At 07:00 on Thursday 23rd of January, the year 2 Sport and Exercise Science students began their 24-hour football in the sports hall at the Bridgwater Campus. Their challenge was to ensure that a 5-a-side football lasted until 07:00 on Friday 24th of January. This event has now become an annual part of the students fundraising for their residential trip to South Africa, where they volunteer with the charity United Through Sport. The Sport and Exercise Science students will be teaching and coaching in the township areas during early March and will finish the trip by running a multisport tournament for over 200 children. The work that the charity does is vital as it looks to educate and develop health awareness through sport.
This year, the FdSc Sports Science with Sports Coaching Education students from the University Centre of Somerset also joined the match. This year they will be volunteering with the same charity, but at one of their satellite centres in St Lucia. This is the first year that our Sport Higher Education students will be volunteering with the charity, so it was great to have them get involved with the 24-hour match.
To help raise money, the students did a “guess the amount of goals” competition, where they sold guesses to family members and friends. Following a gruelling 24-hours an impressive 1683 goals were scored!
Course Leader for Sport and Exercise Science Alex Leach said;
This was a great event where the students were fantastic. They stayed motivated throughout and showed a real determination and a great team spirit. This truly is a challenging event, but the students were excellent throughout and very supportive of each other. It was great to have the Higher Education students join us for the match, their efforts and time contributed to a successful event.
I would like to thank everyone who supported us, whether it was buying guesses, providing cakes, watching or playing – everything was very much appreciated. I would also like to give a special mention to the colleges services team, as without their continued support, this event could not take place.
