TAY LETHULOE
Residence sport has seen substantial growth over the years. Simply put, team members must belong to a university residence, day house, a society on campus or a faculty house. These teams compete against one another in house leagues across many different sporting codes. The sporting codes include football, netball, hockey, rugby and various other sports which many students have yet to explore.
The Student Sports Committee (SSC) ensures that the overall coordination and management of the matches. This allows students to enjoy recreational activities and the competition has grown fiercely, with a few rivalries developing amongst teams competing to be campus league winners. Other sports include the likes of badminton, chess and tennis, where students are allowed to participate in games to improve their skills.
TuksRes sports also hosts recreational tournaments, such as Ienk athletics, mixed Valentine’s Day tournaments and tournaments such as the first-year 7-a-side tournament, which is targeted at attracting first-year students to sports.
This is also a great opportunity to get to know the other university campuses as some football games are played at the Groenkloof campus and students get to make use of the LC de Villiers sports facilities, where many of the games are played.
Residence sport also serves as an opportunity for many to harness their skills and maintain their fitness during the academic year as after residence sports, many compete on a national and even international level. It also serves as an opportunity for newcomers to perform well and possibly make it into a prospective Tuks team. Many Tuks players across all sports fields had their first opportunities with residence teams.
Tshepo Mokoena, who is currently the football captain of Kollege, said, “It’s a brilliant way to [find] what sport you want to play. For me, it has shown me that I want to play football at a professional level. It also helps as a stress reliever and as something that helps me relax after having to cram for tests, as a law student. I actually would like to encourage as many first years as possible to try out for a team. It’s great fun and excellent exercise.”
Photo: Reinhard Nel
