By Adam Mountain, Co-Deputy Sports Editor
Epigram sat down with the Student Union’s (SU) Sport and Student Development Officer, Ella Lovibond, to discuss her sporting experiences in Bristol, how these encouraged her to take up a role as an SU officer and what her plans for developing sports at the University of Bristol entail.
Ella’s sporting journey at the university has been an unusual one. Accepted into the University of Bristol on a Vice-Chancellor’s sports scholarship for her rugby, Ella found her opportunities to represent the university at BUCS level limited by Covid-19. This paved the way for her Bristol Bears career to begin, which was not always easy for Ella to coincide with her university studies:
“Balancing rugby with university was hard, but having the support of Sports, Education and Health (SEH), the Scholarship Performance Team, and my tutors as well has been so useful.”
Playing for Bristol Bears ultimately capped Ella at only a few appearances for University of Bristol Women’s Rugby Football Club (UBWRFC). Not wanting her talent to go to waste, however, Ella was encouraged to ply her trade for UBWRFC by coaching, an experience which certainly prepared her for the position of sports officer:
“Even though I wasn’t allowed to play for university, I loved being involved in the university set-up and I really wanted to help make a difference. There is a lot I can bring from England camps, or Bears set-ups. I know a lot of the previous sports officers have been club captains or committee members, so I think it’s nice to have someone come in with a different perspective.”
These experiences of both elite-performance and BUCS sports are evident through Ella’s aims of improving university sport this upcoming year, as she reiterated that “our [SU team] priority is collective wellbeing, that being mental and physical health, while equally we will continue to work alongside SEH to support those elite-level athletes at the university.”
In this vein, one of the SU officer's top prorities is to introduce a university-wide sporting injuries group:
“Unfortunately, I know how frustrating and lonely being injured can be, and how much it can mess up you’re university studies. So I think it is really important to bring in a support group for everyone who is injured and for these players to feel a new sense of community after your sport has been taken away from you.”
A clear example of Ella implementing something from her experiences with the Bears, she is committed to...
“creating specific rehabilitation spaces and sessions, as well as doing injury-friendly events, which would be accessible to all sports, at all levels.”
“From a mental health perspective, it becomes so challenging with injuries, so we need to support that with the right wellbeing.”
Ella was also complimentary of her sports officer predecessor, Pat Gibbs, stating that she is keen to develop “some of the projects that he couldn’t quite finish. One of these would be making a mandatory wellbeing role within all sports committees. We know that many clubs do already have a welfare secretary, but because it is not mandatory we do not know who these individuals are and can’t support them well enough.”
Last year Pat also went to great lengths to improve the Activity Hardship Fund, a grant offered by the SU to support students who would otherwise be unable to afford the costs associated with university sport, such as membership fees and trips. Ella remains keen to continue this initiative too, saying “Pat did a lot of work on the activity hardship fund and effectively tripled the pot. So we want to continue with that to increase the maximum amount a person can apply for to £200.”
Yet despite her action-packed schedule for the upcoming year, Ella understands the importance of setting time aside to interact with and learn from the students who her policies will be impacting:
“I want to be very visible, by having a good presence on campus, as well as being at Coombe [Dingle] on Wednesday afternoons.”
“I just want to be available for anyone that wants to talk to me! I’ll be taking part in some of the give-it-a-go sessions in freshers week as a chance to get to talk to some of our new freshers. I know I’ll be doing a lot of yoga!”
So with Ella at the helm as our 2024/25 Sport and Student Development Officer, it feels as though the University of Bristol’s sporting world could not be in safer hands. For both our new freshers and returning students, let this be the encouragement you need to get involved in a sport society this year, regardless of your playing level. And when you do, you can be sure that Ella will be there to roar you on.
What sport society will you be joining this year?
Featured image: Ella Lovibond, University of Bristol Student Union
