The Sport Administration Unit have a digital sport, development programme where they groom the best alumni players to be coaches. Ntokozo Radebe is one of the selected players given the important task to digitally train students as a DUT eSports coach at the Sport Administration Unit.

eSports is electronic sports which is organised, competitive video gaming. It involves teams competing against each other in tournaments for a cash prize. Its functionally is the same as traditional sports.

Radebe is a graduate in Marketing at the Durban University of Technology. He has been a lifelong sports enthusiast and has tried out almost all sports within his reach. The one sport he  is immensely fond of is Electronic Sports (eSports) as it was the best fit for a lazy boy back in his high school days.

“I joined the Sport Administration Unit when I was doing my first year in 2019 as I was afforded the opportunity to start and grow esports within the university. This was an amazing feeling as it felt like the stars were aligning as esports was my passion and still is,” he remarked.

Speaking of his achievements, Radebe added that as a sports player, he took first place in the University Sports South Africa (USSA) Online Competition against other institutions in the country in 2022.

He obtained first position in the Go Digital SA Foundation FIFA 2023 competition hosted by the Information Technology (IT) Department  at Ritson Campus. Radebe also helped the team secure third place in the physical USSAs at the University of Cape Town.

In terms of his role as a coach, Radebe placed first place in the Freshers Cup, and second place in the Redbull Hattricks Championship.

Radebe happily spoke of his role and link with DUT’s ENVISION2030. “My role as the coach is to teach as well as to improve the students in all aspects of eSports. My role is lending a helping hand in unlocking the dynamic potential of students who do not have an idea of the avenues that sport can open for them as it is a fast growing sport, not only in the school but in the country,” he explained.

He further indicated that one of his roles is to ensure that eSports is not only grown within DUT campuses but grow it provincially as DUT has been working with a number of primary as well as high school programmes to educate the youth about esports and where DUT is headed in the near future.

Radebe explained about the selection process in terms of eSports at DUT. “We have our very own leagues system giving both male and female students the opportunity to compete for all the available positions in competitions.

He professed that the team has been taking part in the ACGL University League which operates varsity-level leagues and tournaments for all South African universities in some of the most popular titles in the world. The league is currently taking place online and all 10 of DUT players are still number one in their respective groups.

Radebe indicated that one challenge that has come up recently is the fact that parents of DUT players are not quite convinced or knowledgeable about the work that DUT coaches do with the students and sometimes discourage students from taking part in competitions that DUT normally host. Radebe aims to convince parents that it is a serious sport.

For Radebe, besides challenges, he some sterling highlights for the year which is the development of DUT’s female team as he had taken it upon himself to look for students who were interested in learning and being part of the team and have successfully completed a training course he had put together for the past four months.

“We now have eight female players who can play and compete in FIFA and are getting better as the year progresses. He explained that at the beginning of each calendar year DUT communicates the trial periods using DUT’s Instagram page (@Dutesports). “This is when we hold trials for students to come and showcase their skills as well as their passion to represent their university in tournaments. Our preparations for the USSA tournaments are slowly but surely beginning to take shape as I am now trying to help the players to prepare psychologically to ensure that they arrive in the best possible mental conditions for the tournaments,” he said..

If anyone would like to try out for eSports, contact Radebe on 063 253 8061 or on Instagram: @Dutesports.

Pictured: Ntokozo Radebe

Sinethemba Njoko