Visitors to Ukhanyo School are sure to have noticed the big changes in PE that have taken place since the MCC Masi 750 Sports Club launched a few months ago. The first change is the number of staff involved in delivering sports education to the learners. Through volunteers and staff at the school there are now 14 coaches participating in addition to project leader Vince van der Bijl himself.

Head coach Nceba Jonas remains in charge of Athletics, Soccer, Netball (together with Fez Payi the vice-capt. and Pam Ngcwama as a coach) and there is now a cycling club (Kwanele Lunga, the vice capt. with Nokuthula Gomba (Tula) and Vuyiswa Ninyusa (Lola) as coaches)

Sports coordinator Teddy Nyali is in charge of administration, head of rugby (Frank Charlie, the vice capt. and Xolani Mahlulo as coach) and cricket (Sergio Presence and Jade Schoeman as vice-capts.) and for mini-cricket (Vuyolwethu Gunguluza (Vuvu) and Lubabalo Peter as vice-capts.)

Five educators from the school have voluntarily put their names forward to coach after school. The most exciting shift. David Lewis, a seasoned cricket coach, ex cricketer and businessman attends every practice and assists with mentoring the cricket coaches

All 14 fulltime and part-time sports coaches at Ukhanyo workshopped and have agreed on The Coach Code of Behaviour. It has both key words and the actions which sets the approach required for competitive and fair sports activity.

Some examples of the key performance indicators are to lead by example, be respectful at all times, positive attitude, team first always, and of course to win with humility and lose graciously

As well as the learners at the school, the programme is assisting with the personal development of the coaching team themselves. Vince and Nceba recently attended a day of the Elite Sports Summit in Cape Town which featured high performance directors from the Great Britain Cycling team, Manchester City Academy, Blue Jays Baseball Academy in Canada, a sports psychologist from Australia, a 7s rugby coach who took Fiji to a gold medal in the Rio Olympics, Gary Kirsten and Jean de Villiers.

The day gave the pair a broad and deep perspective of how the best in the world run sports performance coaching and disciplines.