'I didn’t expect us to win, we were the underdogs, but it made it ten times better'

Nicole Richardson tells Lara Alsaid about having to mask off emotions as a captain to seem confident, although she felt differently ahead of their varsity fixture.

Walking on the pitch as a captain on one of the most important games of the season and leading ten nervous players behind you is a big responsibility. Especially when you aren’t expecting to win. Thinking you know what is coming. A loss in front of 300 people. As a captain, you have to push aside your feelings to set an image in front of the team. That is how it was for 22-year-old DMU women’s football team captain Nicole Richardson. She played her first varsity game ever and had to mask her nervousness up and stay positive while being doubtful. To her surprise, that evening surprised her.

Nicole has played football for 12 years and started off at Kettering Town when she was younger and Corby Town during her placement year, last year. Nicole started playing for DMU women's football team four years ago in 2019, in her first year. When she first started playing for DMU, the team looked slightly different. There were three teams: development, second and first team. In the first team, you would never see a new player, almost only old girls played for that team. Nicole played for the second team in her first year and was quite often asked to fill in on first team games. Which is where she played with Annie Taylor, who she recruited as coach four years later.

Nicole came back after two years out of football because of covid and placement and was thrown deep in it. When Nicole was chosen as captain, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to accept it. With it being her last year at university studying Business Marketing and already being chairman for the team, she was scared to take on more than she could handle. However, she saw it as a challenge and a way to get more involved, so she accepted it. “Given its my last year, I am so grateful that I got the opportunity to be captain and show what I can do.” Nicole says.

On varsity day Nicole had class as any other university student. She had planned a meal at Bowling Green with whole team before the game and had sorted encouraging surprises and awards for the players. Captain Nicole Richardson

However, she was very anxious, she even threw up that morning. It was important for Nicole to ease everyone else in and come across as confident and positive. “Inside I was feeling so nervous, sick and anxious but I had to keep telling everyone that this is going to be the best day of their lives because it was many of the players first varsity, myself included, which added on to all the pressure.” Nicole says and explains that she had to mask up her real emotions.

Realistically, DMU hadn’t won a women's varsity for five years, UoL played in the league above and DMU had only won one game this season. Nicole kept telling the team that they’ve got the game, she was trying to be positive but, in her head, she wasn’t thinking they would win. “I have not said this out loud to anyone, before the game I was thinking we’ll be lucky if we get a goal in and can celebrate it. I was not expecting us to win at all.” She chuckles.

So, when there was only ten minutes left of the game and DMU were 2-0 up, captain and centre back Nicole´s tears started to stream down her face. All the hard work and emotions dedicated to her team had all come out when the team were so close to the winning line. She expected the team to play well, but she never expected them to win, which made the win even better.

“Our opponents are a league above us, we were the underdogs, I had a lot of doubts, but it made everything a million times better when the final whistle blew.” Nicole says.

Nicole and DMU Women´s Football team with the 2023 Varsity trophy

Nicole is graduating this year and is going into a management graduate scheme in September. She isn’t planning on joining a team straight away as she feels like she ended her season at DMU on such a high note. She wouldn’t want to join another team and not be able to give them her all, as her job will be very demanding. “I’m leaving in the most ideal situation when we’ve finished the season on such a good positive, but it’s going to be sad to leave that all behind, it’s a bittersweet moment.” She says while reminiscing about this season.

Varsity is the biggest game at university, anyone who play sport at university would say the same, so winning a varsity title is such an unbelievable moment for Nicole. Her emotions that evening showed what it meant for her, as a captain, to lead her team into winning varsity. She usually never cries, but this year, football have seemed to bring it out of her.