FACILITY OF THE FUTURE

Setbacks aside, the University’s investment in a high-performance centre is earmarked for big and bright prospects

By Lyndon Julius | Photography: Skhu Nkomphela

More than six years ago, in 2015, the sport department at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), headed up by Mandla Gagayi, along with the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences, set a plan in motion that eventually evolved and developed into a highly functional High-Performance Centre (HPC). That plan — a dream — would come to fruition just a few years later.

The HPC is an ever-growing project with some exciting and ground-breaking technology being added to the resources that are already at the disposal of student athletes at UWC and will soon also be available to more athletes and professional players from other federations.

Gagayi, who has previously highlighted what urged the University to deem the project as extremely necessary, has been eagerly awaiting the design and construction of the facility. And while construction is still ongoing, following the pandemic restrictions in 2020, plans to complete the HPC have been slightly pushed back.

“Back in the day, coaches and team managers would make all the decisions, sometimes hindering the progress of the athletes,” Gagayi said in Blue & Gold Issue 5. “Now the aim is to bring in the research and perspectives of dieticians, biokineticists and psychologists, too.”

Initially, it was the sport department under Gagayi’s leadership who were running the day-to-day activities of the HPC, along with sport scientists, biokineticists, physiotherapists, and more. However, in early 2019, Dr Barry Andrews was appointed as the project coordinator of the University’s newly opened HPC.

Having completed his studies at the University of Stellenbosch, from undergraduate through to PhD, Dr Andrews joined the UWC family in 2008.

“I completed my PhD at Stellenbosch University, where I worked for three years at the Stellenbosch University Sport Performance Institute (SUSPI), that university’s high-performance centre,” Dr Andrews says. “I started working at UWC in 2008 in a part-time capacity before becoming permanent two years later.”

He highlights the importance of sport scientists and the role they provide in developing and conditioning both student athletes and professional sportspersons. The progression at the HPC has been tremendous, especially given the state the country found itself in at the beginning of 2020. It was less than a year into Dr Andrews’ appointment as the new head of the HPC when South Africa went into a national hard lockdown for nearly seven months.

“Since 2019, the HPC has grown its staff compliment, especially with respect to female biokineticists and physiotherapists. This has enabled the HPC to work more effectively with all sportspersons,” Dr Andrews proudly states.

“From a development point of view, in 2019, and after extensive discussions and meetings around building an HPC, plans were drawn up and construction was due to start in March 2020. Unfortunately, with the pandemic, this was delayed and construction only really began in early 2021. The HPC is nearing completion and we are hoping to be able to move in our new equipment shortly.”

This is by far one of the biggest investments the sport department at UWC has made over the last decade, with the other being the upgrade of the Sport Stadium (or the Operation Room, as it is affectionately known). Dr Andrews highlights the HPC as one of the facilities that will hopefully attract not only more student athletes of the highest quality but also other professional sporting stars who find themselves in need of worldclass facilities and professional staff and personnel.

“The two biggest upgrades have been the establishment and building of an HPC, which did not exist, along with a very healthy investment in specialised equipment and tools to train athletes. The other major upgrade is in our staff and support staff at the HPC — we have personnel that worked at the national level for various sporting codes and who now bring that experience, training and expertise to work with the UWC student athletes.

“Despite the challenges the world has faced this past year and, more recently, with the unrest in Gauteng and KwaZuluNatal, we’ve managed to complete the building of the HPC. It was a long and challenging road to get to this point but through the support of our partners, stakeholders and the University management team, the development and construction of the HPC has thankfully been able to continue.”

Looking ahead, Dr Andrews understands that in an everchanging sports environment, the HPC will have to do its utmost to adapt and remain relevant within the high-performance niche.

When asked where he sees the HPC in five years, he says: “Interesting question and honestly, to me, there is no straightforward answer. To be successful, we will obviously need to have a significant impact on the University’s student athletes, we need to start working with our communities and possibly assisting the various sporting codes with talent identification. The HPC needs to have built good, solid relationships with various sporting bodies, unions and federations, attracting them to train at UWC.

“We are, after all, a higher education centre, and we need to educate. With this in mind, we have developed a higher certificate to assist sportspersons’ transition to university (or those not getting the required results for qualification to register for their desired degree programme) and to train people within the industry that seek it in a formal sense.

This will further result in graduating masters and doctoral students through the University’s High-Performance Centre that can then drive new research and studies in our very own HPC. A full-circled holistic and academic approach over the next few years for all our student athletes is truly the dream.”