Ex-junior Springbok netball star now in catering

USAKOS-born former netball star Annemarie Strauss is one of the rare Namibian sportswomen who represented both pre-independence South West Africa and South Africa at national level.

The former Usakos Primary School pupil came a long way from play- ing junior netball in South West Africa, to making it onto the Boland schools’ team and scooping a spot on the Proteas team as one of seven top players selected from South African universities.
“I feel very honoured to have played at the highest level that any netball player could have ever wished for. Playing for the Boland regional team was no mean feat, considering the great pool of talented players around the Western Cape province.

“I didn’t really see it coming after I was selected for the star-studded Protea team. But the biggest one, of course, was when I made it onto the junior Springbok team,” she says with a proud smile on her face.
The retired wing defender, known for her aggressive style of play and strong, accurate long passes, played for the junior Springbok team for three years, even after she returned to her country of birth in 1984.
Strauss played three international matches for the junior Springboks against New Zealand, Queensland and an overseas selection team, which were labelled rebel tours.

Matches against other countries were very scarce at the time due to the sports boycott on apartheid South Africa.

The former Villagers netball star says she was the shortest player in the junior Springbok team, despite the fact that she is 1,78 metres tall.
“I came back home a tremendously improved and experienced player and I am just too proud to say that I played a very influential role at both United and Villagers, the two teams I played for on my return from my South African sojourn.

“I first played for United, then I joined the star-studded Villagers, whichwerenewlyformedaround1989 and 1990. I was the first white player to join, and we formed the core of the national team. We had five players in the national team,” she says.

The Villagers were coached by Nico Smith, who was also the coach of the national team, she says.
She could not travel to the World Netball Championships in Australia with the first national team after in- dependence, because she had recently given birth, she relates.

The Villagers were so strong that they literally walked over their opponents with huge score margins of between 40 and 50, and with the strong presence of Villagers players in the national team, they soon started to compete in the formidable A League of the annual South African Netball Championships, in which they previously only made it to the B and C sections.They finished a respectable second,their highest level ever,in the a League in 1984, sharing the runners-up spot with the powerful Western Province.

The curtain of Strauss’ decorated netball career fell in 1991, when she stopped playing her much-loved game, however, she continued to umpire until 2016, for both the schools and senior netball leagues.
Apart from netball, the all-rounder also played badminton, basketball and tennis, was a 100m and 200m sprinter of note, and starred in long-jump all the way from her primary school days through to her time at La Rochelle Girl’s High School in Paarl.

“In fact, I played badminton for the Boland regional team as well. I had to relinquish basketball, tennis and athletics because the rule in South Africa was that you could only receive colours in two sports codes and not more.
“I even played badminton for Northern Transvaal province for about four years. I later added swimming to my portfolio and went on to play for the University of Pretoria basketball team,” she says, adding that she did all that because of her passion for sport.

She describes her first game for the University of Pretoria netball team in 1981, her first game for the junior Springboks and her first game for the Villagers as some of her most memorable games of her glittering netball career.

The qualified dietician was married to Daan Strauss, who unfortunately died last month after a long illness. He was the secretary general of the Namibian Employer’s Federation (NEF). They had three children, of which the eldest, DJ Strauss, is the current goalkeeper of the national hockey team, while their daughter Lara Maree, who is married now, also played netball for the Namibian schools league, and the University of Potchefstroom in South Africa.

“I started my own business in 2019, but unfortunately Covid-19 hit my business very badly. I am currently doing a consultancy job for the Lady Pohamba Private Hospital kitchen staff and also for big events and at other hospitals around the country.

“The restrictions of the Covid-19 lockdown seriously dented our busi- ness. I’ve now added a catering com- pany, Danstar Catering CC, which also does training for needy kitchen staff. We also do decorations and supply flowers,” she says.

Although not involved in netball in any capacity anymore, Strauss says she remains a passionate
supporter of the game.However, she doesn’t agree with the
new rules that allow a lot of physical- ity in the game, because the players bump into and lean on each other too much, she says.

She credits her former coach at Bo- land, Louis de Villiers, as the person who had the biggest influence on her netball career and says she regrets not playing netball a little more longer.

“I would have played a little longer,” she says.
“But I worked a lot outside Wind- hoek which meant I was constantly on the road and had very limited or almost no time to train with my teammates. It would have been only to pitch up for match days.
“I just felt it was never going to be fair to my other teammates who attended every practice session dur- ing the week if I was only available for match days, so I decided to call it quits.”

Having been a fierce competitor on the netball court, she says she doesn’t enjoy social netball because it lacks the competitive edge and thrills of a netball league game.

“I would rather watch netball league matches, rather than social netball.”
Strauss says players should make sure that they are always in top condi- tion throughout their careers.
“Apart from being fit, the play- ers must also look after themselves physically and not play with injuries. They should nurture their injuries very carefully.

“Netball is so beautiful and it brings out the lovely picture of female physi- cality. It’s such a pleasure to watch a well toned and super fit netball player in action,” she says.