Sussex had a tremendous year in sport last year with achievements across the board. Our American Football team the Sussex Saxons, had their best season yet winning 6 of their 8 regular season games and reaching the play offs for the first time. An even greater accomplishment when you consider the fact it is only their third season.
Unfortunately, they lost their first playoff game to Cardiff. Thankfully that blow was softened by fantastic win over huge rivals Brighton at varsity. Varsity in itself was a huge success as Sussex managed to dominate across several sports and win the tournament comfortably. Bragging rights remained on the Sussex campus until the next varsity at least.
Alongside our achievements, sport has been used for a greater agenda at Sussex. In March 2016 two hundred people gathered to play in a mixed gender football tournament fighting against homophobia in sport. Football Vs Homophobia 2016 raised over £560 for the charity Stonewall, who campaign for the equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people across Britain.
The tournament saw teams go head to head in outfits full of colour and glitter in order to try and claim the FvH 2016 trophy. The University of Sussex Women’s Football Club spent many months preparing for their fundraiser and their hard work should not go unnoticed. The event was a great success and this year’s tournament should be bigger and better.
If you’re inspired and want to get involved with sport at Sussex, there has never been a better time.
The university has invested an additional £20,000 this year for sports coaching to meet the demand of student participation in sport.
This additional investment provided by the university will also allow for the coaching of several new sports teams including: Rugby men’s 3rd Team, Football women’s 2nd team, Rugby women’s 2nd team, Lacrosse men’s/women’s 1st team and Squash men’s 3rd team.
Additional funds allocated from the university’s health and safety budget have also resulted in the addition of medical support. Evidently, this represents a fantastic opportunity for Sussex Sport and the Students’ Union to make sport on campus more inclusive and accessible to all those want to get involved with sport in a safe and welcoming environment. With all of these sporting accolades, Sussex managed to climb its way into the top 50 BUCS rankings. Now ranking a fantastic 43rd in the table, let’s hope our success only continues this year.
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