2009 News
- News Archive
Women's Basketball Team Wins Award
The St Mary’s Sports Awards dinner on Friday night proved an exceptionally lucrative event for the talented and successful women’s basketball team. After two years coming runner-up in the biggest award of the night, St Mary’s ‘Club of the Year’, the team finally received the recognition and distinction that they have so heartily deserved, by scooping the gong this year.
Moreover, head coach of the team and also lecturer in Sport Science at St Mary’s University College, Dr Rob Lake, also received special recognition, receiving the St Mary’s ‘Coach of the Year’ award for his efforts and successes with the team this year.
The Sports Awards ceremony, held at Twickenham Stadium, was attended by over 250 St Mary’s students and staff, and was supported by the guest appearance of Olympic gold medallist Darren Campbell.
Regarding the achievements of the women’s basketball team this season, Rob Lake said: “Having Darren Campbell present the award to us was just the icing on the cake, a wonderful end to a fantastic season. The women deserve all the plaudits this year. They have worked so incredibly hard, and it is great that their efforts and achievements have been recognised.”
The St Mary’s women’s basketball team competed in Division 1A of the BUCS Championships, and finished with a record of 8 wins and 2 losses. Despite finishing in second place, the final match of the regular season saw them up against a rampant Portsmouth side that were on a 20-match unbeaten run.
Playing away from home with a depleted team, St Mary’s nevertheless displayed their mettle gloriously upsetting the home side 62-56. This victory, over the eventual league winners, gave them home-court advantage in the opening rounds of the BUCS Trophy competition.
Victories over arch-rivals Brunel University, followed by successes against Nottingham Trent and Cardiff Universities, found them up against Wolverhampton in the final, played at the BUCS Championships in Sheffield.
Clear underdogs, the team fought gallantly but lost a very tight match 67-72. “The team were gutted”, said Dr Lake. “They had worked so hard to reach the final, but were outdone by a supremely talented Wolves side. Regardless, I’m incredibly proud of them”.
Coach Rob Lake had been putting them through their paces all season, and he believed their dedication and work ethic were the keys to overall success. “The team began training in September, and since then I have been very pleased to see noticeable improvements both on and off the court. These have been not only in relation to their physical conditioning and basketball skills, but also with their general attitudes to working hard, reaching targets and making personal sacrifices for the benefit of the team”.
He was particularly vocal about the benefits of early morning sessions. Rob said, “The sessions I run at the crack of dawn on Friday mornings are particularly important for the girls in this regard. The players have come to the realisation that genuine improvements are made only through willpower, perseverance and supreme dedication to the cause. Moreover, sacrificing a warm bed for sprints up and down a basketball court says a lot about who you are as a person and what your team and university means to you”.
It is clear that regular training sessions and games each week have helped to develop team cohesion, discipline, and a strong sense of community / university spirit. It is this spirit that over the years has helped St Mary’s develop its special reputation as a leading sporting institution, with a record to match.
What makes Rob’s achievements as coach so extraordinary is that he is a sufferer of the deadly disease Cystic Fibrosis, an inherited condition that clogs up vital organs with sticky mucus, making it at times difficult to breathe and digest food. Cystic Fibrosis is the UK’s most common life-threatening inherited disease, carrying a life-expectancy of just 31 years.
Rob says, “I’m 28 now, and nearing the time when people start counting the years, but I’m one of the really lucky ones. I’ve played sports regularly since I was a kid and managed to stay relatively healthy, living mostly a normal life”. While he plays down the effects of the condition on his life, the list of medications he takes each day suggests the considerable effort required just to stay healthy.
“I take a whole bunch of vitamins and antibiotics each morning, plus sachets of Movicol to help prevent constipation, and enzymes to help digest food before every meal. I also use inhalers, nasal sprays and a nebuliser for Pulmozyme, a drug use to thin mucus in the lungs, every day”.
Aside from playing and coaching basketball, Rob’s achievements in sport would compare well with a seasoned athlete. A few years ago he began running and raising money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, the UK’s main CF charity. He says: “In 2004 I began chatting with other CF patients online and it suddenly dawned on me just how lucky I was. Most people with CF would struggle to run 1 mile, so I decided to run 26.2 and entered the 2005 London Marathon!
And I managed to raise over £5000 in the process”. Since then Rob has run two more marathons, with his personal best time of 3 hours 57 minutes, and raised nearly £10000 for the CF Trust.
Keen not to give up raising money, he has big plans for the next 12 months: “My best friend Ash and I have decided to do a whole host of races to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis. We’ve entered the Great North Run, Chicago Marathon, Great South Run, Brighton Half Marathon, Bournemouth Half Marathon and the 2010 London Marathon. We’ve called it the ‘Super Six’.”
