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Noah-Reiback-at-SAC-400x267.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-88741\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rondebosch stalwart Noah Reiback will be aiming to impress in the 2026 edition of the SACS Nite Series. Photo: <strong>Toni Butterworth<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The first term on the school calendar is jam-packed, filled with festivals, tournaments, and, for the Western Cape boys&#8217; teams, the <strong>SACS Nite Series<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The annual weekly event runs from 20 January to 24 February at the <strong>SACS Aquatic Centre<\/strong> in Cape Town.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s the usual suspects &#8211; <strong>South African College High School<\/strong> <strong>(SACS)<\/strong>, <strong>Bishops<\/strong>, <strong>Rondebosch Boys&#8217; High<\/strong>, <strong>Wynberg Boys&#8217; High<\/strong>, <strong>Reddam House Constantia<\/strong>, and <strong>Paul Roos Gimnasium<\/strong> &#8211; in action.<\/p>\n<p>Bishops, under the guidance of coach Jabulani Sibiya, won the last two editions of the competition.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, they defeated <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/bishops-slay-sacs-to-win-nite-series-in-dramatic-fashion\/\">SACS 14-11 in a dramatic final<\/a><\/strong> before outplaying<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/bishops-captures-back-to-back-nite-series-titles\/\"> &#8216;<em>Bosch<\/em> 14-9 a year later<\/a><\/strong> to retain the silverware.<\/p>\n<p>Can Bishops claim a third straight title? That&#8217;s the question on people&#8217;s minds.<\/p>\n<p>They have a strong and talented team filled with some X-factor players, who can quickly change the tide of a game.<\/p>\n<p>In goal, vice-captain <strong>Michael Mafunda<\/strong> will return for his final season, as will the skipper <strong>James Malan<\/strong>. SA Schools&#8217; players, <strong>Timothy Young<\/strong> and <strong>Matt Fenn<\/strong>, need no introduction, and they&#8217;ll be deadly in front of the goal.<\/p>\n<p>The team that pushed Bishops hard last year was Rondebosch. The side, led by coach <strong>Jared Wingate-Pearse<\/strong>, started the season on a high by winning the<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/bishops-festival-to-kick-off-western-cape-water-polo-season\/\"> Bishops Festival<\/a><\/strong> over the past weekend.<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;re not short of talented players either, with the likes of <strong>Noah Reiback<\/strong>, <strong>Kieran Bennewith<\/strong>, and captain <strong>James Pinnock<\/strong> back in the mix.<\/p>\n<p>SACS will aim to bounce back after last year&#8217;s disappointing campaign. The hosts made a slow start and were unable to recover in time. They had to settle for a fifth-place finish.<\/p>\n<p>Coach <strong>Devon Card<\/strong> will look to experienced campaigners like <strong>Benjamin Bigara<\/strong>, <strong>Harry Oldham<\/strong>, <strong>Luca Orgill<\/strong>, and <strong>Aidan Turrell<\/strong> to restore pride in the jersey.<\/p>\n<p>Reddam will also fancy their chances, despite having a youthful team. <strong>Adam Brown<\/strong> starred in last year&#8217;s tournament, and he&#8217;ll be key to the team&#8217;s success.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, coach <strong>Vaugh Marlow&#8217;<\/strong>s Paul Roos side made big strides in 2025 and reached the semi-finals. They and Wynberg will have their sights set on going at least one step further.<\/p>\n<p><strong>FIXTURES<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Round 1<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>17:00 \u2013 Rondebosch Boys&#8217; High vs Reddam House<br \/>\n17:50 \u2013 SACS vs Wynberg<br \/>\n18:40 \u2013 Paul Roos vs Bishops<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first term on the school calendar is jam-packed, filled with festivals, tournaments, and, for the Western Cape boys&#8217; teams, the SACS Nite Series. The annual weekly event runs from 20 January to 24 February at the SACS Aquatic Centre in Cape Town. It&#8217;s the usual suspects &#8211; South African College High School (SACS), Bishops, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":88741,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88739","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\/88739","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=88739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/88741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}