Varsity is one of the biggest events over the calendar year and is what a season of hard work leads up to.
It’s a time when everyone joins together to support their university in a bid to come out top of some fierce rivalries.
Speaking to a variety of societies across DMU everyone is ready to meet these ‘huge expectations’ and give what it takes to be victorious.
Grace Morgan, 23, Women’s Football first team captain, said: “Varsity is hugely important to women’s football as we won last year and would love to retain the title this year too.
“We also have the pressure of football as a whole winning everything last year so there are huge expectations on us.
Owen Roberts, 20, Men’s Rugby first team captain, said: “To win varsity means everything and I know it consumes a lot of the squad and drives them to train.
“For me varsity is make or break, we could have gone unbeaten all year, but if we perform poorly on that day I’ll reflect on the year as a disappointment.
Smaller societies are preparing just as hard as clubs with more members such as the men’s Futsal society.
Tony Thiedeman, 21, second team captain and founding member of the society, said: “We are extremely positive for this upcoming varsity and want to build on the momentum that we as a Futsal society have made over the last year.
The Futsal society have recently hired new coach, Martyn Ware, who has led them through strength and conditioning classes leading the second team to a non-varsity win over the University of Leicester.
Tony continued with: “That win is just a stepping stone on the path to what looks like a very positive future for the society as a whole.”
Investment has also been put into the Women’s football society with additional trainers and sessions that the university have provided.
Grace followed this with: “This year is such a huge year with all the money that’s been invested in sport, we know it is our chance to have the best varsity we have ever had, as a university and as a club.”
Returning from Christmas all societies place a huge focus on the big day upping training sessions, putting on more team meetings and with some teams going on a drinking ban allowing the best results to follow their efforts.
Owen highlighted this point with: “We train four times a week, with two strength and conditioning sessions and two field sessions.
“Being up at 6am twice a week is a key part of the prep that we all know is a small sacrifice for potentially winning that game.”
For more information on the wide range of varsity events and dates in which you can go and show your support please visit – https://twitter.com/dmuleicester.