Interview: Striking the balance

Warwick’s Director of Physical Education and its newly elected Sports Officer may differ in the amount of experience they possess but both seem to share the necessary enthusiasm and hunger ahead of what is expected to be a successful year.

**Terry Monnington**, Director of PE at Warwick for the past 15 years and on the team of staff since 1971, is very assured and soothing in his speech, his vision crystal clear. Welcoming me into his office, it was obvious that he has not just seen it all, but has probably heard all the same questions several times over. **Chris Sury**, on the other hand, is measured and succinct in his responses, scrutinizing every facet of the question.

Talking to them both, though, there is definitely a mutual excitement at the potential for sport at Warwick. One of the first things I asked them was whether they were happy with the image portrayed to prospective students and the wider public of Warwick Sport. “We have 70-plus sports clubs,” Monnington retorted. “No other university has that number.” He continued, “At Warwick around 10,000 students are involved in sport out of 17,500. We satisfy the demand and give the opportunities… It’s a different philosophy; horses for courses, as they say.”

It was a very resounding response to those critics who said that Warwick should be competing and channeling funds into the production of more ‘elite’ sportsmen and women. Sury wasn’t so vociferous but echoed the same points. “Warwick has 73 sports clubs, more than any other university,” he said, “and the investment in all student clubs [from the university] is huge.”

I was therefore interested to hear about the extent of the investment and if this was sufficient. Prior to the interviews, KPMG, the global accountancy firm and ubiquitous sponsor of university sports teams, had decided to pull out due to efficiency savings.

Sury was glad to announce that Ernst & Young have replaced them (hence inter-university competition will now be the E & Y leagues) but he was also relatively non-committal with the end to the ban on association with companies the Students’ Union saw as ‘unethical’. “Some clubs were struggling for funds,” he said, “and although I don’t have a big opinion on ethical sponsorship, my priority is with the sports clubs.”

Sury also added that he felt it was highly appropriate that sports clubs seek sponsorship as a source of funding to supplement anything provided by the university’s Physical Education Department.

This was just as well, because Terry Monnington had been quoting some impressive figures in his summary of sports funding. “Sports clubs alone have a budget of £148,000,” he said, “and that’s just for coaching, travel and other expenses.

“Warwick Sport also has an equipment budget, and in addition to the financial support we give to BUCS (British Universities & Colleges Sport) teams, the figure is around half a million pounds.”

Away from the financial side, the quizzing moved on to the sports teams themselves and what Warwick’s top sports made of current performance. And despite last year’s league table only placing Warwick at 21st out of UK universities, both men managed to find many positives.

“The men’s first XI cricket team got promoted to the premier division,” mentioned Chris Sury, “the judo team brought in medals, while the polo side have fielded 12 national champion teams and 9 runners-ups in the past nine national championships across a range of divisions.”

Discussing the close nature of the Varsity series with Coventry University last year, Monnington was very dismissive. “I wouldn’t read too much into that,” he said. “The very nature of the competition is that we play Coventry at sports they actually compete in. We have international lacrosse players; they don’t even have a lacrosse team.”

Moving swiftly on from this united front I wanted to see real differentiation, enquiring about the initiatives these men were looking to implement to continue Warwick’s sporting progress. Of course, Monnington, being in a directorial position mired with bureaucracy and large strategic planning, was vaguer than his colleague in the Students’ Union who had manifesto commitments to be nailed to.

Monnington did have some interesting information to release though. “We now have a select group of ‘focus teams’,” he said, “ones that through personal commitment and success have moved into the elite level and we must keep them there.” What he was referring to was a new scheme, designed to provide extra coaching, nutritional advice and required funding, for teams playing in the top tier of university competition – the ‘focus teams’.

These at the moment are the Men’s and Women’s Football, Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse, Men’s Rugby Union, Swimming, Judo and now Men’s Cricket squads. “We want to increase this number,” he said, “and teams making the progress to the elite can apply to be a focus club in March/April time.”

And the news got better. “We have just undertaken the ASDAR (Administrative and Service Departments Annual Review) of operations and we will get back the results in three weeks. There are serious discussions ongoing about significant sports facility development in the future.” The glint in the eye suggested sooner rather than later, but no firm plans can be announced till after Christmas.

Chris Sury couldn’t be so vague, not with manifesto pledges to execute. He talked me through some of his principal plans, which are ambitious but definitely have the potential to infinitely improve the culture of Warwick Sport.

His first initiative, integration of international students, had apparently already borne fruit.

He informed me that he and the Warwick Sport team had worked ‘Orientation’ (the settling-in period for overseas students) extensively to ensure no-one slipped through the net and the results are already being seen in women’s football, as an example. “The captain sent me a message today saying that a few [foreign] girls came along to training and intend to stay for the rest of pre-season.” The smile said it all. He did acknowledge, though, that getting foreign students to try new sports was “something I’m working on.”

Progress also seems to have been made with regards to sponsorship, with energy drinks giant Lucozade, a subsidiary of Glaxosmithkline Pharmaceuticals, becoming a major coup and potentially offering their own free nutritional advice to sports teams at the university. Though it may be early days, the Sports Committee has already secured multiple sponsors, including Barclay’s Capital and Teach First.

One of Sury’s initiatives is the sports club collaboration. Originally he discussed the logical ideas of shared socials, but things developed quickly from there. “I was thinking of getting sports that use similar muscle groups to collaborate, for instance rugby and judo. I’m not saying that we’re going to see judo fighters play rugby, but things like mixed sessions will enable them to appreciate one another.” The idea, to create a greater social atmosphere amongst Warwick Sport’s many clubs, is a good one but the uptake of the mixed sessions is something to monitor.

Overall, it was abundantly clear where the priorities lie. An increase in participation is celebrated as much as, if not more than, a glut of international athletes. The focus is on “the social and psychological benefits of sport” and the utility that it has in enhancing life on campus. This is no bad thing, though, and Warwick is not ignoring outstanding sportsmen either, as the Boar will follow this year with the likes of Carmel Smith and Sarah White in rowing or Sophie Cox in judo.

There was definitely a concurrent air of enthusiasm and ingenuity in both interviews. “I’ve stuck at Warwick because it’s an entrepreneurial environment,” said Monnington in his analysis. “We can’t compete with the Baths and Loughboroughs because we’re a research institution… but I don’t envy any institution.”

Certainly Warwick can improve on its 21st place in the university rankings, however deceptive they may be. But with the men at the top of Warwick Sport on the same wavelength, investment looking strong in teams and clubs, the outlook seems bright for the year to come.