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15 September 2021 | Story Jóhann Thormählen | Photo Charl Devenish
The University of the Free State (UFS) netball team was honoured by UFS management at a special celebration. The side won a fourth Varsity Netball title and the UFS has now been champion in 2013, 2014, 2018 and 2021.

Set goals for yourself, commit to it, and give everything to achieve them.

According to Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State (UFS), this is what the UFS netball team did and why it is an example for the Kovsie community.

He celebrated the team’s achievement of winning Varsity Netball for a record fourth time and extending the run of the UFS as the most successful team in the tournament.

The Kovsies convincingly beat Maties 55-39 in the final to be crowned champions. It was the biggest victory margin in a final, and they did it after losing to Maties (46-54) in the first round.

Prof Petersen and his management group honoured Burta de Kock, the UFS Head Coach, and her team during a special celebration on 13 September 2021.

Working as an outfit

He said the side’s determination is a lesson to others.

“Once you have decided that these are my objectives and you commit yourself to achieving them, that is all you focus on.”

“It will always be possible if you put everything in and you showed it. Thank you for doing this.”

He praised the team for building the UFS brand. 

“You really work as an outfit. What I saw of the players was a right attitude when they play the game.”

Everything made easy

Sikholiwe (Sne) Mdletshe, the UFS captain, thanked her team’s management, the UFS, and its lecturers.

“We really want to thank the university for putting so much into us. It gives us a lot of resources.

“Some tests had to be written while we were in the bubble and our lecturers made that easy for us.”

She said the players never take the effort for granted. “The UFS makes everything easy to go out there and play netball – the sport we have been playing since we were little kids.”

DB Prinsloo, Director of KovsieSport, is immensely proud of the team.

“We even lost one of our best players in the first match, Chanel Vrey, due to injury. We have to take off our hats to the Kovsie netball team.”


News Archive

Staff member gets fellowship for HIV prevention advocacy
2008-08-01

Ms Estelle Heideman, HIV/Aids Co-ordinator at the Lengau Agriculture Development Centre of the University of the Free State (UFS), was awarded a fellowship under a leadership initiative in the United States of America (USA). It entails an eight-week training programme to help cultivate women leaders in South Africa who will make major contributions to HIV prevention advocacy at the local, regional and national levels. The programme is underwritten by the MAC AIDS Fund and managed by the HIV Centre for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at Columbia University in New York City and the UCLA Program in Global Health at the University of California in Los Angeles. Fellows will participate in an orientation overview, attend regular scheduled prevention seminars and policy meetings, and hold meetings with mentors. At the conclusion of the programme, the leadership initiative will, amongst other benefits, provide funds for fellows to carry out their prevention programme in South Africa. Ms Heideman, in collaboration with the university’s Chief Directorate Community Service and Free State Rural Development Programme, has been working on a number of farms in the southern Free State since 2006. The prevention plan that captured the interest of the US panel of judges is an eight-week programme among farm workers in the Philippolis district with the aim to equip them to take control of their lives by knowing their HIV status and living a healthy lifestyle.
Photo: Supplied
 

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