TuksSport High School is producing world-class athletes

TuksSport

TuksSport High School is producing world-class athletes

By Ms Hettie de Villiers (Principal of TuksSport High School)

If the names Tatjana Schoenmaker, Gift Leotlela, Michaela Whitebooi, Clarence Munyai, and Sox Sakwakwana sound familiar, it is because you might have seen them during the July television broadcasts of the 2020 Olympic Games. All five of them are TuksSport High School alumni.

Tatjana Schoenmaker wins gold and sets a new women’s 200m-breaststroke world record

On Friday, 30 July 2021, Tatjana Schoenmaker (a TuksSport High School matriculant and TuksSwimming Academy graduate), won the women’s 200m-breaststroke final with a world record time of 2.18.95 at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in Japan.

The Tuks-based swimmer broke the Danish swimmer, Rikke Møller Pedersen’s time (2:19.11) that was set in 2013 at the World Aquatics Championships. The 2020 Olympics was ‘our’ best Olympics! This primarily was because Tatjana Schoenmaker made the TuksSport High School and the whole South Africa proud, by bringing back both a gold and a silver medal! For good measure she also set a new world record in the 200m breaststroke.

Her performance made people curious about what journalists referred to as the ‘high-performance school’ or merely ‘the sports school.’ But 2021 wasn’t the first-time learners from TuksSport High represented the country at the Olympic Games. Since 2008, one or more TuksSport athletes had been part of the prestigious Olympic Team, often while still at school.

The Olympic Games are not the only platform where our learners excel. During the World Junior Athletics Championships held in Kenya in August 2021, the U/20 relay team set a new world record in the 4 x 100 metres event.

Two of the four athletes, Benjamin Richardson and Mihlali Xotyeni, are currently in Grade 12 at TuksSport High, and a third athlete, Sinesipho Dambile, an alumnus.

TuksSport

One might believe that TuksSport High School is only about sport when hearing the many success stories.

While sport is why we have individualised our school the way we have, we remain, in essence, an academic school and are proud of the school’s academic record. Until 2020, TuksSport High School achieved a 100% pass rate for fourteen consecutive years. The 2020 matric exemption rate of 89% tells it all.

One might ask, what makes TuksSport High School different? The feeling of walking into another school has much to do with the arrestingly modern, blue building situated on the Hillcrest Campus of the University of Pretoria. But the uniqueness of the school does not lie in the untraditional look and feel of the school.

Neither is it the subject offering. The Further Education and Training (FET) subjects on offer are similar to those at other schools: Mathematics, Physics, Life Sciences, Accounting, Business Studies, Tourism, Geography, History, and Classroom Assessment Techniques (CAT). The medium of instruction is English. The first additional languages offered include Afrikaans, Sepedi, and IsiZulu.

The vive la difference lies in the people. The learners share a mindset and goals—and they live out their passion for their sport by leading disciplined lives and putting in many hours of hard training. The teachers, coaches, and sports scientists not only understand this but share a passion for excellence. And that is why learner athletes at TuksSport High School are held in high esteem on the sports field, in the gym, and the classroom.

The school’s vision is to provide a supportive and flexible learning environment to talented athletes of all sports codes. But people can only realise a dream when they believe and share the vision and are willing to live by TuksSport High School’s motto – The Will to Do and the Heart to Win.

Gold medals aren’t really made of gold. They’re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.

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1. Clarence Munyai, 100m sprinter 2. Tlotliso Gift Leotlela 3. Swimming coach, Rocco Meiring 4. Michaela Witbooi, Judo athlete 5. Sokwakhana “Soks” Zazini 6. Sinesipho Dambile

Contact information

Stephanie Hibbert Tel +27 (0)12 484 1790 | Email stephanie.hibbert@hpc.co.za Regina Malope Tel +27 (0)12 484 1780 | Email regina.malope@hpc.co.za Di Reid-Ross Tel +27 (0)12 484 1786 | Email di.reid-ross@hpc.co.za

An obstacle is an illusion that something is impossible, but a challenge is something that may be difficult to achieve, but is 100% possible.