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

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

coach, who was born in

Cape Town, South Africa Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

Coaching career

She was the head coach of the Canada women's national field hockey team 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 for universities in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country and four regional conferences: Ontario University Athletics (OUA), Résea ...

competition, and seven

Ontario University Athletics Ontario University Athletics (OUA; ) is a regional membership association for Canadian universities which assists in co-ordinating competition between their university level athletic programs and providing contact information, schedules, results, ...

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 (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

in 2002.

Awards and honours

In addition to the

U Sports U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body for universities in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country and four regional conferences: Ontario University Athletics (OUA), Résea ...

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 Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (; sometimes referred to as the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame) is a Canadian sports hall of fame and museum in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Dedicated to the history of sports in Canada, it serves as a hall of fame and mu ...

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