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FORMER national team volleyball star Deon ‘Cutmaster’ Cloete has come a long way – from being rejected by schools football and rugby teams to becoming one of the meanest volleyball players in the country for over a decade.
Born and bred in Windhoek, Cloete was the star of the Western Suburbs and Windhoek College of Education (WCE) teams that took the Namibian volleyball scene by storm shortly after the country’s independence.
“Unfortunately volleyball is not considered a big sport like football, netball and athletics in our country, otherwise I could have been consistently on the podium vying for the sportsman of the year awards.
“I was a very competitive person who hated just the thought of losing. I made sure I was super-fit before a match. I gave it my all on the court, and I also expected my teammates to give 120% for the team,” Cloete says.
He started playing volleyball seriously at the age 17 while still a pupil at Ella du Plessis Secondary School in Khomasdal.
Having been overlooked for both the football and rugby teams, he decided to join the volleyball team where he became player-coach as well.
After dominating the Khomas schools scene with Ella du Plessis, he moved a level up to join the Western Suburbs Volley Club in the Namibia Volleyball Association League.
“Playing against the white volleyball teams in the national league was a rude awakening. We were far behind on the rules and regulations of the game. In fact, so much that it looked as if we were discriminated against by the white referees.
“But I can be proud to mention today that I was a very fast learner.
“In fact, I became the first non-white player to be selected for the Namibian national volleyball team in 1989. But that came with a lot of consistent performances at the top level,” he says.
Cloete says being selected for the national team was one thing, but to get game time was another.
He says his team’s coach at times refused to send him onto the court to play.
“The crowd would be chanting my name to force him to let me play.
“During my first game for the national team, which also happens to be my worst experience with the national team, I was just thrown in at the deep end without warming up.
“I missed balls I could return easily, and my first serve went straight into the net. It was never easy playing volleyball before independence. But we soon started to come to terms with the rules, and we grew in confidence so much that we started to compete seriously,” he says.
Cloete says playing for the national team was not always fun as there were instances that the players had to buy their own national team tracksuits and pay for trips outside the country.
He walked away with the sportsman of the year award at Ella du Plessis in 1989, and soon joined the new kids on the block – the Windhoek College of Education’s Volley Club.
Cloete says the fact that he was the first non-white player to be selected for the national team didn’t sway the Western Suburbs management to nominate him for the sportsman of the year award – which made him feel unappreciated.
He went on to make history with the college team by becoming the first non white team to win the league.
He says the college team propelled volleyball in the country to another level, because they had unmatched talent and capacity.
“I really trained like hell, and my form and ability on the volleyball court was superb and couldn’t go unnoticed. I became an integral part of the national team for over a decade.
“I started shining in beach volleyball as well.
“It didn’t come as a surprise that I was selected to represent the country at the Volleyball World Cup qualifiers tournament in South Africa. There we came up against the real pros of the game,” he says.
Cloete says the players they came up against were professional volleyball players, and, although they made the best of it, they were just no real match for their opponents.
WORK, FAMILY
Cloete is married to Faith Kloppers and the couple has three daughters.
Cloete also has a son from a previous relationship.
He says he started in the events world as a DJ at Namibia Night Club, where he was shown the ropes by DJs Tabbs Xulu and Elvis.
He was mostly responsible for matinee shows, he says.
Cloete then started working in the music library of the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) television department, and later moved on to doing camera work.
From here he says he started doing his own editing and also worked in the studio.
“But I became bored with what I was doing at NBC and started looking for new challenges. I then started my own company, called Dman Promotions and Events Marketing.
“We are doing TV productions for companies, while we also market sport events and products. But some businesses are prioritising other things since the dawn of Covid-19, and the market has become very tight for my kind of company,” he says.
Cloete’s advice to aspiring volleyball players is to strive to know the history of the sport and to know and respect the legends who paved the way for them to be able to play in continental and international tournaments today.
“I would also like to urge the youngsters to train hard to be fit for competition. They must not only depend on the training sessions with their coaches, but always strive to put in extra work. Competition is exciting when you are fit.”
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