Home Page  http://www.ucc.ie/en

International  http://www.ucc.ie/en/study/international/noneu-ug

Soccer Page http://www.ucc.ie/students/socs/soccer/main.html

Quick Facts:

• Founded in 1845, University College Cork (UCC) is situated in south-west Ireland

• Home to 18,500 students - 13,500 are undergraduates

• Ranks in top 3% of universities worldwide (Times Education Supplement University Rankings 2009)

• One of Ireland’s leading research universities and consistently ranked in the Top 3 Irish Universities

• Offers wide range of degree and graduate programs in Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, Business, Law, Engineering, Architecture, Science, Food Science, Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing and the Clinical Therapies.

• Save money and get ahead with a Law or Arts degree in just three years, straight from high school. UCC’s Law degree is the equivalent of a graduate degree from an American law school!

• Diverse campus life with 2,500 international students from almost 100 countries around the world

• Largest group of international students are from the US; 750 American students study at UCC annually

• According to the International Student Barometer 2008*, UCC ranked 1st for international student support, 2nd for graduate employability, in top 3 for sports and social facilities and 98% surveyed said they have expert lecturers

• In 2010, UCC became 1st university in the world awarded Green Flag for environmental friendliness by the Federation for Environmental Education

• Live, work and play in the 2005 European Capital of Culture and one of the World’s Top 10 Cities to Visit in 2010 (from the Lonely Planet Guide).

• The guide states: “award-winning UCC...each year pumps out new life, enthusiasm and ideas into the city” and students study in a “sophisticated, vibrant and diverse” city that retains “its friendliness, relaxed charm and quick-fire wit”

Explore Europe from Cork International Airport with flights to over 40 destinations

*Survey of 67,000 international students at 84 institutions, including Ivy League schools

Soccer at UCC:

• Soccer at UCC is a two-term sport

• UCC has one of the largest University soccer programs in Ireland with over 100 players and five men’s teams with a place to suit every skill level

• Founded by students in 1952, the Association Football Club (AFC) is one of the most successful clubs in UCC history

• Students play in weekly leagues (Munster Senior League and Cork Athletic Union Football League) and the club competes in three annual intervarsity competitions

• The club’s main focus is the Collingwood Cup, Ireland’s premier intervarsity competition, which it recently won three years in a row

• The club also dominates the Crowley Cup, open to any player that does not play match time in the Collingwood

• The Harding Cup is the fresher intervarsity competition only open to first-time freshman undergraduates and currently eludes the club, since last winning it in 1996

• The senior team has a Player Development Program with a full-time Strength and Conditioning Coach

• The local professional men’s soccer club, Cork City Foras Co-Op, competes in the Airtricity First Division League

• UCC has two women’s soccer teams that compete in the Women’s Soccer Colleges Association of Ireland (WSCAI) Premier and Regional South Leagues

• The Women’s Soccer Club also competes in the WSCAI intervarsity competition

• UCC has many links with local women’s soccer teams and all university players play with an off-campus club out of season

• It’s all to play for; game on!

Football Association of Ireland and UCC

Greg Yelverton, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) facilitator at UCC, promotes participation in soccer. Greg is no stranger to American soccer having spent seven years studying, playing soccer and coaching in the US. Through his Sports Scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Asheville (UNCA), he played Division 1 soccer and was honored by making First Team All-Conference for three years. Later, he became Assistant Coach of UNCA and then Director of Coaching at FC Carolina Alliance before returning to work at UCC.

US Soccer Tour and Alumni

UCC Soccer enjoys wonderful support from its alumni. Every three years, the alumni back a US tour by the UCC Soccer Club to the East Coast who take on soccer teams at Colby University, Harvard, MIT, Princeton and UMass Boston, to name but a few. Come to UCC and you could end up playing against your old classmates from high school! The alumni have a strong bond with the club and every year they sponsor a color’s match and a luncheon with over 300 past and present players in attendance.

Sports Facilities at UCC

The Mardyke Indoor Sports Arena includes a swimming pool, aerobics and dance studio, weight-training gyms, sports halls, and an elite gym for team members. UCC’s Sport Physiologist, Trevor Woods, is based in the arena and happens to be Ireland’s foremost Triathlete.

The Mardyke Sports Grounds plays host to the soccer club’s important team matches in addition to rugby, hockey and Gaelic games. There is also an 8-lane synthetic athletics track for individual and team training.

The UCC Sports Grounds on Curraheen Road, affectionately known as ‘The Farm’, encompasses 55 acres of playing fields just ten minutes from campus. This is where soccer training and competitive matches take place.

To learn about Academic Programs, Campus Visits and How to Apply, contact:
Caroline Crowley, PhD, Coordinator for International Student Recruitment, International Education Office, tel. 00 353 21 490 4730 / email [email protected]  

UCC International Education Office

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Student Life at UCC

To learn about Soccer at UCC, contact:
Greg Yelverton, FAI Facilitator, UCC Sports and Recreation Office, tel. 00 353 86 7954506 / email [email protected]