Snowboarding student Sophie’s a success on the slopes with scholarship support

A student’s recent sporting prowess is partly down to the expert support offered through a University of Northampton (UON) scholarship.

Sophie Smith, from Hemel Hempstead, is in the first year of her degree in Multimedia Sports Journalism. She is also passionate about snowboarding, something the University has been busy helping her with.

Sophie picks up her story: “My brother Stephen started skiing with his primary school, but he switched to snowboarding. He spent hours at The Snow Centre in Hemel, and my Mum and I went with him. I’m not the sort of person who sits on the side-lines and watches, so one day I grabbed a board and joined in. I loved it from the start.

“I spent my first six months boarding freestyle – practising jumps and tricks to gain more confidence – and picked up my first sponsorship around then. That meant I could train much more and gave me ‘snow passes’ to practice on real slopes. But the better I got, the more professional support I wanted.”

Bringing her story up to the present day, she is now studying to be a sports reporter at University of Northampton and one of 15 lucky students who are also members of the University’s Northampton Energy Elite Athlete Scholarship programme.

The Scholarship provides a raft of dedicated support and training for students from any subject area who are already playing at county standard or above and want to enhance their sport. The bespoke support includes access the University’s Sports Rehabilitation and Injury Clinic, nutrition advice and media training.

And the Scholarship is paying off as this year Sophie won a BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sports) Women’s Snowboard Freestyle championship, making her the first UON student to hit a BUCS top spot in half a decade.

Sophie explains how the Scholarship has helped: “It is absolutely helping me. I can spend up to a month practicing on a slope, high intensity work – perhaps jumping up to 14 metres – so the gym work improves my strength and power. My training programme covers what I need as an individual sportsperson, so it is mainly focused on leg power, so I can jump bigger and better, and improve my endurance for being on a mountain.

“It feels cool to get the placement. I wanted to put a good run down, but I’m so happy all the work got me near the top. My brother won the men’s snowboarding too, so my mum had double the reason to celebrate. My tip for making a success with snowboarding – or anything, really – is simple. Give everything a go and take every opportunity as it comes. Snowboarding can be scary if you want to do something new, but if you don’t at least try a new trick or a new way of doing one, you’ll never move forward. It’s all about mind over matter.”