Sports at MCAST - an important aspect of student life

Time and time again we are informed by the media that the Maltese population is a very sedentary and obese one. Most people engage in poor nutritional habits, do not exercise regularly and may also engage in smoking or drinking. This in turn may lead to diabetes, coronary heart disease and other related illnesses that could eventually lead to death.

We need to target children and adolescents from an early age if we want them to become active and healthy individuals later on in life. This is why physical activity and sports need to be made fun, a challenge, something to look forward to and not a chore.

This is the aim of the Sports Department within MCAST, to try and involve as many students as possible in physical activity and sports even though this is an extra-curricular activity at the college.

Over the past four years a lot of refurbishment has taken place in the sports facilities area mainly at the main campus but also on a couple of other campuses. Unfortunately, some institutes lack the adequate sports facilities due to the size of the campus, however plans have been made and it is hoped that in a few years' time all institutes will have their own sports facilities.

Over the past years, students have had the opportunity to participate in the organised leagues/tournaments and competitions in the following disciplines: football, basketball, volleyball, badmington, table-tennis, tennis, darts, chess, billiards/snooker, breakdance and more.

Students have also had the opportunity to try out or practise on a regular basis the following disciplines: abseiling, aerobics, athletics, badmington, baseball, basketball, beach sports, breakdance, canoeing, canoe polo, camping, chess, dance sport, darts, diving, fencing, football, handball, judo, karting, kickboxing, martial arts, rugby, shooting (clay pigeon and air-weapons), snooker, softball, street soccer, table-tennis, tennis, trekking, volleyball, weightlifting, and weight-training.

The most popular sports are football, basketball, table-tennis and weight and fitness training. Clay-pigeon shooting is the most popular outdoor challenge.

We are in an age where more and more young people want to join a gym to achieve as much as possible the stereotypical attractive body. Unfortunately through lack of knowledge and misinformation, some people may go astray and engage in extreme measures to achieve their goal.

The problems of exercise addiction, eating disorders and substance abuse are becoming more common. For these reasons, our aim is to get to know the students better, their needs and their desires. In fact a large number of students just pop over to the gym for a chat about any problem they may have.

At times, advice is also given to students who want to develop the mental skills necessary to become good athletes. Information regarding mental skills, stress management and coping skills, nutrition, weight-training, and also national and international competitions can be sought from the sports co-ordinator. Often students are also taken to watch international competitions held in Malta.

The sports department tries hard to create and organise new challenges. At the end of each term activities are organised in and between various institutes. Students can also compete against other post-secondary schools as well as participate in the University Sports Fest, something they enjoy greatly and which gives a good name to our college.

Also in the summer months, students and staff greatly look forward to beach activities as well as camping, trekking and other outdoor and adventure sports, which are becoming more popular.

For the first time this year, the sports department has co-ordinated an exchange with a German sports organisation and has taken a group of students to Germany to participate in the World Street Soccer Championships with over 72 participating teams.

The students also remained for a few days after to participate in a youth exchange where they took part in more street soccer and beach volley tournaments, beach badmington, swimming, canoeing, dragon boat races, biking, climbing, dancing and aikido.

In the coming years, the Sports Department plans to increase its staff complement to be able to offer and organise more sports activities across the various campuses and therefore attract more young people to sport and healthy living. With the growing number of students at MCAST, we must also work on having additional facilities. With an improvement of facilities, these may also be opened to the public, thus creating more opportunities and helping create a more sporting culture and a healthier way of living.

Adele Muscat is sports co-ordinator at MCAST.