(dramatic music)
- I've never really wanted to play
any other sport other than football.
Coming to Uni, I didn't really understand
that there would be separate teams at some universities
for medics and college football teams.
But, in hindsight, I think it's actually a really good idea.
It allows us to be with more like-minded individuals.
I met the football club at the Freshers' Fair,
they were the first football club that I met,
obviously the other football club is IC,
and I had no reason to go anywhere else,
they were great guys.
(upbeat electronic music)
- So at Imperial we have two football clubs,
the medical school football club,
and the Imperial College football club.
And ever since the medical school joined
Imperial about 20 years ago,
all the sports clubs have been kept separate,
and that's partly because
medical students have a different timetable
that might not be easy to work around
the other Imperial students,
and also because the med school
is formed of various smaller med schools
that came together under the umbrella of Imperial,
and they brought with them their own sports teams.
I think if you're interested in playing sport,
in particular football, whilst at medical school,
you should really consider doing it in London,
because you get to play with other medical students,
against the other universities in London,
as well as the other medical schools.
And there's such a high density of teams to play
that we get regular football twice a week.
I was interested in being club captain
because I felt like I could make a difference.
I had some ideas that I thought would improve the club,
and also I wanted to kinda give back.
- So at the start of the year we hold trials,
to trial our fresher students
or any other students from any other years
that wanna come play for the club.
This year, I played for the first team,
but there is a lot of fluidity between the four teams,
and so people can move up and down
based on their development
or just whether or not they wanna play as frequently.
- So I joined the football club
right from the start of my first year,
and was basically there just to have fun.
My responsibilities increased throughout that time.
In third year I captained first team
which was quite a lot of work on a weekly basis.
This year I sort of oversee the club on the whole,
particularly regarding kind of off the field matters.
In the medical school football club,
we have four teams of varying
abilities and competitiveness,
and each one is run by their own respective captain.
We have about 85 paying members,
all of those play sport at some point
throughout the year, to varying degrees,
and most of them are active socially to some extent.
- Because you train twice a week,
and you play twice a week, it is difficult to find time
because you are tired after,
but it's worth it because it's so much fun,
and you can make the time to catch up in work.
- As medical students, we get use of the Reynold's Bar,
which is on the ground floor at Charing Cross Hospital,
and it's the place we go after our football matches,
usually for socials every Wednesday,
and yeah, it can get pretty rowdy, pretty messy night.
Socially, every week we also go out on a Wednesday,
so every Wednesday is sports night,
which some weeks might be special,
so this week we have club bowling club,
we either go bowling and then out to a club.
Some weeks it's just casual at Reynold's.
Personally, my favorite bit of the week
is the Wednesday and the Saturday,
because we get to play matches,
and I just love football.
The social highlight for me this year, so far,
has probably been UH Sports Night,
where all the medical schools come together, from London.
Finding the right balance between football and work
can be quite hard sometimes,
especially within our first years.
The main factor that kind of helps us out
is really the older years,
and they kind of just guide you
and will tell you what you should be doing and when.
With their help it becomes quite easy
to find out the right balance.
- [Michael] So, it's great to be in the football team
because there's high morale, the socials are amazing,
and all the lads are brothers.
(calm electronic music)
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