JONATHAN COOK

No less than 10 of the 32-player South Africa U21 men’s hockey training squad are schoolboys.

SA U21 team manager Mark Jenneker has named a national U21 squad to attend a training camp at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria from November 27 to December 1.

“This is indeed the players’ reward for all the sacrifices and hard work that they have put into their game,” said the Port Elizabeth-based Jenneker.

The schoolboys in the SA U21 training squad are Michael and James Drummond of Bishops and Western Province, Hendri Kroukamp of Grey College and Free State, Dylan Swanepoel of Paul Roos and WP, Grant Glutz and Nicholas Berichon of Maritzburg College and KZN Inland, Chad Cairncross of Grey High School and Eastern Province, Amatole (Border) stars Ignatius Malgraff of Hudson Park and Cerezo Comerasamy of Sterling, and Ross Gonsalves of King Edward (KES) and Southern Gauteng.

All the boys are in grade 12 except Drummond, who is still in grade 11.

The players are all in training for the African continent’s Junior World Cup (U21) Qualifier Tournament. If SA U21 win that tournament, they will qualify for the Junior World Cup that is to be held in India in 2013.