Two Maties Sport stalwarts, Danvil Brown and Karen Swart, have been acknowledged for their 25 years of dedicated service with an Excellence Award from the office of the Chief Operating Officer of Stellenbosch University.
The annual Award serves to recognise outstanding contributions by staff within the Responsibility Centre headed by the COO.
Danvil’s introduction to Maties Sport came at the age of 13 as a helper at Hockey school camps while at Cloetesville High School. This involvement steadily progressed to scoring for Maties Rugby and Maties Cricket “for pocket money”.
“My dad, known to most as Oom Alec, worked for Maties Sport for 44 years and he encouraged me to get involved, and to stay busy. At home he said ‘there are no lazy people hanging around here’, so my free time went to Maties,” says Danvil.
His permanent staff entry came in 1999 after a full year’s probation as an Administrator with Maties Rugby. While Rugby remains his passion, he can now be found tallying numbers in his Jannie Marais House office as an Administrator: Finance and Facilities.
“Nowadays, we have all this technology but I remember during the 1995 World Cup game at Coetzenburg between Australia and Georgia when I had to change the score on that big board. Those plates were heavy and you had to be careful not to blow away with them!” recalls Danvil, who also fondly remembers his involvement with international Hockey events (still on grass), and the Luciano Pavarotti concert in the Danie Craven Stadium “way back in the day”.
Karen gives true meaning to “once a Matie, always a Maties”. She truly lives and works it. As a BA Sports Science student in 1990, she stayed in Huis ten Bosch, and in 2008 she took up the position as Residence Head in the same residence. As a student she was a Maties Netball first team player and Club Chairperson, and in 2000 she was appointed as Sports Manager for Netball, as well as Gymnastics, Judo, Fencing and Basketball.
Today, after being made Senior Manager and focusing on Netball for almost two decades, Karen manages Rowing, Canoeing, Sailing, Tennis and Golf.
Aside from growing Netball and being a part of the Varsity Netball phenomenon, Karen rates the growth of Maties Rowing as a standout achievement. “I have many memories but I live in the moment, so now my passion are the codes I oversee and the students in my Res,” she says.
“When I took over Rowing management, the club owned no boats. In the past two years, we have made major investments and now have a fleet worth nearly R4-million,” says Karen. “Another highlight is seeing our two top golfers compete in the Boyd Quaich Memorial Tournament at St Andrews in Scotland since 2023. And, this year, nine of my students represented Maties internationally: five rowers and two tennis players at the World University Games, along with two golfers competing in Scotland.”
Danvil and Karen intend to play till full retirement time and to fully immerse themselves into Maties Sport and the University’s evolution. “You must be ready to adapt,” says Danvil, and Karen insists that agility and always being open to learning is the recipe for a fulfilling career.
Danvil and Karen say that the key ingredients to longevity in the University workplace and to being inspired to keep up with ever-changing environments, systems and technologies, are the students. “These youngsters keep you young,” says Danvil.