EASTERN Province goalkeeper Brenden Botes will be fired up to make a major impact when South Africa compete in the men’s hockey BDO Champions Challenge in Argentina, starting on Sunday.

The 26-year-old former Victoria Park pupil is the only EP representative in the SA squad and will be looking to extend a proud tradition the province has in the national team’s last line of defence.

Before Botes there have been people like Shane Schonegevel and Chris Hibbert, SA’s most recent goalkeeper from whom the incumbent learnt plenty about the art of defending.

Earlier this year, Botes was named player of the tournament when South Africa took gold in the African Cup of Nations in Ghana and he’s now comfortable in his role as the country’s first-choice goalkeeper.

“There is a bit of pressure on me going to Argentina as the first-choice goalkeeper,” said Botes, who made his SA debut in the 2006 World Cup against Japan. “My understudy hasn’t played any Test hockey so in that sense there is some pressure, but I am comfortable in my position and the coach and staff back me so that really helps.”

Botes’s path to the top has not been easy, strewn with obstacles like several knee injuries and the bitter disappointment of being left out of last year’s Olympic Games squad.

In his schooldays, hockey was actually his second sport and his priority was to make it in professional soccer, turning out for the youth team of PE’s former PSL franchise, Michau Warriors.

“At school, I played first team cricket, soccer and hockey, but I was far more interested in soccer,” recalled Botes.

“Then I broke my knee cap in half playing in Cape Town and had to go in for a big operation. When I came back, I wasn’t quite the same and I went from playing every week to sitting on the bench and not making the squad.

“At that stage I was already playing competitive hockey and playing goalkeeper was not as strenuous on my knees so I started concentrating on that a lot more and stopped soccer altogether.”

Botes is small for a goalkeeper compared to many giant figures who block the goals around the world and he got in to the position almost by default.

“I remember I was in Standard 6 and waiting for soccer trials to begin,” said Botes. “They were having hockey trials on the field and the coach said come over and try out.

“Because I was from a soccer background I ended up kicking the ball a lot more so they said try goalkeeper and that was that – I literally put on the kit from the start and had some potential.”

Even as he settled down to his new sporting life, though, the problems weren’t over for Botes. Having obtained a hockey bursary from NMMU, he became involved in a social soccer game just before the season started and badly damaged his knee.

“The varsity weren’t impressed, but I had to go for two ops and was out for two years,” said Botes. “When I returned, I was dreadful and I thought I’m never going to get back. But I persevered and my break came playing for the EP B side at the interprovincial.

“I went to the tournament wanting to prove a point and being in the B side helped because I was in the action all the time and I ended up getting a call-up to the national team from the B side. So Hibs (Chris Hibbert) and myself were the keepers for the 2006 World Cup.

“Even then I dislocated my knee the day before the tournament and I was absolutely gutted. They wanted to send me home, but I got to do a fitness Test and it’s a good thing I had a helmet on so you couldn’t see me crying while I was doing the fitness test.

“But I managed to stay on and then made my debut against Japan.”

Having reached the top and experienced the thrill of representing your country – “there’s no feeling like standing there singing the national anthem” – Botes was devastated to miss out on selection for the Beijing Olympics.

“I was devastated and on the brink of saying, ‘well, that’s it’, but it’s in my nature to fight back and at the end of the day I thought the only guy that loses out is me.

“I thought I’ve got this amazing opportunity to play for my country so in the end I continued training and it’s been really rewarding because I’ve stepped up from being on the fringes to being the first-choice goalkeeper.”

After the disappointment of Beijing, where the side was frequently outclassed, Botes believes a new-look SA team are starting to gel.

“We are looking for, at least, a top three finish in Argentina and then it’s a big year next year with the World Cup in March and the Commonwealth Games in October.”

Botes is not setting his goals too far ahead, but you can bet he’ll be there on SA hockey’s frontline, masterminding the defence, for at least the next 12 months.