No gear, all the ideas - the state of sport in York
When approaching the topic of the state of sport at this university, it’s important to tread carefully. Although the sporting teams at York are admittedly not in the top flight when it comes to national rankings, there is a great deal of pride within the teams themselves – and so there should be. The basis of a successul team, evidently, is teamwork.
However, one of the most significant factors influencing the long term performance of our sports teams at York is the lack of modern facilities on campus which could be used to improve a team’s conditioning and skill. It’s almost the antithesis of the age old sporting collocation: “all the gear, no idea”. Teams at York know what they’re doing, they just lack the support and funding of the university.
When prospective students are shown around Universities like Loughborough or Brighton, the sports facilities are generally the first stop on the tour. They are proud of their sport and have the accolades to show that the money being poured into sport in these places isn’t going to waste. There is no reason why York can’t be one of the universities with a strong national reputation.
When you first come to York as a potential future student, the sporting facilities hardly stand out in your mind. Those of us who show new students around campus will generally gloss over the Sports Centre with disparaging remarks like: “It’s ok, just not great. You learn to deal with it”.
Sport in York should be something to shout about. We should have a strong national standing. We have one of the biggest inter-university competitions in the country in the annual Roses event and yet we still lack competence and consistency in the most basic of organisational skills, like finding referees for college matches.
This inadequacy spreads right through to the campus sport coverage, with York Vision - the “number one source for college sport” recently reporting wildly inaccurate versions of the college rankings table last term.
In other words, if the powers that be can’t get the basics right, we’ll never be in a position to move forward as a sporting university. What’s disappointing about the situation is that the talent is here. It’s just the facilities that hold back this talent, even drawing it elsewhere in some cases.
When speaking to several people at the University who are at the very top level in their sport before coming here, it became clear that many of them don’t play for the university teams. They may play a little college every now and again to keep themselves fresh, but they are put off by the lack of quality coaching and see participating at a university level here as more of a hinderance to their degree, instead of a source of extra curricular pride. Even those who excel within the university teams are forced to train elsewhere to improve, leaving the rest of the team to suffer. The University of York Boat Club is one of the biggest casualties of this, having a number of their top rowers leave to train in better surroundings in hopes of a place in the national squad. The society itself is largely kept afloat by handouts from neighbouring York City and St Peter’s.
I am by no means saying that the University teams are in a state of disrepair, but there is definite room for improvement. The level of competitive sport here at the university is impressive considering the circumstances, but it should be on a higher plane. We have the potential, but we need to embrace our teams and promote them to prospective students. Only then will the situation improve, and only then will funding come. Until that time, we will be stuck in the vicious circle of talent and top quality coaching being put off by the reputation of our sports facilities.
