Jo Carter - Week 9

A.U President, Jo Carter

The main celebration for the university's sports clubs is the annual AU dinner which takes place this coming Friday. The best sportsmen and women are lauded for their success while the best clubs are given credit for their achievements.

There are 10 nominees for team of the year and six for club of the year, but Carter gave little away when asked about who she thought would win awards. “There have been a lot of strong performances this year and colours committee really took a while to make decisions.”

One thing that is certain is that it has been a very positive year for York sport with numerous promotions, strong BUSA knockout displays and a Roses victory away from home. The winner of any reward will be “very deserving and will have beaten very strong competition”, but Carter stopped short of revealing any potential winners saying she was “not prepared to say any more than that!”

With the university season now over, there are still titles up for grabs in the college arena, none seemingly bigger than the football college cup. Goodricke and Alcuin have fought through tough group stages and each won a penalty shoot-out en route to the final that many predicted before the tournament began.

Asked about the final, Carter said: “Alcuin seem to be favourites but Goodricke have a lot of strong players so it will be hard to call.” Carter added that she thinks that "Goodricke may edge it 2-1."

“Goodricke may edge it 2-1.”
Jo Carter

Players from that game who don’t already represent the university may well go onto play a higher standard next year, but with the budget cuts for many sports teams, will university sport be able to continue to flourish?

Carter explains that “Rich (Croker) and I have spent ages on the club budgets this year, and although we have got a cut (this is due to extra staffing costs within the Union) I think that the budgets this year are very fair.”

What Carter sees as fair and what many clubs see as fair seems to differ as many feel unhappy with the cuts. Clubs need funds for travel, potentially hiring a qualified coach as well as miscellaneous expenses.

Carter said that “in previous years, some clubs have got more money than they needed” and stressed “we have tried to make it fair across the board". The cuts could well make clubs more efficient with their money and lead to clubs in the future having better knowledge of how to spend their allocation.

Some of the cuts may not be as bad as first though as “some clubs may see their grant allocation plummet, but may actually be getting a better deal - especially with the sports centre costs coming directly from the Athletic Union, rather than through the individual clubs.”

Carter admitted that the AU have had a “squeeze from the top” but she was “confident that no clubs will suffer next year". Something which many people need to accept is that some unpopular decisions in the short term often lead to massive improvements in the long run. This budget cut will safeguard the financial future of the AU without discarding the current clubs. Money has been given to the clubs to develop with extra money being given out for coaches, something which many York clubs have been crying out for. The budget cut is not all bad news.

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