FRIDAY
18
JULY
WITS’ 2014 MID-YEAR
USSA
HIGHLIGHTS
● Women’s hockey
side finish 2nd in Bsection; secure inclusion in Varsity
Hockey
● WHB win play-off
for 3rd place
● Rugby XV run opponents close but end
winless in G’Town
● Men’s hockey team
finish 7th in Asection
 Volleyball men,
women crash out in
QF’s but still send
players to national &
provincial squads
 Badminton wins singles & team honours
2014
VOL
1
LADY LUCK SMILES ON LADY BUCKS
In a stunning turnaround of last year’s events,
Wits’ men’s and women’s first basketball teams
traded fortunes at this year’s USSA’s. In 2014 it
was the Wits Lady Bucks who made the final of the
national student basketball championships —
indeed, won it — and the Wit’s men’s team who
were bundled out at the semi-final stage. The
Horny Bucks nevertheless won their third-place
play-off.
at a 2014 USSA team tournament. The consistent
effort put into a tough GUBL season, and a hard
working out by coaches Matlakala and men’s 1st
But the kudos this year go to the women’s team,
who put behind them the disappointment of last
year’s third-place finish, sweeping all before them
to wrest the women’s title by beating the highlyrated VUT 66-62.
The tournament follows the tragic death of UL
Medunsa and Gauteng University Basketball
League chairperson Tshepo Manamela. At the
time of his passing, Manamela was chairperson of
the GUBL exco.
Wits’ men’s side had to settle for third place this
time around, beating UJ 85-40 in their play-off.
Wits lost 63-50 to VUT in their semi-final game,
despite leading 36-29 going into the final quarter.
In last year’s championships at UCT, the WHB
were losing finalists.
Wits Lady Bucks, coached by the modest Wilie
Matlakala, became the first Wits team to win gold
The victorious WLB squad. Modiegi Mokoka
(front left) sank the final basket for the Wits
women’s team to clinch the USSA title.
team coach Tshiamo Ngakane during the pretournament training camp, appear to have served
Wits Basketball well. The Lady Bucks’ Modiegi
Mokoka was voted Most Valuable Player of the
tournament. Following their victory, VC Adam
Habib expressed his intention to honour the Lady
Bucks’ achievement when students return for the
new term. Click here to see a video clip of the final.
ROUGH RIDE FOR RUGBY ROOKIES AT RHODES
INSIDE
Brylon & Bruce
3
named in USSA u21
Happy ending for
3
women’s hockey in
More accolades in
2
line for Pietie CoetWits Fencing foils
4
the sceptics
Evasan Chettiar
Blooding a crop of new players in the country’s
largest student rugby competition was always a
risky step but coach Andy Royle believes it will pay
off in the months to come, writes Alan Leonard,
Wits Rugby Club manager, who accompanied the
squad to the USSA’s at Rhodes in Grahamstown.
Wits lost their opening match to a very strong UJ
team 15-52, a game in which the Auckland Park
side quickly established themselves as tournament favourites. Joshua Jarvis and Richard
Crossman crossed for tries while Michael Sephton-
2
makes a Polish-ed
Engen KOC 2014
4
Volunteering
3
for USSA
Against NMMU, Wits charge out as they restart
from a 22m drop-out
1
Wits are forced defend an NMMU punt ahead.
The Witsies lost this final game 26-22.
Poultney kicked a conversion and a penalty.
Wits captain Thato Mavundla, and Connor
Brockschmidt, Joshua Jarvis and Gideon Muller,
were all outstanding. Wits’ second match on the
Wednesday, against UFS Shimlas, was, according to most spectators, one of the best of the
tournament. The Witsies put in a massive effort
to tie the match 24-24 at full time before conceding three tries in extra time to lose 24-43.
Outstanding contributions were made by Thato
Mavundla, Brent Crossley, Josh Jarvis, Ish Nkolo,
Luvoyo Pupuma and Ameer Williams.
Women’s hockey coach wins GP sports honours
Pietie Coetzee, GP’s 2014 sportswoman of the year
Don’t forget!
AmaTuesdayz inter-varsity football
returns on August 5th when Wits’
men’s & women’s teams are away
to UJ @ their Bunting Road campus
stadium. Abafazi kick off @ 6pm,
Madoda @ 8.30pm. Contact Dennis
“Big T” Tshabalala (011-717 9413)
for tickets.
Witsies make GP, SA
student volleyball squads
despite USSA QF exits
Wits women in action at Hall 29 against Monash
Despite bowing out at the quarterfinals stage in this year’s USSA’s,
both Wits’ men’s and women’s
volleyball teams will be represented in the Gauteng provincial
and SA national student team
squads.
Thandeka Tshabalala was called up
to the national volleyball team,
Zinhle Kunene made the Gauteng
provincial side, and Dominic
The finals, staged in OMSH, were
contested by UCT and VUT (men)
and VUT and UWC (women).
Wits’ women’s hockey coach,
Pietie Coetzee (left) was recognised recently as the Gauteng Sports Award’s Sportswoman of the Year for 2014.
Pietie beat contenders Kirsten
Beckett (gymnastics) and
Kistern McCann (rowing) for
this accolade. She joined Wits
Hockey at the beginning of the
year. The coach was also a late
call-up to the SA women’s
team participating in this
year’s Rabobank hockey
World Cup in Amsterdam, The
Netherlands.
She is one of the most capped
players in women’s test
hockey, and is also a leading
goal-scorer among her peers
at international level.
After a long and rewarding
career in international hockey,
it was natural that Pietie
would take to coaching. These
days he’s a regular down at
the WEC artificial pitch, putting girls through their paces.
WITS YACHT CLUB UPDATE
at the UKZN-DUT-WITS-U Stell
inter-varsity event in Durban
over the weekend of 28 & 29
June; and Ricky Robinson, Gina
Gibson and Victoria Stock in
the MSC Offshore Regatta,
also in Durban, from 1-5 July.
Wits Yacht Club’s Alexa Brown
reports that in recent weeks
the club’s current and alumni
members participated in several events. These were Drew
Amoretti (club boatswain) and
Brennan Robinson (commodore
2012/13) in the Vasco da Gama
offshore race from Maputo to
Durban from 19-22 June; Ricky
Robinson and Brennan Robinson assisted the WYC regulars
Badminton comes
good at USSA’s
WBC’s Tashlin Hamid reports that
the team excelled at the 2014
USSA’s at UFS in Bloemfontein,
winning both individual and team
titles. WBC, only resuscitated in
2014 after years in the doldrums,
won bronze in the team section.
Tashlin and his CPUT partner won
the men’s doubles event and Lisa
Chen won the consolation singles
event. Below, they show off their
Bloem medal haul.
For a detailed report on all
three events follow the link
from the WYC web page.
Evasan aims to Polish his
game at WUC chess champs
Volleyballers help make USSA happen
A visit down to Hall 29 on any day during the USSA volleyball tournament week – from Monday 30 June to Friday 4
July - revealed, between all the action on court, a frenetic
but cheerful atmosphere. Students from around the country could be found warming up, practicing moves, scrutinising fixture schedules, or preparing to move between venues.
Evasan Chettiar
Wits Chess Club’s Evasan Chettiar
will represent SA at the 13th World
University Championships (WUC)
chess tournament in Katowice,
Poland, from 18-24 August. The
championships are part of the
sporting events of the International
University Sports Federation, organised every even-numbered year
between the Summer and Winter
Universiades. Follow Evasan’s progress on Facebook: FISU World
University Championships and on
the internet www.fisu.net/World
University Championships
2
But preparing an USSA tournament can be nerve-wracking.
Ask students Nomcebo Msweli (below centre) and Linah
Rakgwale who came to the aid of sports officer Dennis
Tshabalala to help organise this year’s annual USSA tournament at Wits, while themselves preparing to play! Read
their story on the Wits Volleyball club page.
Wits women hockey’s good USSA run
and losing only one. To boot, Witsie
Wendy Panaino, with her two field
goals and one penalty corner con-
SOLO CHARGE: Judy Thulumane leads a Wits
assault on Varsity College. The narrow 2-1 defeat to
the eventual section winners was Wits’ only loss of
the week-long USSA tournament.
WHO’S GOT MY BACK? Julia de Kock marshals her defensive line as
Wits launch another attack on the UWC goal. Wits won this 2nd
Wits women made up for last year’s
unsatisfactory performance at their
USSA’s by finishing second in the Bsection of the 2014 edition of the
event. In the process, they ran eventual section winners Varsity College
very close in the national student
hockey championships. Wits ended
runners–up by winning four games
dents. That’s because Varsity College, who earned the right to participate in the tournament by virtue
of being pool winners, have not yet
concluded the necessary contractual
arrangements with the tournament
organisers to take their place in the
event. In 2015, therefore, both Wits’
men’s and women’s teams will play
Varsity Hockey.
game of the tournament 5-1.
version, was amongst the section’s
top three goal-scorers.
And by a stroke of good fortune,
Wits women’s hockey will return to
Varsity Hockey—the country’s premier competition for women stu-
FINAL STANDINGS
1. Varsity College
2. Wits
The coaches, players &
supporters of Wits Basketball, and the staff of
WitsSport honour the
memory of the late
Tshepo Manamela,
a faithful servant of university basketball Lala
Ngoxolo, Bra Tshepo, we
4. NWU Vaal
will miss you.
5. UWC
6. CPUT
Witsie footballers Brylon Peter-
Both Brylon (third from right, back
row) and Bruce (third from right,
MEMORIAM
3. Rhodes
Two Witsie ‘ballers named in USSA u21 squad
son (goalkeeper) and Bruce Mtabane (midfielder) have been
named in the USSA squad to participate in the 15th annual South
African Breweries u-21 Regional
League National Championships
tournament. The event runs from
14 to 20 July at NWU Mafikeng.
IN
The 2014 Wits men student’s team
(pic: Nqobile Dludla )
front row) are regulars in the Wits
Students’ team that campaigns in
the USSA Gauteng Football
League’s AmaTuesdayz intervarsity provincial competition.
The SA competition features u21 selection teams from SAFA
structures in all nine provinces,
with the USSA team making up
the 10th side. This year the
event will be staged at the UNW
in Mafikeng. The Western Cape
are the tournament’s defending
champions.
Made it!
Witsie Zinhle Kunene was
selected to the Gauteng
provincial women’s volleyball team
Wits Netball a step closer to reclaiming A-section status as Moloi bows out
In a tournament week that also saw netball club chair Seriti Moloi step down and
bow out of netball for the foreseeable
future, Wits won three of their five games
at the USSA’s at NMMU to keep alive the
promise of reclaiming A-section status.
Wits prepare to attack the TUT 2 goal in a game they lost narrowly lost 30-28
Wits secured wins over UKZN (48-22) and
WSU Ibika (45-32), lost narrowly to TUT 2
(28-30) and UL Medunsa (37-40) before
bouncing back in their final game to beat
NWU Mafikeng 27-20 and finish second in
their 8-team B-section.
At the end of the tournament Seriti Moloi,
who replaced Lindiwe Radebe as chair of
Wits Netball in 2014, announced she was
stepping down following her acceptance
of a scholarship that requires her to
achieve at a higher level and spend time
as an intern. Moloi worked hard during
her tenure to introduce Wits netballers to
a stiffer level of competition, supporting
participation in the early-season expanded
Gauteng inter-varsity series, and moving
to the local Ekhuruleni league. Doubtless,
3
coach Martha Mosoahle will push for
greater accomplishments, but new netball
sports officer Lorraine Masibi will feel a
positive start has been made. Congrats to
all, and a huge thank you to Seriti!
Wits amajita gear up for Marks Park football fest
This year’s Johannesburg leg of the Engen
Knockout Challenge kicked off on Friday 18
July at Marks Park—it continues to Sunday
20th—to the rhythm of drums and the spectacle of energetic dancing by the Basotho
dance troupe, the Flying Carpets.
The groupings and fixtures draw for the third
event in South Africa’s leading youth football
sports officer for football Dennis Tshabalala, who is also tournament director,
says the university’s 11-year partnership
with Engen has proven successful in helping many young hopefuls fulfil their football dreams.
tournament was finalised at Wits University’s Sturrock Park sports complex on Wed 2
July. The tournament is contested by SAFA’s
leading u-17 teams. Wits University’s Marks
“It will be interesting to see how many
young talented players are identified this
year and who may be scouted to take the
next step up into the professional ranks
of the sport,” he says.
The five-leg tournament is played at venues around the country. The E Cape section of the tournament was staged at the
Gelvandale Sport Complex in PE on 27-29
June, and the Free State event was held
at Grey College in Bloemfontein over the
weekend of 4-6 July. It moved to Durban’s Highbury & Pegasus Sport Complex
on 11-13 July, and the last leg of the tournament will be held at Cape Town’s William Herbert Sportsground from 1-3
August. Hopes are high that a new crop
of youngsters will emerge to follow in the
footsteps of Ajax Amsterdam’s Thulani
Serero and S’sport United’s Ronwen Williams Mokeke
No fence-sitters, our Witsies
Gymnastics USSA’s
Wits Fencing Club earned new gradings at the
provincial ranking event held As for the results, Wits won the following accolades at
Gauteng Fencing Association Ranking 2:
In the senior men's sabre, gold went to Wikus
Koen, while Justin Logie (gold), Koen (silver)
and Mikesh Harrilall (bronze) swept away all
opposition in the senior men’s foil. Harilall
also bagged bronze in the senior men’s epee,
and Heather Martens claimed bronze in the
women's epee. Wits won medals in all of the
events that we entered. Participation from
the girls was a bit lacking so we were unable
to enter Senior Women's Foil and Senior
Women's Sabre.
The tournament went extremely smoothly,
and all events ran according to schedule,
which is highly unusual for fencing! The GFA
was very pleased with the facilities and they
expressed much gratitude towards Wits.
There were a number of u20 and u17 events
so there were many parents present and they
were very happy with their experience of Wits
University. One young man has asked to join
our club and the parents of at least three
others said they would most likely enrol their
sons at Wits.
Club chair Richard Dobson (pictured left
below at the final dinner) reports that Wits
was again among the medals at the fiveinstitution Gymnastics USSA’s held at UCT
from 2-6 July. The final medals tally was
down on last year’s haul though, partly due
to taking a less experienced team than in
previous years. Some gymnasts also carried
slight injuries that affected their performance.
Medal winners from amongst the tenperson squad were Marian de Pontes
(bronze level 1 WAG), Mitchell Struwig
(silver level 1 MAG), Catherine Honegger
(bronze novice table-top trampoline), and
he himself won gold (senior Olympic level
MAG) and bronze (tumbling). Wits Alumnus
Robyn Taylor won two golds for intermediate tumbling and level 5 WAG. Competing
‘varsities alongside Wits and the hosts were
UNW, Tuks and Maties.
4
Mountain out on a limb
Wits' Jonathan Jubber reports that the
2014 tournament held at Wits on 25 & 26
June was acclaimed by all as the best ever,
thanks in part to the new climbing wall in
the Old Mutual Sports Hall (OMSH), and
the expert routes set. This proved a setback for the Witsies however because it
was their Dylan Vogt (pictured) who set
the routes, thereby ruling him out of competing for his team. NWU's Nkosi Nama,
who won the men's lead competition, was
the only one
to make it to
the end of the
route set by
Dylan.
"Dylan set
some amazing
routes that
kept the other
universities on
their toes literally. He is
the strongest
climber we
have and by far the strongest of all who
attended," said Jubber. Wits' did manage
to bag silver in the women's boulder final.
Jonathan added that the teams were
'blown away' by the quality of the wall and
want the event staged at Wits again next
year.
FINAL RESULTS:
1st - Rhodes;
2nd - NWU; 3rd - UP; 4th - Wits; 5th - UCT.
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