Padayachee's star on the rise in SA hockey

Madibaz hockey star Sachin Padayachee has been selected for the SA U21 team to play in the Junior Africa Cup in Namibia from November 30 to December 8.

An opportunity through Gqeberha charity organisation United Through Sport has seen Madibaz hockey star Sachin Padayachee embark on a journey that took him all the way to the U21 national team.

Most recently, the sport management student was a member of the self-same SA U21 team who shocked the major hockey provinces by capturing the interprovincial title in Johannesburg last month.

Following that tournament, Padayachee retained his place in the national squad for the Junior Africa Cup in Namibia from November 30 to December 8.

Success there will see the South Africans qualify for the Junior World Cup in 2025.

The 20-year-old’s path from junior school to this point is an interesting one.

“Trying out hockey was the newest thing for me at the time as no one in my family, I knew of, played,” Padayachee recalled.

“It was only a year later that I discovered that my mom had played back in the day for a Gelvandale team called the Panthers.”

Under the enthusiastic tutelage of coach Eric Jacobs, the young sportsman learnt to enjoy the sport during his primary school years.

“He was an amazing coach who helped me develop a feel for the game,” Padayachee said.

“My enjoyment also came from wanting a new challenge and trying to perfect my skills in a sport. I was a football player at the time.”

The centre-link and left-back added that it became even more fun when his friends, too, started taking up hockey.

The life-changing moment came in Grade 7 when he and a friend were chosen for a programme presented by UTS, a charity that provides opportunities for formerly disadvantaged persons.

“In the middle of that year, United Through Sport formed a hockey team to participate in a tournament at Alexander Road High,” Padayachee said.

Little did they know that the tournament was in fact trials for scholarships to Alex.

Several weeks later, the Gqeberha school phoned his parents to offer him one from 2018.

“This was a major turning point in my life because, at the time, my parents could not afford to send me to a school of that level.

“Being at Alex provided me with a chance to improve my hockey within a good sporting system.”

He quickly slotted into the U14A team before graduating to the first team, whom he captained in his matric year, in Grade 9.

His journey became full circle when he was named the school’s best senior male player in his final year.

This trail of success translated into a bursary from Mandela University, where the now second-year student is a co-captain of the Madibaz premier league team alongside Zaakir Ensal.

Representing Eastern Province at the national U21 tournament in Johannesburg this April proved to be the doorway to the national team for Padayachee.

Five members of his team were invited to an SA U21 training camp afterwards, following which a squad of 18 were selected for the national team.

“It was held over three days in Pretoria in July and I was the only one from EP named in the squad. It was an extremely proud moment for me.”