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11 July 2022
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Story Andre Damons
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Photo Stephen Collett
Welcome home, coach.
Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State (UFS), met with the current Springbok coach and UFS alumnus,
Jacques Nienaber, at the team’s hotel in Bloemfontein on Sunday (10 July 2022).
Prof Petersen showed his support for the
Springboks and Nienaber during the meet-and-greet. The Springboks were narrowly beaten by Wales (13-12) on Saturday. This was Nienaber’s first time back in Bloemfontein after taking over in 2020 as head coach of the Springboks from Rassie Erasmus, who is also an alumnus of the UFS.
“Kovsies has been a leading institution in shaping and producing sports stars and administrators in various sporting codes, including rugby. We are proud of Jacques and wish him all the best with the important role as Springbok head coach,” says Prof Petersen.
Nienaber was born in Welkom and attended school at Grey College in Bloemfontein before studying at the UFS. He was previously also a physiotherapist for the Cheetahs rugby team.
Three more Kovsie staff members involved in Olympic Games
2012-05-30
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Dr Derik Coetzee
Photo: Supplied
30 May 2012
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The South African men’s hockey team will practice on our Bloemfontein Campus from 28 May to 8 June 2012, and the team count on the assistance of three Kovsies to prepare them for the Olympic Games taking place in London later this year.
Dr Derik Coetzee, senior lecturer in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science and Head of our High Performance Centre, has been appointed conditioning coach of the team. He will be assisted by Colleen Jones and Riaan Schoeman, also from this department.
The UFS team and Mr Gregg Clark, the team’s coach, will work out a periodisation programme for the team, which will continue until the hockey finals at the Olympic Games. The programme includes the correct exercises, volume, intensity and number of exercise sessions per week.
This is not the first time that Dr Coetzee has assisted sports teams to prepare for important events. In 2007, he was the conditioning coach of the Springbok rugby team that won the World Cup in France. He was also the conditioning coach of the under-21 Springbok team in 2002 that won the Junior World Cup Tournament.
Dr Coetzee says it is a challenge to ensure that the team performs well at the Olympic Games. “The joy on the faces of the coach and players when they qualified in Japan cannot be described because many people thought they would not qualify.”
With the addition of Dr Coetzee, Ms Jones and Mr Schoeman, a total of six staff members from the UFS will be involved with the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games. The other three are:
- Dr Louis Holtzhausen, Head of the university’s Department of Sports and Exercise Medicine, has been selected as team doctor for the more than 300 athletes that will represent South Africa at this year’s Olympic Games (in London).
- Ms Ebeth Grobbelaar, Assistant Director of the South African Testing Laboratory for Prohibited Substances at the UFS, was invited to be involved in the Drugs Control Centre in the unit against prohibited substances which will test sportsmen and -women during the games.
- Ms Hetsie Veitch, Head of the Unit for Students with Disabilities, has been invited to be a member of the Classification Panel at the final USA Paralympic athletics trials.