FEATURE
Teenager Keeshia Lackay has been defying the odds since the tender age of three, turning trauma into milestones along the way.
Turning 19 on 6 March 2026, she was head girl at Stellenzicht High School last year and this year started as a student at Stellenbosch University.
Away from academia, she’ s excelling in the sporting world and has represented South Africa in canoe polo.
“ I was raised on the Goedvertrouw farm here in Stellenbosch, right where we do the actual watersports at Maties Canoe Club,” she says.
Speaking of her early-life trauma, she says:“ When I was three I had a seven-hour operation on my heart – doctors said that blood wasn’ t flowing through my body properly and my heart valves weren’ t functioning.”
The doctors said she’ d never be able to play sport … but that didn’ t stop her.
“ I’ m absolutely fine – I still can’ t run long distances, but in grade three when I did school sport I discovered I was actually quite fast and went on to win quite a few sprint races.
It was when she was five or six years old that she first saw some kids kayaking on the Vredenheim Estate dam close to her home, and her interest was piqued.
“ I started doing kayaking and then in grade six Auntie Susan brought us a new sport called canoe polo and it got really interesting.”
“ Auntie Susan” is Professor Susanne Fietz, Head of Earth Sciences at Stellenbosch University.
“ She told us about a big competition called SA champs, so we practised even harder, and for me the best part was that we would fly to Johannesburg, which would be my very first flight...
“ But then Covid happened so that flight eventually only happened in grade eight and we finished second at national championships.
“ We’ re still the only coloured kids playing canoe polo, but everyone’ s been very supportive and they’ ve told us that we’ re pretty good. I’ m still the only girl really good enough to practise with the boys.”
Canoe polo has taken her places, both nationally and internationally.“ We went to a junior international tournament in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 2023 and locally we’ ve been to
KwaZulu-Natal and Knysna.
“ Knysna is my favourite place, it’ s so beautiful – I honestly had no idea that South Africa had such a pretty town.”
Determination is one of Lackay’ s driving forces, and from primary school she dreamed of becoming head girl at Stellenzicht High School – a goal she finally realised last year.
But just as canoe polo is a balancing act, it was a bittersweet year for the head girl as she also experienced a tragic loss.
“ We were on our way to an inter-schools athletics meeting when the driver of the bus stopped and told me that a very close friend | of mine, Desmarique Fortuin, had been in a bad accident.”
Five minutes before her 200m event a teacher broke the sad news that Fortuin had failed to pull through.
“ I cried my heart out – we had trained together and she had been so proud of me becoming head girl.
“ But I ran that 200m race, I swear with my eyes closed, I barely saw the finish line and my friends had to tell me that I’ d actually won.
“ And the strangest thing was that I watched a video of the race and to this day I swear I could hear Desmarique shouting for me …”
Right now, Lackay is focusing on her theology studies“ but I want to go into education later and then want to apply for a BCom at UWC because I want to eventually go into business.”
Back to the driving force behind the Stellenbosch canoe polo club and Lackay only has praise for Prof Fietz.
“ The bond between myself and Aunty Susan is so special because she supports me in absolutely every aspect of my life.”
Not originally from South Africa, Fietz brought with her 30 years of canoe polo experience from her hometown of Berlin, Germany.
“ I joined an existing programme in about 2017 / 18, just to help canoe polo and get them up to a national level … then around 2021 the previous coach got a job overseas, so I took over full time, apart from my job at the university,” she explains.
“ We practise three times a week and I also offer canoe sprints and marathon, we try and expose the kids to everything. We train Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturdays, and once or twice a month we’ ll have a competition etc. or a run or hike to show the kids other aspects of life,” adds Fietz.
“ Our club has representatives at national level in all three disciplines … the youngest are about eight and the oldest is 21 and helps with the coaching. And of course, the first thing we do is make sure that every kid can swim before they try any of the paddlesports.”
Speaking of Lackay, she says:“ She joined just after I did and has had a very successful time in academics / track sprinting and canoe polo. The latter is quite a male-dominated sport, but she’ s just got better and better.
“ I was so happy when she came to Stellenbosch University to further her academic career and I’ m very hopeful that she’ s going to develop into a canoe polo coach as well.”
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