SA water polo coaches describe ‘absolute disaster’ as goals and dreams drown in clashes with swimming chiefs

Delaine Mentoor, head coach of South Africa during the preliminary round between South Africa and Spain of the Water Polo event on Day 1 of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Tatsumi Int Swimming Centre on July 24, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Roger Sedres/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

By Keanan Hemmonsbey

3 Mar 2024

Delaine Mentoor went from achieving historic firsts with the national women’s team to being sidelined with no explanation.

Evidence of Swimming South Africa’s (SSA) mismanagement of water polo continues to pile up, and several more coaches have relayed their horror stories of working with the organisation.

Former women’s coach Delaine Mentoor is seeking answers for her removal from her position nearly two years ago, but has been met with silence.

Another former coach, Sarah Kravitz, has no conclusion to a disciplinary hearing due to take place nearly five years ago. Six people declined to coach the men’s team at the recent Aquatics World Championships in Doha because of SSA’s lack of planning.

Last month, SSA dashed the dreams of about 30 male and female athletes when it announced that no water polo teams would be sent to the Paris Olympic Games.

Youngest coach at the Games

In July and August of 2021, Mentoor made history as the first woman to coach a water polo team at the Olympic Games.

She was 28 at the time and the youngest water polo coach at the Games in Tokyo. Her achievement came with national recognition and awards.

But, a year later, the Eastern Cape resident found herself ousted. Despite numerous requests for an explanation, Mentoor has not heard back from anyone at SSA.

After a successful national playing career – which included captaining the national team – Mentoor took up coaching and earned her stripes coaching various South African age-group water polo sides.

She was appointed head coach of the women’s team in late 2020, after being assistant coach, replacing Pierre le Roux, who left after being accused of “bullying, body shaming and being racist towards learners” at his school job.

With eight months of preparation for the Games – compared with five years for other teams, because the tournament was pushed back by a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic – South Africa finished last with an aggregate score of 97-7 in their four matches.

Despite the scores, it was a historic moment: The first time a South African women’s water polo team had competed at the Olympics.

Improved performance

Then, in 2022, Mentoor coached the team to a 13th-place finish at the World Aquatics Championships in Hungary.

After being promised she would be kept on for the next Olympic cycle by members of the water polo technical committee, Mentoor was forced out.

The lack of proper management of the Olympic team showed as soon as they arrived in Tokyo.

Updated World Aquatics squad requirements had not been communicated to the team and, instead of the two goalkeepers and 11 outfield players permitted in a squad, South Africa arrived at the Games with one goalkeeper and 12 outfield players.

“We received the communication when we arrived in Tokyo and then had to tell a player that they couldn’t play the tournament at the Olympics. It was brutal,” Mentoor told Daily Maverick. “It was one of the worst coaching things I’ve ever had to do.”

Things came to a head at an intercontinental selection camp in Stellenbosch in 2022, which Mentoor describes as “by far the worst camp as a coach I have attended”.

Delaine Mentoor, water polo head coach of South Africa, during the preliminary round against Spain at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games held at the Tatsumi International Swimming Centre on 24 July 2021. (Photo: Roger Sedres / Gallo Images / Getty Images)

She felt undermined by the selection committee. “I was made to feel as if I did not do a good enough job there, or as if I wasn’t good enough to be in this coaching role,” she said.

She was repeatedly told that she would be given help – with the implication that she needed it.

“Everything I asked for in the coaching sessions was ignored or changed. Selection games were stopped, and players were told to do exactly what [others] wanted.

“Should anyone dare question it or suggest it differently, they would get shouted at as if they were a child and made to feel useless.”

A report, which included statements from seven witnesses, including coaches and players, was filed to SSA president Alan Fritz and chief executive Shaun Adriaanse. No response was received.

Mentoor was told by members of the water polo technical committee that the Tokyo Olympic Games was the start of her journey with the team. The Paris Games in 2024 was what they were working towards.

In October 2022 – while Mentoor was preparing for that year’s World Aquatics Championships in Hungary and despite formally heading up the women’s water polo side – her position, along with the men’s national team coach position, was advertised by SSA.

Despite subsequently being assured that the reason was to “follow the formal process of applications and appointments” and that she was “the most qualified for the position” by the convenor of the water polo technical committee, she was overlooked for the role.

“I haven’t heard back from them since. Not since my interview [for the job]. Not since everything that’s happened. No one replied to my emails. No one replied to the reports… all the questions I had,” Mentoor said.

“There’s just been absolute silence since everything has happened.”

Mentoor’s replacement was Nicola Barrett, who is still in the job.

Mentoor’s case is not unique. Before her, Kravitz (formerly Harris) was also shifted out of her position with little communication. Kravitz became the country’s first female water polo coach when she took the reins of the women’s national side at the start of 2019.

However, when she complained of ill-treatment she was quickly disposed of.

“I only lasted a few months because I ended up speaking out. But it was just an absolute disaster from start to finish,” said Kravitz, who now lives in the US.

At a selection camp before the 2019 World Aquatics Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, Harris was subjected to unofficial selectors choosing her squad for the championships. She expressed her dissatisfaction with the players chosen.

“I had no say in the selections and I did not stand by the team that was selected, nor did I stand by the process,” she said.

Her stance got back to the hierarchy at SSA and Kravitz was removed from her post.

“When they released the team for the championships, I wasn’t on the team sheet. I never got informed that I wasn’t going to be the coach,” she said.

“Shaun Adriaanse’s response was that I was removed from the position because I was racist. That was his response to everything.”

Read more in Daily Maverick: South Africa’s swimming team not reading much into Aquatics Championships results

Kravitz subsequently wrote a blog post and spoke to various media outlets, which led to a disciplinary hearing for breaking the SSA code of conduct.

Just before the start of the disciplinary hearing in 2019, Kravitz was told to apologise. She refused and the hearing was rescheduled. It seems that SSA officials were not prepared for the hearing, believing Kravitz would apologise under duress. It never took place.

Five years later there is still no resolution.

Desperately seeking a men’s coach

The lead-up to the World Aquatics Championships in Doha at the start of February was a mess for the South African men’s water polo side. The team coach was only announced 10 days before the start of the tournament.

At least six individuals were contacted by SSA, less than a month before the tournament, and offered the job of head coach.

Daily Maverick contacted several of these people. One refused to comment for fear of recriminations by SSA – a common response among people in the water polo community.

One coach who was offered the coaching post said he was employed at a school and couldn’t take leave. National coaches are unpaid.

Duncan Woods, an experienced water polo coach and Mentoor’s assistant coach at the Tokyo Olympics, rejected the offer.

“It was a hospital pass of note,” he told Daily Maverick. “They phoned me three weeks prior to the start of the World Championships in Doha.

“When you put yourself in the context of other coaches that had four-year cycles to work with a team, you have three weeks to prepare. And in that timeframe, you wouldn’t see your team until three or four days before the camp.

“What they were asking for is for a coach to have three days’ preparation in Johannesburg before flying to a World Championship.

“It’s just ludicrous. It’s a hospital pass…”

SSA had not responded to questions from Daily Maverick by the time of publication. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R29.

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South Africa

Youngest coach at the Games

Improved performance

Desperately seeking a men’s coach