The upcoming BUCS season is going to be an extraordinary year. One of the biggest and most exciting changes is the addition of three new sports to the competitions programme.

These three sports are  Baseball, Softball and Wheelchair Basketball. 

The inclusion of these sports brings British Universities & Colleges Sport’s (BUCS) offering to over 50, with Wheelchair Basketball being the first fully inclusive team sport.

Driven to help students have the best sport experience at university, Director of Delivery, Jenny Morris is excited by the new sports. 

“At this time, it is important for us to continue to support students with staying active with a view to getting back to playing sport. These new sports are valuable in creating more opportunities for students to get involved, moving and engaged with university sport when we return to play” Said Morris.

Wheelchair Basketball 

The Participation Director at British Wheelchair Basketball, Jo Richards, is very proud to be announcing the formal inclusion into the programme.

"This is a huge step not only for wheelchair basketball, but also underpins some of the great work the sector is doing to widen access to Higher Education. As a truly inclusive team sport, we feel we can really bring something different to the BUCS portfolio with our ‘Reverse Inclusion’ approach, which allows all ages, genders, abilities and disabilities to compete on a level playing field.” Said Richards.

 “Our partner institutions and student athletes have worked extremely hard to raise awareness and embed wheelchair basketball into their sport programmes and it’s great to see their efforts rewarded with formal inclusion into the programme. It’s an exciting time for Wheelchair Basketball and we have some great opportunities on the horizon for Universities and community clubs to build their relationships and we can’t wait to see how the programme develops.”

Softball and Baseball

Many institutions have Softball and Baseball societies and teams already playing Softball and Baseball, and with the inclusion,in the 2020 Olympics, the popularity is expected to grow especially in Higher Education competition.

“I am delighted with the announcement from BUCS confirming the inclusion of baseball and softball into the BUCS competitions programme from Autumn 2020,” said BaseballSoftballUK Head of Development Chris Rawlings.

“It provides us with a great opportunity to further strengthen the presence and profile of baseball and softball in the university sports sector in the coming years.

The successful outcome comes after a yearlong process of Sport Review Stage Two. This stage saw extensive consultation between BUCS, Member Institutions, National Governing Bodies and the Sport Review Implementation Group.

Sport Review Stage Two is now complete while Stage Three has been postponed due to the challenges of Covid-19.

Entries for these teams open Friday 24 July. 

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