A HELPING HAND
Not content with peak on-field performance, UWC offers athletes holistic support Lynne Rippenaar-Moses
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hile the performance of elite athletes on the field is important to help win matches, it’s what happens off the field that paves a future for athletes beyond their sports-playing years. Thanks to the University of the Western Cape’s (UWC) academic development and support programmes, elite athletes at the University are better able to cope with the demands of professional sports alongside their academics. A researcher based in the office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation and an academic support officer in Sports Administration, Dr Lwando
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Mdleleni runs one such programme. “I’ve been involved with UWC’s Sports Administration for more than 15 years, from being an elite student soccer player for the first team and later captaining that team to an assistant coach — all while pursuing an academic career,” explains Dr Mdleleni. Over the years, his observation of the academic performance and drop-out rates of elite athletes has led him to connect with Director of Sports Administration Mandla Gagayi and other stakeholders to discuss how to provide student development support to athletes
in order to help them complete their studies. “Mr Gagayi showed a keen interest in supporting studentathletes and his ideas resonated with what I wanted to do, which was to develop a programme where we could assist studentathletes to balance their academic and sports obligations — and meet both. Each year, the Sports Administration would recruit top athletes who would drop out the following year due to poor academic performance. There was just not enough support and, when athletes drop out of university, it also places an added burden on coaches to find new players to fill vacant spots.” In response to this concern, Dr Mdleleni created a programme in 2020 that is focused on elite soccer players in their first and final year of studies. “We provide holistic support that extends beyond academics and ensures students have access to electronic devices, mentors and information about other support services they can access on campus. “We also monitor the academic performance of these students and maintain constant communication with the faculties so if students do not meet academic requirements, we can release them from sports participation up until they can strike the right balance between sports and academics.” The programme also assists athletes with access bursaries and top-up bursaries, including food
