Former Wanderers hockey star Madelyn Jooste, known as Madelyn Lessing then, entered Namibia’s sport history books after she led the junior women’s team to a historic third place to become the first captain to return home with a medal from a continental championship.
Born and raised in Windhoek, Jooste skippered her star-studded under-21 team to a bronze medal place at the 2004 African Hockey Cup in Pretoria, South Africa, and in the process handed coach Erwin Handura his first medal as national team coach as well.
It was clear Jooste was destined for greatness when she started playing for Wanderers in the second league at the Doc Jubber fields at the age of nine in 1992.
“I started attending hockey practices together with my mother, Roelie Lessing, who played for Wanderers Hockey Club, before I even started primary school when I was five years old.
“Little did I know then that I would virtually grow up on the hockey field.
“We were coached by Wynand Louw at the time, and I really developed a great passion for hockey. I started playing for Windhoek High School (WHS) while I was still at Suiderhof Primary School.
“I captained the WHS first team undefeated from 1999 to 2001,” she says.
With the superb form she displayed at school level it was inevitable that Jooste was selected for the under-18 national team in 1997, and was also named ‘Kom-en-Haal’ best overall player by WHS at the end of the same year.
“Things really started looking up for me and I was part of the under-18 national team that did duty for Namibia at the All-Africa Hockey Cup in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1998, while the same team participated in the International Hockey Festival at Potchefstroom in 2000.
“It was a proud moment when I started playing for the senior women’s hockey team in 2001, and I was also named best player of the year by Wanderers Hockey Club and best player of the Metropolitan Night Hockey League in the same year,” she says.
Jooste was the senior victrix ludorum at WHS in 2001, while she was a prominent member of the national women’s team that crushed Botswana 8-0 in 2003.
Her star continued to rise when she was voted sport personality and sport icon of the year in 2003, the same year she played for the women’s team at the eighth All-Africa Games in Abuja, Nigeria.
She also walked away with the most valuable player award at the African Junior Hockey Championships in Pretoria, where she led the under-21 side to a bronze medal in 2004.
“My most memorable match ever was definitely in 2004 when I scored the winning goal to give my team a 4-3 historic victory in the final of the third and fourth place play-off and secured Namibia’s first bronze medal at international level since independence.
“Another memorable moment in my hockey career came in 2011 when I played for the women’s side at the Federation of International Hockey (FIH) World Cup in Poland.
“It was really a moment to cherish playing against the best players in the world,” she says.
Jooste’s international hockey journey also took her to the African Cup of Nations in 2005, the 2006 Southern African Development Countries Ladies Tournament in Stellenbosch, and Olympic Qualifiers African Games in Kenya in 2007.
The hockey star had offers from Argentina after her five-star performances at the African Junior Hockey Championship in 2004, but chose to stay close to home and pursue her career in Namibia instead.
“I have no regrets whatsoever of not taking up the offer at all, I would do it all over again with no adjustments. I have God and have the most awesome parents who supported me in anything I ever wanted to do and stood by me every step of the way.
“I had great coaches over the years who taught me the best of both worlds and how to find your inner self. You need to have both to be able to be an outstanding hockey player,” she says.
Jooste represented Namibian hockey against countries like Argentina, Australia, Botswana, Canada, Germany, Ghana, Kenya, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
WORK, FAMILY
The retired hockey star is married to Andries Jooste, and the couple has two daughters.
Says Jooste: “I am actually a qualified land surveyor, but I am living on our family farm, Wilhelmshöhe, outside Gobabis, because being married does not leave much space to travel for work.
“I also work on the farm for Nossob Cattle Ranch. We have a feedlot and my husband’s to-do-list normally goes up to a hundred.
“I’m a part-time dance instructor for Active Pulse Dance School and offer zumba, salsa, tango, contemporary disco and modelling classes.”
Jooste passed her Cecchetti Classical Ballet Advanced 1 examination through the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing at the age of 38 in 2019.
She says living on a farm comes with challenges like drought and theft, and having not grown up on a farm.
She says she continued to play for the Namibian Masters until 2017 and she is now hoping to introduce hockey as a sport at a private school at Gobabis.
Her advice to young, aspiring players is: “Use every opportunity and never believe you’re not good enough. Love everything you do and give it your best. Live for every moment and all your dreams will come true.”
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