UDUBS SPORT ON THE UP AND UP
UWC’s astonishing rise as a key role player on the local, national and global sporting scene sets its student-athletes up for success By Fabio De Dominicis
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raditionally, the University of the Western Cape (UWC) has been eclipsed by its more internationally recognised neighbours, Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town (UCT). However, the University’s eye-catching rise in recent years has turned heads in South Africa’s university sport scene as the institution continues to lay the foundation of many a student-athlete’s career. Sandwiched between three important industrial zones on the outskirts of Cape Town, UWC’s campus may not have
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the aesthetically pleasing postcard backdrop of the Cape Winelands or Table Mountain like its provincial counterparts, but its recent upturn in both academic and sporting achievements has made it a fair contender amongst South Africa’s elite institutions. Along with academic success, the University has produced many students who also excelled in sport over the years, yet whose efforts were often ignored. Thus, eight years ago, UWC set out a vision with a renewed focus on sport, raising the bar to afford prospective students an array
of new opportunities. “UWC has always produced great sports men and women, but the challenge has always been that these successes were not celebrated,” Mandla Gagayi, the University’s Director of Sport, says. “As such, UWC’s leadership took a deliberate decision in 2013 to make sport one of its priority tools towards building the University’s brand. “This meant that more support and resources were invested towards building our sport into a professional and competitive entity. As a result, a strategy was developed to look at the recruitment of student-athletes and coaches, the development of sporting facilities, a new media footprint, as well as academic support for elite student-athletes.” The University now offers 20 different sporting codes, divided into three categories: recreational, competitive and high-performance, with athletics, basketball, cricket, football, netball, rugby and hockey forming the latter. The commitment to sport has reaped its rewards of late, with alumni like Herschel Jantjies forming part of South Africa’s winning World Cup Rugby team in 2019, Kurt-Lee Arendse starting for the national men’s Rugby 7s
