Marina van der Merwe (born February 7, 1937) is a former

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...

coach, who was born in Cape Town, South Africa.

Coaching career

She was the head coach of the

Canada women's national field hockey team The Canada women's national field hockey team participates in international field hockey competitions. In 1991, the Canadian men's and women's programs united under the national umbrella of Field Hockey Canada to share funding and infrastructure. ...

from 1976 to 1995. During her time as coach, the team qualified for every major international games. Her teams medal-led at the World Cups in 1983 (silver) and in 1986, and bronze at the Pan Am Games in 1987. van der Merwe coached the

York Lions The York Lions is the official name for the athletic varsity teams that represent York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's varsity teams compete in the Ontario University Athletics conference of U Sports and, where applicable ...

from 1971 to 1999. During this time, the Lions won six silver and two bronze medals in the

Canadian Interuniversity Sport U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is the Ca ...

competition, and seven

Ontario University Athletics Ontario University Athletics (OUA; french: Sports universitaires de l'Ontario) is a regional membership association for Canadian universities which assists in co-ordinating competition between their university level athletic programs and providin ...

championships. Members of her team included 41 all-Canadians, over 55 conference all-stars, and more than 10 national team athletes. van der Merwe retired from teaching at

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

in 2002.

Awards and honours

In addition to the

U Sports U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is the C ...

Field Hockey Coach of the Year award now named in van der Merwe's honour, her contributions to the sport were recognized through multiple awards: *1994,

Field Hockey Coach of the Year award *1999, Canadian Interuniversity Sport Field Hockey Coach of the Year award *2004,

Hall of Fame inductee * 2014, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame inductee

References

External links

*
Living people Afrikaner people South African people of Dutch descent Canadian field hockey coaches Field hockey players from Cape Town South African expatriates in Canada South African expatriates in the United States South African field hockey coaches South African female field hockey players Syracuse University alumni York Lions coaches 1937 births {{SouthAfrica-fieldhockey-bio-stub