Engineering Eagles have won the 2017 Intra Mural Sports (IMS) League with style and grace. I think that many will agree that this season has been one of our strongest both on and off the pitch, fighting off the medics whilst having our first ever inter-hockey social with the Psychologists and Geographers.
After a disappointing 2nd place finish to the 15/16 season, the Eagles were set on vengeance. Second was not good enough! Our new Co-Captains, Tom Paish, Ben Dance and myself, met before the start of the season to finalise our plan: to win the competitive league whilst maintaining a friendly, inclusive atmosphere and also putting on some decent socials.
The first few weeks were a bit rocky as none of us had any coaching experience. We also managed to recruit a few new players, some of whom were total beginners, but after a few coaching sessions we were looking like a formidable team. Our first couple of games were pretty easy wins against the Medics 4s and Kinvig (Geography), but then our first loss of the season came as an unlucky 3-1 to the Medic Barbarians. Down heartened, we needed a social to raise team morale so we decided it was the perfect time to make our annual pilgrimage to the Jam House in Birmingham City Centre.
A great night and the funky jazz music brought us together as a team. This showed when we returned to the pitch. We were undefeated in our remaining matches until the final day of the season when we were sadly without a goalkeeper and were vulnerable to the Medics 2nd team. Throughout the season we had the strongest defence in the league, only conceding 10 goals and losing just 2 out of 14 games. At the other end of the pitch, our strike partnership of Rosie “Goalsy” Edney and Dan Mironov struck fear into defenders all over campus.
The goal-scoring duo also made an appearance at Frank Morton (the national Chemical Engineering sports competition) where we were unstoppable. Winning every game in the run up to the final against Bath, we went in with confidence. However, after failing to score in normal time, the match went to golden goal. There were a few scary moments but Alex Rees managed to score in the final moments, securing a second consecutive Frank Morton hockey victory for the University.
On reflection, Tom, Ben and I are immensely proud of achieving our three goals for the season: we won the league, maintained a friendly atmosphere, and put on some very decent socials. I have thoroughly enjoyed playing with the team and seeing us cement our position as the best inter-mural hockey team at Birmingham, and am looking forward to next season already. All that’s left to say is please help us celebrate our league win by nominating us for Sports Team of the Year at the EPS Societies’ Awards!
Jonathan Chowdhury
Co-Captain 2016/17
