All St Andrew’s boys are expected to play a school sport in summer and winter. We are a small school, so each boy is needed to make the school competitive. Boys are welcome to take part in outside sport like golf, cycling and karate but must also do a school sport.
The sport policy is available from the office on request.
Our High school teams, in particular, play against the strongest cricketing schools from around South Africa. In addition to our traditional weekend fixtures, our U14 team attends the Northwood Festival in Durban and our U15A team attends the prestigious Independent Schools Cricket Festival.
The 1st team travels extensively and typically attends the Grey Festival (Bloemfontein and PE in alternate years), the Independent Schools Festival, Cape Schools Festival and the North/South T20 tournament in Pretoria. In most years since 2010, we have also travelled to Zimbabwe, a tour which is usually a highlight of the year for the boys.
Our belief is to lay the foundation in the younger age groups, and then become as specific and individualized in our programmes as boys move into the senior age groups. Whether a boy is a future professional player or just a recreational cricketer, we encourage participation and strive to create opportunities for all.
Our facilities include: five cricket fields, 3 banks of turf cricket nets, artificial nets as well as a High-Performance indoor centre. The High Performance Centre features 7 nets, state-of-the-art analysis technology and 20m bowlers run ups.
We believe that with our world class facilities, coaching innovation and specific sport science focus, we are in a position to develop aspiring young cricketers to their full potential. Our philosophy is not centred around winning, but rather a focus on individual development.
Gregg Hobson
Director of Cricket
Squash at St Andrew’s… more than just a sport …
Our Squash programme offers those who participate in the game the opportunity of learning life-long values of honesty, integrity, discipline, respect, tolerance, sportsmanship and ultimately, ambassadorship.
Squash began at St Andrew’s in 1959, when the then Headmaster, Mr Jumbo Ferrandi, a keen squash enthusiast started the squash coaching at St Andrew’s, using the Defence Force (Tempe) courts. Our first two courts were built in 1977 – We were blessed to see the addition of a championship squash court to our complex in 2000. We now have access to 5 courts, including Municipals at Victoria Park.
Coaching and administrative excellence and commitment
Our Coach, Calvin Deutschmann has received several honours awards from Squash South Africa including, the SA National Coach of the year award in 2008. He has coached and managed national SA Schools and SA Junior U19 teams on tours to Botswana, Namibia, Canada, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, USA and Poland, and has attended international coaching courses in Egypt and Sweden. In 2014 and 2016, he managed and coached the South African Under 19 team to the Junior World Championships.
Calvin Deutschmann and manageress, Margo Morgan, are dedicated and valued members of the South African Squash community. They are also members of the South African National Schools Squash Executive Committee and continue to serve as National Junior Selectors for Squash South Africa. Both have been awarded National Honours Awards for service to Squash in South Africa. Margo Morgan was also awarded the prestigious Squash SA Merit award in 2009 for service to Squash at National level.
The school has hosted the highly successful St Andrew’s FNB Squash Festival for the past 26 years for as many as 24 schools from around the country.
Our squash programme is built on the following pillars:
Our programme is growing exponentially, and our squash complex is a hive of activity. We now offer squash as part of the Foundation Phase Physical Education curriculum. We enter as many as 8 teams in the Free State Senior leagues annually – there is a place for everyone to play – all levels and standards of players are welcome.
Margo Morgan
St Andrew’s Squash Co-ordinator
Hockey started at St Andrew’s in 1948 and has since produced top-class players in a fast-growing school sport.
We currently have 380 boys playing in 43 junior and senior teams. We play against the country’s top 20 teams and regularly rank in the top 10 – 20 in South Africa.
Hockey statistics
Trevor Raubenheimer
Head of Hockey
Our five rugby teams (U/ 14, U/15, U/16, 2nd XV and 1st XV), with Kassie van Kasterop and Lieben Pietersen at the helm, play in the B-league and also participate in the private schools arena.
Rugby at St Andrew’s dates back to 1882 when the first recorded rugby match in the Free State was played between St Andrew’s and Grey College. In the past 5 years, we have beaten rivals Union High twice (2017 – 19/12, and in 2020, 48/24) and also St Alban’s at the Kingswood Festival.
Our U16 and 1st XV teams have been winners in their leagues for two years in a row and played in all the finals. Every year we have between 5 – 7 boys selected for the Free State Kiewiete Side. We currently have an Old Boy playing in the Shimla Young Gun squad at KOVSIES.
The U/15 Independent School Rugby Festival is to be held at Saint Andrew’s in 2022. Our facilities include 3 full rugby pitches and a gym.
Lieben Pietersen
Head of Rugby
An exciting development at the school is the addition of soccer to the extra-mural programme. Our recently-acquired sports fields over the road at Victoria Park (the old Municipals’ grounds) will afford us the opportunity to cater for our football fans. This will complement our sports line-up, allowing enthusiasts to participate in this much-loved game.
Kerry Gower
Soccer Co-ordinator
Swimming is offered as a summer sport in the Junior school and swimmers in squads train out of school.
The Inter-house gala is a major fixture on the school calendar in the beginning of the year and Inter-High is one of the highlights. Inter-house is swum early in the seasonto be used as indicator for team selection for the Inter-Schools gala.
St Andrew’s boasts the title of U/15 FS Champion in 50m Butterfly, 100m Butterfly aswell as 200m Butterfly. Five of our boys compete annually at the SA Nationals and achieve excellent results.
Tennis at St Andrew’s is played by a number of boys in a 1st and 2nd Team, under the guidance of Nice Jurgensen as coach. The Gordon Forbes Tennis Complex was established in 2019 with newly resurfaced courts and facilities. The school enters teams into local leagues and has seen pleasing results in the past three years. The Teams play in all the schools’ traditional derby’s against Independent Schools.
Nico Jurgensen
Tennis Coordinator
The school gym is a valuable facility for our sports teams and is on the premises for the use of all boys. The modern, well-equipped gym is managed by our resident sports scientist who oversees all the training and plans individual programmes for all our boys, depending on individual needs and sports played. The sports teams are regularly monitored by the sports scientist for fitness, injury, training schedules and has played a vital role in the performance of the senior cricket, rugby, hockey and squash teams.
Boys pay a nominal annual membership for the upkeep of the equipment. The gym is open between 05:00 and 17:00 for boys to use.
Erich Wolmarans
Sports Scientist
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