Karla Pretorius (née Mostert; born 12 March 1990) is a South African
netball
Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...
player, currently playing for the Sunshine Coast Lightning and the South Africa SPAR Proteas Netball. She plays in the positions of Goal Defence (GD) and Wing Defence (WD).
International Career - Team Bath and Sunshine Coast Lightning
Before joining the Sunshine Coast Lightning, Pretorius played for the UK based
Team Bath
TeamBath is the University of Bath's sporting organisation. In addition to entering teams in BUCS intervarsity competitions, TeamBath has also entered teams in national leagues and competitions. Team Bath F.C. reached the first round proper of t ...
in the
Netball Superleague
The Netball Super League is a top level netball league featuring teams from the United Kingdom. The league is organised by England Netball but features teams based in England, Wales and Scotland. The league was commenced playing at the 2005–06 ...
alongside fellow Protea teammate
Lenize Potgieter
Lenize Potgieter (born 2 May 1994) is a South African professional netball player who currently plays for Manchester Thunder and the South Africa national netball team, South African national team.
Early life
Potgieter was born in Polokwane, L ...
. Pretorius currently plays for
Sunshine Coast Lightning
Sunshine Coast Lightning are an netball in Australia, Australian netball team based at the University of the Sunshine Coast. The team was formed in 2016 in Australia, 2016 as a joint venture between the university and Melbourne Storm. Since 201 ...
in the Australian
Super Netball league, and has won back-to-back premierships with the club (in 2017 and 2018). In
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
she won the
MVP
In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...
award for her performance in the
Grand Final
Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...
.
She then shared the club's Player of the Year award with teammate
Stephanie Wood
Stephanie Wood (born 28 November 1991), also known as Steph Wood, is an Australia netball international. Wood was a member of the Australia teams that won the silver medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and at the 2019 Netball World Cup. Betw ...
for their performance in the
2018 season. She was named in the Super Netball team of the year 2018. She is the first South African to feature in the Super Netball league. Unlike South Africa, in Australia netball is a professional sport, which means that Pretorius is being paid to do what she loves most.
Pretorius and her husband, Werner Pretorius, married on 9 September 2017. On 13 December 2021, she announced her pregnancy and therefore had to withdraw from next year's competitions, promising to be back in 2023.
South Africa SPAR Proteas
Pretorius is the vice-captain of the
SPAR Proteas. Pretorius holds 77 senior South African caps, including appearances at the Commonwealth Games (2014 and 2018) and the Netball World Cup (2015). She participated in the
2011 World Netball Series
The 2011 World Netball Series was the third edition of the World Netball Series, an annual international netball competition held under Fastnet (netball), fastnet rules. The 2011 event was held in Liverpool, England, which also hosted the event in ...
, held in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
, UK, the INF Netball World Cup 2015 held in Sydney, Australia, the
2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and the
2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Pretorius confirmed her status as one of international netball's standout defenders with a series of tenacious performances at the 2015 Netball World Cup held in Sydney, Australia. She made the most intercepts of any player – 28 in total – as South Africa finished fifth overall in the tournament. She also played for the Spar Proteas U/21 side and having made her international debut for the Proteas in 2011. Pretorius was named the Player of the Tournament at the 2019 Vitality Netball World Cup held in Liverpool, England. South Africa finished fourth at the recent World Cup after managing to beat Jamaica by 55 goals to 52http://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/proteas-beat-jamaica-in-an-end-to-end-netball-world-cup-match/. The Proteas narrowly lost against world number 1 the Australian Diamonds during the semi-finals with 55 over 53 of South Africa.
Career at the University of the Free State and Free State Crinums
Karla previously played for the netball team of the University of the Free State (Kovsies),
Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State (province), Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legisla ...
,
Free State between 2009 and 2015. She represented the Free State Criniums Netball team who won back to back titles in 2014 and 2015 Brutal Fruit Premiere League. Karla was awarded the 2014 and 2015
Varsity Cup
Varsity Cup is the collective name for four South African rugby union competitions involving the top rugby playing universities in the country. It was launched in 2008, with eight teams participating in the Varsity Cup competition and each univers ...
Netball Player of the Tournament award.
Karla completed her Bachelors in Dietetics at the
University of the Free State (UFS) and obtained her Masters in Dietetics at the institution early 2019. She is currently reading towards a Diploma in Sports Management through the University of South Africa (UNISA). She worked as a community dietitian in Bloemfontein during 2015. She was also named as Sportswoman of the Year by the University of the Free State in 2015.
KovsieSport awarded Karla as UFS Sportswoman of the Year in 2016. In 2017, Pretorius was named one of
Mail & Guardian
The ''Mail & Guardian'' is a South African weekly newspaper and website, published by M&G Media in Johannesburg, South Africa. It focuses on political analysis, investigative reporting, Southern African news, local arts, music and popular cultu ...
200 Young South Africans.
References
External links
Sunshine Coast Lightning official player profile Retrieved on 2017-12-01.
Suncorp Super Netball player profile Retrieved on 2017-12-01.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pretorius, Karla
South African netball players
Sunshine Coast Lightning players
1990 births
Living people
Netball players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games
2019 Netball World Cup players
Netball Superleague players
South African expatriate netball people in Australia
South African expatriate netball people in England
Team Bath netball players
Suncorp Super Netball players
Commonwealth Games competitors for South Africa
2011 World Netball Championships players