The 2019 SA Rugby Youth Weeks Series kicked off at Grey College in Bloemfontein today (Monday, 1 July).
One of the tournaments – the U18 Rugby Academy Week – sees Union High School’s Bladen Jacobs, Cleathon Koeberg and Sbongakonke Koyingana representing the Eastern Province Country Districts (EPCD) squad.
Accompanying them is UHS educator Mr. Christopher Felix who is serving as the assistant coach of the EPCD team.
Drugs have the power to derail or end your future.
This message was brought to learners of Union High School when Freddy Trout and Wayne Windvoël of People Against Substance Abuse (PASA) visited the school on Monday morning, 10 June.
As is the case with all schools, Union High School’s administration is charged with ensuring a safe, supportive and healthy school environment where children can learn and reach their full potential.
This includes taking measures to prevent alcohol and drug use among learners. Learners in high school are at an age where they need to hear the facts about the negative impact of drug abuse and how it has the power to derail or end their future. Union, therefore, enlisted PASA’s expert help to host an educational talk at the school about the dangers of substance abuse.
During their visit, PASA founder Freddy Trout and former drug addict Wayne Windvoël shared their stories of drug abuse, addiction, gangsterism and violence in an attempt to enlighten the learners about the reality of addiction and possibly curb any experimentation with addictive substances.
The session was thoroughly engaging, demanding the rapt attention of all the learners present.
As every person is the architect of their own future, Union hopes that this informative talk will help the learners make wise choices and in so doing, contribute to the building of a brighter future for Union’s youth, short of the impediments that substance abuse can have on their lives.
Yesterday afternoon (Tuesday, 11 June), Union High School hosted the Spandau Secondary School hockey team for a match against our senior third team.
Although the Union team struggled to find their rhythm in this closely-contested match, they started playing their own game towards the end of the match, to win it 1 – 0. Union’s goal was scored by Kay Koeberg.
The match was well played by both teams and Union extends its thanks to the players for the competitive, yet sociable atmosphere the game was contested in.
The UHS junior hockey teams faced both Victoria Primary and Gill Primary on Union High School’s AstroTurf today, Saturday, 8 June.
In their matches against Victoria Primary, the 4th juniors lost 0 – 2, the 3rd juniors won 1 – 0, the 2nd juniors drew 0 – 0 and the 1st juniors won 2 – 0.
In the Gill encounters, the 2nd juniors lost 0 – 1 and the 1st juniors won 1 – 0.
The 1st Juniors played entertaining hockey in this home fixture against Victoria Park Primary and came away with a deserving 2 – 0 victory. Our girls played superior hockey throughout and maintained possession for a large percentage of the game. Some beautiful individual and team efforts made this a thrilling game to watch and both goals scored were as a result of some excellent team work. Well done to Soso Mroro who worked hard to set up both goals, and to Lisakhanya Menos and Leshay Fourie who were perfectly positioned to capitalise on these goal opportunities. Special mention must go to Alinda Goosen and Tyra Binney who both worked hard and controlled the game beautifully from the back and set up some great plays.
In the match against Gill the team maintained their momentum and again thoroughly dominated the game and were unfortunate to only win by one goal to nil. The girls are now displaying a maturity and work-ethic in their hockey that has thus far been lacking. They can be proud of their efforts over the last two weeks and I hope that they continue to grow over the rest of the season.
Graeme College proved to be formidable opponents on the rugby field on Saturday, 8 June.
The visiting teams ended the encounter against Union’s rugby teams unbeaten, winning the matches between the u/14As 51 – 0, the u/15Bs 71 – 3, the u/15As 24 – 19, the u/16As 34 – 7, the second teams 24 – 5 and the 1st XVs 69 – 3.
While the results might not have been what the Union teams were hoping for today, it’s often been said that you learn more from losing than you do from winning.
This was indeed a valuable learning opportunity for the Union teams who, after a well-deserved break this school holidays, will kick off their 3rd term fixtures motivated and better prepared because of it
The annual Eastern Province Cricket awards ceremony, which honours players, volunteers, officials, clubs and schools across the pro…vince, saw the talent of one of Union’s ace cricketers showcased.
Bowen Langmead, who was nominated in the category, ‘Best Inland Cricketer’ walked away as the category’s winner at the ceremony held on Friday evening, 10 May.
Brett Amsterdam, a promising young sportsman from Union High School, has been in fine form this rugby season. So much so, that he was recently selected for the EPRU’s 2019 Rural u/19A rugby team.
Brett will represent the team at a tournament during the June/July school holidays.
Congratulations Brett!
Young brains are made for enjoying art!
The members of Union High School’s Art Club recently paid a visit to Our Yard, a unique cultural gem nestled in the heart of Somerset Street, Graaff-Reinet, to look at some of the new artworks they have on display.
While wandering through the building and perusing the various pieces on display, the different framing and display options were discussed as well as the mood of each artwork.The highlight for all was the viewing of Aberdeen artist Marguerite Beneke`s exquisite contemporary painted and fused glass creations.
The Art Club is hoping to visit this artist at her studio in Aberdeen next month.
The enjoyable outing was concluded with a milkshake and a delicious Dutch delicacy – the stroopwafel!
5th Team lost 0 – 3
4th Team lost 0 – 4
3rd Team lost 1 – 5
2ND Team lost 0 – 3
1st Team lost 1 – 7
1st JUNIORS
After a hard week of preparation in anticipation for this encounter, our junior hockey girls travelled to Port Elizabeth this weekend to take on a very polished Collegiate side. Although the score-line was disappointing, the same cannot be said for the match. The Union girls stuck to the game plan especially formulated for this fixture, and played attractive, fast-paced hockey with accurate passes and some brilliant team work that surprised their opponents and had them reeling on occasion. Despite Collegiate finding the back of the goals on a regular basis throughout the game, the Union team never once gave up or looked like they were losing heart. Their determination carried them through and finally saw Soso Mroro smashing home a beautiful goal near the end of the match. If the team can build on the way they played in this match, I can only see success for them in the future. I am exceptionally proud of the girls and am very excited to see if they can continue to play the mature hockey that they displayed on the day. The entire team deserves special mention for their outstanding efforts. Well done girls!
This past Saturday, 1 June, Union High School hosted Woodridge College in a fixture last played over 10 years ago! The games started at 09:15 in rather chilly early-morning conditions. The fixture proved to be one of a very competitive nature.
Union won two out of the three junior matches, which encouraged the senior teams to give it their all. The third team had a thrilling victorious encounter against Asherville’s 2nd team, where after the second team had a tough encounter… against Asherville’s 1st team, however, they never gave up and gave it their all ‘till the final whistle.
The results of the games preceding that of Union’s 1st XV were as follows: the u/14As lost 5 – 17, the u/15As won 19 – 12, the u/16As won 63 – 12, the 3rd team won 10 – 2 and the second team lost 12 – 38.
The “Mighty Whites” were in for a tough battle as Woodridge College’s 1st XV have been “up there with the best of co-ed schools in the Eastern Cape for the past five years”. Woodridge were first to put points on the board through a penalty after just five minutes. A few minutes later, Woodridge pounced from a knock-on and scored in the corner. They failed to convert, making the score 8 – 0 in their favour.
Fifteen minutes into the game, Junior Duba crossed the line for Union’s first try. Union missed the conversion and the score then read 8 – 5 to Woodridge.
Union continued to secure possession and applied tremendous pressure to ensure that Gary Shell crossed over for the team’s second try. The conversion was missed, however, Union still took the lead 10 – 8. This epic seesaw battle then saw Woodridge breach Union’s defences again. Woodridge went into the half time break 15 – 10 up. Three minutes into the second half, Union set up an amazing maul on the half way line. Zusakhe Ngwane broke blind off the maul to run 20 metres untouched before linking up with Brett Amsterdam who was awarded a try for his brilliant support play.
Brett converted to put Union back in the lead, 17 – 15. Woodridge slotted a penalty a few minutes later to take the lead by one point.
Luke McNaughton then converted a penalty awarded to Union, to put Union back in the lead. The scoreboard now read 20 – 18 in Union’s favour.
Both teams continued to battle it out until the end. The “Mighty Whites” were awarded with one final penalty, which was converted by Luke McNaughton. Union won the match 23 – 18.
Try scorers for Union were Junior Duba, Gary Shell and Brett Amsterdam. Brett Amsterdam converted 1 from 3 successfully and Luke McNaughton successfully converted 2 penalties.