DON’T GET me wrong. University sport is great. If you head down to 22 acres, the Sports Centre or York Sport Village on a Wednesday afternoon, you will be surprised by the standard of some of York’s sports teams.
The likes of men’s rugby 1sts, men’s futsal 1sts and women’s fencing 1sts are amongst the top university sports teams in the North of England, and possibly even the UK as a whole.
But one of the things which makes York special is its collegiate system. York isn’t Oxbridge – your college doesn’t affect your teaching. In reality, you only picked your college for the accomodation it offered. Or, if you’re in Halifax, it was probably thrust upon you.
On the face of it, then, the colleges are trumped up halls of residence. Yet somehow, when you are finally here and settled in, you grow an affinity to your college. This sense of belonging is something that people at other universities can only envy.
The greatest manifestation of this is college sport. Bar none. People may wear the college colours on a night out, chant the usual chants about Derwent having asbestos and attend the regurgitated college events like Club D. These are little more than obligation.
Representing your college on the field of play is where that irrational sense of belonging to your college. The great thing about college sport is that everybody wants to win for their college, but it is invariably played in great spirit.
I had the pleasure of being at both the College Cup finals in football and hockey last year. Halifax 1sts defeated Derwent 1sts in the former, in what all agreed was an exhillarating match between two quality teams who wanted to win, but played the game in the right spirit.
Derwent’s disappointment from that match was mitigated by the college’s victory over Alcuin in both hockey and rugby, the latter a 95-0 thumping in the league decider. People will tell you that the University of York is a small and enclosed community. Everybody knows everybody. Just about, anyway. This gives college sport another key benefit.
You can play alongside friends and coursemates, but you can also play against them. You can build up rivalries between teams or you can stoke those which already exist. College sport really is something special, and it is that rare gem of something that the University of York does really well.
I’ve played in it, I’ve watched it, and it is second-to-none in the York sporting universe.
So whether you’re Vanbrugh or James, Halifax or Derwent, Alcuin or Wentworth, Goodricke or Langwith, get involved. You’ll be surprised at how good it is. By playing sport, that manufactured “college spirit” which we’re told we need to have will finally become real.
And if you’re in Constantine, well, you’ve arrived about 12 months too early.