Celebrating UWC Sport - A Healthy Diversity

SPORT BUILDS camaraderie among students, breaks down barriers and unites athletes for a common purpose. Success in sports also helps the university to portray itself as a winning brand and, as a co-curricular endeavour, assists in developing valued attributes like discipline, confidence and perseverance that translate into academic and career excellence. In boxing terms, UWC has always been a small university that punched way above its weight in sporting achievements despite being deprived historically of resources. We are building a university that invests in developing sporting standards, both on the field and behind the scenes and the returns on our investment are evident in our student and alumni achievements across sporting codes as well as academically.

2015 VARSITY MEN’S FOOTBALL CHAMPIONS

2015–2016 VARSITY BEACH VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONS

2015–2022 USSA DANCE SPORT CHAMPIONS

2017–2018 VARSITY SHIELD CHAMPIONS

2021 VARSITY WOMEN’S FOOTBALL CHAMPIONS

2022 VARSITY MEN’S RUGBY 7s CHAMPIONS

5 MEMBERS OF THE 26-MEMBER BANYANA BANYANA NATIONAL TEAM that competed in the 2019 FIFA tournament were from UWC.

11 OF THE 23 PLAYERS in the victorious Banyana Banyana squad that won WAFCON 2022 are UWC alumni or current students

BANYANA’S ASSISTANT HEAD COACH, THINASONKE MBULI, is the UWC women’s football team head coach.

THE UWC RUGBY MEN’S SQUAD made their debut in the premier Varsity Cup tournament in 2019, were relegated in 2022, and bounced back to be promoted to Varsity Cup by winning their third Varsity Shield in 2023!

UWC RUGBY PLAYERS HAVE GONE ON TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CAREERS. Among the more recent were Branden de Kock (Cheetahs), Lyle Hendricks (Stormers), Herschel Jantjies (Stormers, Springbok World Cup winner), Shaunique Hess (Women’s Springbok), Kurt-Lee Arendse (Blue Bulls, Blitzboks, Springboks), Babalwa Latsha (Women’s Springbok) Justin Theys (Femi-CZ Rovigo), Lukhanyo Vokozela (Stormers) and Godfrey Muzanargwo (Griquas).

KURT-LEE ARENDSE blazed his way into the record books by becoming the first Springbok to score a try in seven consecutive games.

UWC BCom Accounting alumnus ZUBAYR HAMZA made his Test debut for the Proteas against Pakistan in 2019, captained the South African A team in their tour of Zimbabwe in 2021 and made his international ODI debut against the Netherlands in November 2021.

UWC HAS PRODUCED MANY TRACK AND FIELD STARS, like Rogail Joseph, the young speedster from Worcester who won the under-20 400m hurdles at the South African Championships in 2019 and the 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles at the African Junior Championships in Cote d’Ivoire. She recently took bronze at the senior SA Championships.

UWC made a unique investment in youth and women’s football development by initiating the SHE-BOBO LEAGUE for 8 to 10-year old girls. A successful one-day festival was held at UWC in October 2022, which saw 280 girls participating in under-8 and under-10 divisions. The plan is for the league to be run in 2023 with at least 10 teams participating. UWC has also partnered with the British Council and English Premier League’s Premier Skills programme to coach the club coaches.