SPORT
Sport at Michaelhouse
Michaelhouse blends academics, arts, environment, and sport to provide a well-rounded education. With 14 sports options and some of the finest facilities in the country—including a high-performance centre, multiple courts and pools, and a dedicated team of coaching experts—each boy is encouraged to reach his full athletic potential. Our boys regularly compete at zonal, provincial, and international levels, with over 140 Michaelhouse sportsmen having represented their country in major sporting arenas.
our facilities
World Class
Sporting Facilities
Michaelhouse is home to 11 expansive playing fields, two water-based Astroturf hockey facilities, seven turf cricket pitches, a dedicated cricket oval, an athletics track, seven tennis courts, three padel courts, and a six-court squash complex with glass-backed courts. Our boys enjoy both indoor and outdoor basketball courts, a heated swimming pool, a dedicated long-course water polo pool, a state-of-the-art gymnasium, a golf driving range, and a dam for canoeing enthusiasts.
Our High Performance Centre supports individualised fitness goals with professional weight training and aerobic equipment, guided by a dedicated sport scientist and biokineticist. Tailored fitness programmes ensure that each boy builds strength, endurance, and physical resilience, enabling them to reach their peak in their chosen sport.
TERMS 1 and 4
Summer Sport
Michaelhouse offers a range of summer sports that focus on excellence, teamwork, and personal growth. The key summer sports include:
athletics
Michaelhouse athletes compete in league events around the province and in recent times have breathed new life into the school’s proud middle distance tradition. Willows, the home of athletics at Michaelhouse was once a world class cinder track and was the backdrop to Paul Nash setting the school’s 100m and 200m records in 1964. Nash went on to equal the world 100m record four times during the course of 1968.
basketball
More than 260 Michaelhouse boys represent 22 basketball teams making it the second most popular sport at the school. Three indoor and three outdoor courts buzz with the high-octane energy of the sport during the summer quarters. The Michaelhouse first team frequently finishes on the podium at South Africa’s premier tournaments and our ballers regularly earn scholarships to top colleges in the United States.
Canoeing
Michaelhouse pioneered canoeing in South Africa in the 1970s, training on nearby farm dams until New Dam was built in the early 1980s. Excelling across disciplines like canoe polo and white water, over a dozen alumni became Olympians. Jean van der Westhuyzen's gold in Tokyo and bronze in Paris, alongside Pierre’s silver, inspired the renaming of New Dam to van der Westhuyzen Dam, motivating future Michaelhouse paddlers.
cricket
With seven ovals, indoor nets and outdoor turf nets, cricket has always been a popular sport at Michaelhouse and up to nineteen teams are fielded weekly in season. The Roy Gathorne Oval where our first XI host teams from all the major cricketing schools in KwaZulu-Natal along with schools from other provinces was one of the very first turf pitches on the continent.
cross country
Michaelhouse athletes get to enjoy highveld altitude training on trails traversing hundreds of acres of pristine grassland and indigenous forest. Cross country is offered as a second sport for those boys who enjoy a challenge and wide open spaces and in recent years our boys have dominated both junior and senior provincial leagues.
padel
In 2023 Michaelhouse became the first school in South Africa to offer Padel as a secondary sport option. Our three courts were incorporated into our bustling racquet sports complex and our boys and staff jockey for the upper hand in fiercely contested internal leagues.
SWIMMING
With three heated swimming pools aquatics are robustly catered for in a climate which is not renowned for balmy winters! Our all-year training pool provides a permanent training facility for our swimmers, many of whom are competing at the highest levels both nationally and on a continental scale.
waterpolo
Waterpolo is the fastest growing sport at Michaelhouse and the club enjoys the benefits of highly regarded coaches and both short course and a long course pools. Our teams compete with distinction in all of the major national tournaments.
TERMS 2 and 3
Winter Sport
Michaelhouse offers a range of winter sports that focus on excellence, teamwork, and personal growth. The key winter sports include:
Golf
While on campus facilities include a driving range and putting greens Michaelhouse golfers enjoy regular outings to Bosch Hoek and Gowrie, both within an easy 12km radius of the school. The provincial schools team is frequently littered with Michaelhouse golfers and our Old Boys have gone on to win major Sunshine Tour events.
hockey
Michaelhouse enjoys a pioneering reputation in the sport of field hockey being the first school in South Africa to introduce the sport in 1928. Not many schools would have grown as many national players and Old Boys have gone on to make their mark as players and coaches of major national teams around the globe. With two world-class water based astro facilities, top level coaches and fielding as many as 15 teams on match days the Michaelhouse hockey club offers a vibrant winter sport option for our boys.
rugby
Michaelhouse fields more than 20 rugby teams during the winter season and competes toe-to-toe with far bigger schools in the province and beyond. Supported by a cutting edge strength and conditioning programme the rugby culture at our school enjoys a solid reputation. The flair of our Sevens players during the third quarter is the stuff of legend and Michaelhouse enjoys the distinction of being crowned champions at Rugby School’s international festival celebrating the 200th year of the game in 2023.
soccer
Soccer has been a smash hit at Michaelhouse since the school hosted Paraguay during the 2010 FIFA World Cup staged in South Africa. Not many schools are able to field more than 30 teams on match day and the third quarter sport enjoys the distinction of being the most popular sport at the school in terms of participation.
squash
Ever since Rector Warin Bushell introduced squash to the South African schools scene in 1928 when he built a court at Michaelhouse, the sport has remained one of the more popular individual year round sports. Today our squash players enjoy world-class facilities in six courts, three of which are championship glass backed courts.
tennis
With seven all weather courts, tennis is offered throughout the year. Our boys compete in various leagues and local competitions and have become the team to beat at the annual Sun City Schools Tennis Tournament.