So you’re reading the sports section of a campus newspaper? Why not go beyond a mere passing glance and get actively involved?
York Sport is the sub-committee of YUSU (your Students’ Union) tasked with supplying sport at the University of York. It does this through the 59 individual sports clubs as well as through our inter-mural system: College Sport. You can find out more about all of these clubs and about the college sport programme in the Sports Centre at the YUSU Fair on Saturday. If you can’t wait that long, have a look at our brand spanking new website at www.yusu.org/sport which will give you details on all the different clubs.
Last year was one full of change, from the more obvious things like the name change and re-brand, through to more subtle changes such as the composition of the York Sport committee and coming under the YUSU umbrella, rather than being a separate Athletic Union. This year, all York teams will be playing in black and gold kits with the York Sport logo emblazoned across their chests, so it should be much easier to recognise the York teams from those of the opposition, whoever they may be.
As YUSU is becoming a registered charity, there are charity law implications which have come into play. These mean that clubs can no longer fund raise for external charities, so will instead be re-focusing their fund-raising efforts on their own club development.
The effects of all these recent transformations are still being felt and rather than trying to make any changes for change’s sake, I wish to help support the clubs through this transition period and focus instead on the development of York Sport as a whole, in terms of unity, crowd support, participation and success.
Last year York moved 6 places up the BUCS Overall standings to 41st. One way of looking at this is saying that we are the 41st best sporting uni in the UK, which is a great achievement. I would love to see us managing to push into the top 40 this year and believe that this is certainly do-able. But sport at York is about much more than prestige and success in a limited number of sports; we have a huge amount of diversity, catering for almost all sporting whims.
If there is one thing you don’t miss in Freshers’ Week, let it be the YUSU Fair on Saturday. Each of the 59 clubs will be at the Sports Centre to tell you why you should join their club and answer any questions you may have.