The electronic scoreboard on the Collard Field was officially named the Reg Hammond Scoreboard at a ceremony before the start of the 1st team rugby game against Pretoria Boys’ High on Saturday.
Dr Reg Hammond was associated with Jeppe for 19 years, as the school’s Counsellor and Human Development Specialist and Peak Performance Consultant and, at the same time, as a rugby coach.
He played provincial rugby for the Valke as a hooker before injury cut his playing career short and he took up coaching.
He joined King Edward VII School as a teacher in 2004 and coached the first team there for two years, before moving across to Jeppe. He initially coached the under-16A team before having a seven-year stint as 1st team Head Coach from 2009 to 2016. He then went back to the under-16s before joining Mr Carl Spilhaus as the forwards coach for the first team in 2018.
He remained in that role until last year and, at the same time he was responsible for the mental aspects of preparing for and playing games. In all, he was part of the coaching team for the 1st team 205 times.
His provincial coaching career began in the 1990s when he was coach of the Valke LSEN team at their Craven Week. He was appointed the forwards coach for the Golden Lions Craven Week team in 2016, a position he held until 2018, and he was the Lions Craven Week head coach in 2019.
“Coaching at Jeppe has been the highlight of my career,” he said, “the success the school is enjoying now is a result of a long-term plan and I am happy to have been part of formulating it. Mr Spilhaus put the most amazing systems into place at Jeppe and I have learned a lot from him. I believe he laid the foundation for the strong position the 1st team finds itself in now. We have, in Mr Venter, Mr Ngoveni and Mr Van der Merwe, an excellent coaching group. The future of Jeppe rugby is in good hands.”
Dr Hammond has moved to Pretoria and will be focussing on his speciality as a high perfomance sports psychologist. He will be greatly missed at Jeppe, his input has been immeasurable, his contribution on the rugby field, as well his counselling and advising boys in all sorts of other situations throughout their school lives.
It is fitting that, from now on, when you “check the scoreboard” at a Jeppe rugby game, you will be doing it on the Reg Hammond Scoreboard.
