Team UWS is the sports union of the

University of the West of Scotland The University of the West of Scotland ( gd, Oilthigh na h-Alba an Iar), formerly the University of Paisley, is a public university with four campuses in south-western Scotland, in the towns of Paisley, Renfrewshire, Paisley, Blantyre, South Lanar ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, UK, and competes in

Scottish Student Sport Scottish Student Sport (SSS) formed in June 2005 as Scottish Universities Sport is the professional body for delivery and furthering of sports at university and college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institutio ...

and the Scottish Conference of

BUCS British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) is the governing body for higher education sport in the United Kingdom. BUCS was formed in June 2008 following a merger of British Universities Sports Association (BUSA) and University College Sport ...

. The

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team plays in the Scottish/Northern 2A league.

History

Originally formed as SAUWS Sports and Societies in 2008, the sports union was rebranded as Team UWS during 2013. Its vision is "to enhance the student experience by encouraging all students to take part in sport and activities and to promote the benefits of physical and mental health through physical activity." Previous to the formation of SAUWS, the students associations of the former University of Paisley and Bell College were responsible for sports provision. The larger of the two, the University of Paisley Students Association, was formed from those of Craigie College of Education in Ayr and Paisley College of Technology and had a considerable number of clubs including Ice Hockey, Shinty, Gaelic Football and Curling. During the 2008/09 academic session attempts were made by Scandinavian and German students to resurrect the Ice Hockey team but failed due to lack of interest the club. Other attempts to recreate former sports clubs included American Football during the

2004–05 British Collegiate American Football League The 2004–05 BCAFL was the 20th full season of the British Collegiate American Football League, organised by the British Students American Football Association. Changes from last season Divisional Changes *The Northern Conference expanded from ...

season as the Pyros. The team originally competed as the Paisley College of Technology/University of Paisley Panthers American Football between the

1989–90 British Collegiate American Football League The 1989–90 BCAFL was the fifth full season of the British Collegiate American Football League, organised by the British Students American Football Association. Changes from Last season Division Changes *The Southern Conference was split into ...

and the

1996–97 British Collegiate American Football League The 1996–97 BCAFL was the 12th full season of the British Collegiate American Football League, organised by the British Students American Football Association. Changes from last season Division Changes There were no changes to the Divisional ...

seasons.

Sports sponsored

BUCS *

Archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...

* UWS Pyros

American Football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

Team *

Badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

UWS Hockey Club UWS may refer to: Education * Swansea University, a university in Wales formerly known as the University of Wales, Swansea * University of the West of Scotland, a university operating across four campuses in Scotland * University of Western States, ...

Netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

* UWS RFC *

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

Track & Field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

(

Indoor Indoor(s) may refer to: *the interior of a building *Indoor environment, in building science, traditionally includes the study of indoor thermal environment, indoor acoustic environment, indoor light environment, and indoor air quality *Built envi ...

& Outdoor) Scottish Student Sport * Badminton * Basketball *

Boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

Curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding ...

* Football * Hockey *

Judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...

* Netball * Rugby Union * Volleyball

UWS Sports Scholarship Programme

Run by the University, the sport scholarships programme aims to support those with the potential to be at the top of their sport internationally and nationally combining it with academic achievement to help student-athletes achieve their full potential whilst raising the profile and reputation of the University in the sporting and academic arenas. Those who are on the programme are encouraged to attend UWS sports events and support Team UWS participation; to compete for Scottish Universities when selected and available.

Traditions and rivalries

Team UWS's most notable rivalry is with

Edinburgh Napier University , mottoeng = Without knowledge, everything is in vain , established = 1992 – granted University status 1964 – Napier Technical College , type = Public , academic_staff = 802 , administrative_staff = 562 , chancellor = Will Whitehorn , ...

which compete’s against in the East vs West Varsity. Other rivalries include

Glasgow University , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

in Rugby and American Football competitions.

Notable alumni

* Kirsty Gilmour, Badminton Player for Scotland and Great Britain *

Vicki Adams Victoria Elizabeth "Vicki" Chalmers (née Adams) (born 16 November 1989) is a Scottish curler who was the long time second for Eve Muirhead. Representing Scotland, they won the 2013 World Championships and the European Championships in 2011 ...

, Team GB Curler * Aileen Neilson, Paralympian * Fraser Hirst, Scottish National Hockey Team * Tom Hiddleston, Scottish Universities Rugby player 2008 and 2010

Hall of Fame

* Struan Tonnar, Ice Hockey (2014) * Rachel Hunter, Athletics (2015)

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.sauws.org.uk/getinvolved/teamuws/ University of the West of Scotland University and college sports clubs in Scotland