Club Managers Column: 7 March 2012
UJ’s demolition job over the hapless TUT to set a new Varsity Cup record for the largest winning margin of 93 unanswered points on Monday was a significant step towards semi final qualification. Nothing is guaranteed in the Varsity Cup and with UJ having the enviable task to travel to the formidable home ground in the Fanie Du Toit Stadium at Potchefstroom in search of a win won’t be easy. Should UJ be victorious next Monday a semi-final spot will almost certainly be guaranteed. Having a home semi is naturally the goal – but for now one game at a time! There are many positives about the Varsity Cup- and one Monday in the middle of semester test time, it was remarkable to see the huge crowd turnout estimated at around the 6000 mark who came to back their boykies..
Onto athletics and both Nolene Conrad and Isaac Mbuyasa took part in the Southern Region Cross Country Championships held in Mauritius this past weekend. Whilst representing their country as part of the relay team they also competed individually. In the senior women 7km- Nolene came 2nd overall and the South African team secured the gold medal. Not to be outdone, Isaac took part in the senior men’s 11k, came 5th overall and was also part of a winning men’s team performance.
The Steinhoff UJ Football Club 1st men’s team won their league and will now take part in the play-off rounds in their quest to secure elusive Castle league status. The men have long had a goal to achieve this status and now have a fantastic opportunity to compete in a significantly stronger league. The Steinhoff 1st women’s team sit atop the SASOL League and are in line for national playoffs should their current impressive steak continue.
Lastly, please visit the UJ Sports Website to access the Intervarsity programme for the 10th of March 2012. This event is without doubt a highlight on the student calendar with the main focus being mass participation. UJ will attempt to paint the whole of Pretoria orange come Saturday as we benchmark our UJ Sports Clubs against that our of northern rivals with many of the UJ residences competing in rugby, football, hockey and netball.
The aim is to enjoy Saturday- we at UJ Sport, sincerely hope you do just that!!
See you all in Pretoria.
Club Managers Column: 29 February 2012
Coming to work when people around you are producing quality and in this sense winning results is always a pleasure!
To start the week off news filtered through of a new UJ star on the rise with Jonathan Dixon (the 1st year brother of UJ Captain Michael Dixon) winning the prestigious Nomads u/23 tournament open held at the Reading Country Club on the 11 and 12th of February. Jonathan a first year B Com Accounts student produced scores of 66 and 68 to win the competition by one shot. The Intervarsity matchup between Tukkies (who are the defending USSA Champions) promises to be a mouth-watering affair. The UJ Golf manageress is passionate about her students and their golf- so personally I am very happy for Lezanne.
Continuing this week’s positive trend, Mr Anton van Rooyen’s Volleyball Club took part in the first Gauteng Volleyball Union Open Tournament. Both our men and women recorded comprehensive straight sets victories over Tukkies (2-0) with the women losing narrowly in the semi-final to TUT and the men going all the way to win the final in straight sets against the Super Kids (maybe a rethink on that name is in order). To Anton and his coaching staff , go our most sincere congratulations’.
Carol Blignaut and her crew made the trip to East London at the weekend and won the prestigious 125th Buffalo Regatta when they beat off their fiercest rivals in the form of the University of Pretoria. The UJ Women dominated their respective events in the form of winning the 2X, 4- and 8+. An Alumnus of the University Pete Lambert walked away with the title of having won silver sculls and grand challenge. This feat has only ever been achieved on two prior occasions.
Both the Steinhoff UJ Football Club and ABSA UJ Hockey Club concluded their trials this week with a view to squad finalisation before the upcoming Intervarsity which is three weeks away!! Good luck to Elize and Joel as they begin moulding their teams for the 10th of March clash.
Varsity Cup entered week 3 of the competition and our boykies gave NMMU thorough rugby lesson on a very soggy and wet pitch. The win of 48-18 gave UJ the precious bonus point and lifted us up to 3rd on the Varsity Cup Log. Further history was made when the Bastion Manskoshuis won their second game of the Varsity Cup Koshuis Competition and secured their place in the semi-final phase for the first time in the competition!! Well done to Tjokkie van der Merwe the coach of the team for moulding such a quality unit.
Varsity Cup is in many respects a true reflection of the solid support networks this University has at its disposal. From the Rugby side, Jimmy, Yvonne and Moby are the drivers and work tirelessly behind the scenes. Then we have Flip-Commercial, Niamh-Events, Francois and Johan- Facilities and Simone- Alumni/Marketing that all add up to one special event and a quality team.
All of the effort is worthwhile when we win….it’s when we don’t that makes it that much harder to get out of bed in the morning.
Club Managers Column: 15 February 2012
There is no place like home…… the UJ Rugby boys revelled in the home atmosphere created by their fans and produced a stellar first half display to outplay and outclass the defending champions UCT by 29 points to 15 (with the half time score being 29-2)!! UJ have their Varsity Cup campaign back on track but can ill afford even the slightest element of complacency when taking on the NMMU Madibaz at home next week. The Madibaz produced their own magic this past Monday night in a come from behind win against the Shimlas thereby ensuring one of the biggest upsets in Varsity Cup history-UJ I have no doubt will respect their opponent’s next week, and let’s hope from a UJ perspective that a return to the UJ Stadium will yield the same positive results.
Bastion manskoshuis got their Koshuisliga campaign off to a solid start when they beat the Cobras from UCT by 28-26, with the boys from Cape Town finishing strongly to provide a few butterflies in the stomachs of the Bastion supporters. Bastion play Oppiedani from NMMU to whom they lost in the corresponding fixture last year and will need to be on top of their game if they are to come out victorious.
A fantastic part of Monday evening was the return of many UJ Alumni to the very popular Alumni Corner. This initiative can only bode well for the future as UJ Sports plays its part in supporting the strategic goal of building and re-establishing the strong Alumni base of the University. With three more home games- this project is an exciting one, one guaranteed to grow as long as our botjies keep on winning!
One of our performing UJ Sports Clubs over the recent years – UJ Rowing head off today for the most prestigious Buffalo Regatta which will take place at the weekend. To Carol and her highly efficient team go our best wishes and we hope for a great performance.
In conclusion, working at UJ after a win in the Varsity Cup and being able to watch that win three or four times over on MNET is special. The positive reinforcement that winning feeling gives a UJ Sport Team cannot be bought but is earned through hard work and hours of planning. All the effort is worth it if we WIN!
See you all at the game on Monday at 19:00 to play NMMU while Bastion play AT 17:00 against Oppiedani.
Club Managers Column: 8 February 2012
A few years ago Naas told Darren that the Currie Cup was not won in May….well I hope the same applies to the Varsity Cup in February….UJ went down on Monday night to the arch rival north of the Jukskei and were on the back foot from the get go…. Hopefully the coaching staff and players bounce back with a vengeance next week in their first home fixture at the UJ Stadium on 13 February 2012 at 19:00!! We have four home fixtures and will need to win them all to stand any chance of making the semi-finals!!
Fortunately a ray of sunshine was the ABSA UJ 1st hockey women’s fantastic win over the defending Southern Gauteng Indoor Champions, Jeppe St Andrews by five goals to three. The exciting aspect here was how well the youngsters performed against much more experienced opposition to run out victors and start the new Indoor season on the best possible note- keep it up ladies!!
UJ Sport will be piggybacking on the much anticipated Academic official opening to be held at the Soweto Campus this coming Friday. UJ Sport will be holding a sports exhibition day on that campus from 11:00-15:00 where we shall showcase all UJ Sport has to offer on that campus. Mr Michael Dick is behind the considerable movement on that campus and with the advent of Fridays’ event even more student’s will be exposed to the obvious benefits UJ Sport has to offer.
With classes staring this week students will need to get into a routine from an academic perspective and ensure that during the first few weeks no classes are missed in order to provide a quality academic foundation from which one can really enjoy the special UJ experience.
See you all next week Monday!!!!
Club Managers Column: 1 February 2012
By the time my next column is written UJ would have competed against Tukkies in their opening game of the Varsity Cup 2012. All around UJ the excitement is almost electric and students have much to look forward to with the RAG Procession taking place on Saturday and our boykies beginning their quest for Varsity Cup glory a mere two days later.
Whist speaking of rugby, the University of Johannesburg congratulates Heyneke Meyer on becoming the next Springbok coach. His contract is for four years and when one reads of quality players and leaders who retired recently such as Victor Matfield wanting to return to game because of Heynekes appointment one can only reflect on the fact that the best man got the job- as in all cases with coaches, time will tell. Hugo van As, who is the UJ 1XI rugby coach and his coaching staff have worked closely with John Mitchell from the Golden Lions who has openly supported and worked closely with UJ in an attempt to ensure that UJ is perfectly prepared for Varsity Cup 2012. This type of multi-agency cooperation (UJ and the Golden Lions) can only lead to benefits for both parties but especially assisting with quality youngsters being retained and recruited to the province of Gauteng. Everyone likes a winner and wants to be part of an organised winning environment- let’s hope UJ Rugby and their boykies become part of this winning culture for 2012!
Many of our bursary holders and top 2012 student-athlete recruits would have practiced for and enjoyed first years concert which took place this past Friday night for the APK residences while all the winners of the respective campuses competed in an historic first inter campus clash on the Saturday evening. It was a great exercise in bringing the different cultures of the four campuses closer together with each experiencing something special. The department Student and residence life (SARL) is to be commended on this great initiative. We as UJ Sport are dependent on the support we receive from SARL and will during 2012 forge even closer ties. UJ Sport promotes the development of the well rounded or holistic student-athlete and views this type of activity as key for young people to really enjoy the unique UJ first year experience.
I for one am really excited for this year and with me only being married for three weeks I have reason to feel on cloud nine. UJ Sport has a great team of sports managers and with all our new recruits for 2012 we will hopefully continue on the upwards curve (which has become quite steep) for the duration of 2012.
Come Monday next week; make sure you at the game or in front of the TV to BACK OUR UJ BOYKIES!!