The BSMS men's football team have had a successful season with high levels of attendance throughout the year. Year 2 student, Kieran Chumun gives us his account of the 2022/23 season.
"The 2022/2023 football season has been full of highs and lows across the country, no more so than right here in the heart of Sussex, where the BSMS men’s football team battle it out. The Gray Hooper Holt LLP Mid Sussex Football League is notoriously perilous, difficult to navigate and full of potholes (figuratively and literally) but, despite this, a group of medical students don the fabled blue shirt and represented the mighty BSMS every Saturday afternoon. In fact, the BSMS men's team love football so much that we also play in a Wednesday Parklife league which is focused on competition in Brighton. Fighting on two fronts and organising training comes with its logistical conundrums, not only has it been handled with aplomb by the committee members this year but the performances throughout the year have been exemplary. A special comment to the brilliant, positive attitude of everyone who turned up to training or represented the school at football. The attitude and manner that you all conducted yourself with was magnificent – you’ve done yourself proud.
On the right is Owen Haywood, ever present in middle-field, marshalling and protecting the defence with a sliding tackle.
The start of the season is always a nervous time for BSMS football – absences are felt for players who have left through intercalation or graduation while also welcoming new faces to the set-up; with a special mention to the new coach George. Coach George who is also involved in the University of Brighton men’s football team has brought a level of professionalism and organisation to sessions which has helped to ease the burden of creating training sessions.
As ever, football proved to be hugely popular and some training sessions welcomed more than 50 BSMS students. The attendance levels remained high throughout the year and the fresh and energetic talent among the ranks has been impressive. This certainly, at least in part, increased competition for places which helped improve the level of performance and quality that the team displayed on match day. Furthermore, the positive atmosphere created by everyone involved was not only a credit to themselves but to BSMS men’s football and all that it stands for.
A picture of the squad that represented BSMS in Manchester at the Annual National Association of Medical School's Football Tournament.
For the first time, the committee organised live in-game updates on the BSMS men's football Instagram page and WhatsApp. This helped to increase our profile across the school and beyond. The zenith of all this positivity manifested at the turn of the new year when the boys in blue were topping the Mid-Sussex league during and after the Christmas break and the talk of a title chase was on the tip of everyone’s tongues. There was giddiness and excitement in the air – as a team, we’d never been here before. The great Saturday league performances continued, and it all boiled down to the last two games of the season. El Stadio del BSMS, our home ground, also referred to as Brighton side Falmer pitches, increasingly became a feared fortress over the course of the season.
Josh Baker, voted our player of the season, drilling past defenders at will. This picture was taken against Peacehaven FC at the fabled El Stadio Del BSMS.
All three teams at the top of the league were in with a chance of clinching the top spot. BSMS’ penultimate game of the season was an away fixture against Horsted Keynes, with the final game being contested against Wivelsfield Green. The league was so precariously balanced before the penultimate game that the whole squad of the Wivelsfield Green team took the opportunity to cancel their game and come and watch BSMS play it out against Horsted Keynes. It was a cagey affair with emotions running high; there was a raucous partisan crowd present on both sides with our ever-present BSMS barmy army backing the boys and making some noise. A special mention to this crew,turning out to support the team in all manner of weather conditions. Unfortunately, the final two games of the season resulted in two losses, meaning the boys narrowly missed out on promotion. Not even having our beloved Dean, Prof Malcolm Reed, join the barmy army for the last game of the season could help us get over the line. Although this wasn’t the result we had hoped for, we remain optimistic about taking all the positives from this season into the next.
A victorious looking group of freshers winning the first ever inter year , inter gender football competition.
The season finished with the inaugural inter-year, intergender BSMS tournament. All years of the school were represented handsomely, apart from fifth years who had the excuse of being on electives on the other side of the planet. Group stages, knockout stages and penalties decided the tournament, whereby the first-year team were crowned champions, boding very well indeed for the future prospects of BSMS football."
Words by Kieran Chumun.