The Dartmouth Sports Weekly 10/31/2016

10.31.16

NARP Meets World with Matt Yuen ’19 p. 8 Just a Bit Outside with Sam Stockton ’19 p. 8 Hot Takes with Max Zhuang ’19 p. 6

The Big Green Homecoming Weekend Roundup p. 2-3

For the love of

the game

A survey of what makes athletes leave the games they love p. 4-5

By Ashley Dupuis

COURTESY OF SEAN OH

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

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The weekend Roundup Compiled by James Handal AND BRANDON LEE

WOMEN’s HOCKEY This past weekend, the women’s hockey team fell to St. Lawrence University 2-0 and Clarkson University 6-1 bringing the team’s record to 0-4.

In the first period against St. Lawrence on Friday, the Saints’ Kennedy Marchment scored a goal past Christie Honor ’19, who played in net for the first time this season. Marchment’s teammate Kayla Vespa followed that up with a goal in the second period to give St. Lawrence the lead, 2-0. The Big Green was unable to respond in the third period, despite having an empty net and an added player on the ice. Overall, Honor made 30 saves, 15 more than St. Lawrence’s goalkeeper Grace Harrison made.

In the game against Clarkson, the Golden Knights started the game strong, scoring a goal at 12:49 and another at 18:31 on a powerplay to lead 2-0 after the first period. During the second period, Clarkson scored another at 5:20 to bring the score to 3-0 before Dartmouth responded with a goal from Christina Rombaut ’20 off of an assist by Alyssa Baker ’19 and Kennedy Ottenbreit ’17. Clarkson scored three more in the third period, effectively putting away the game. The Golden Knights led Dartmouth in shots, 34-19.

Up next, the women play Quinnipiac University and Princeton University at Thompson Arena on Nov. 11 and Nov. 12, respectively.

volleyball

The volleyball team fell to Princeton University 0-3 (1525, 21-25, 16-25) on Friday as well as the University of Pennsylvania 2-3 (23-25, 2125, 25-19, 25-23, 13-15) on Saturday.

After both losses, Dartmouth has an 8-13 overall record and a 1-9 record in Ivy play, placing the team at eighth place within the conference. Princeton continues its 14-win streak and retains its first-place standing with the win against the Big Green, while Penn stands at fourth, with a split record of 5-5.

On Friday, Princeton swept Dartmouth, despite a strong defensive effort by Zoe Leonard ’19, who recorded her fifth double-double in a row with 14

assists and 11 digs. Danielle Glinka ’17 and Sierra Lyle ’19 also made 10 and 11 digs, respectively. As a team, the Big Green recorded 23 kills while the Tigers made 49.

On Saturday, the Big Green took the game against Penn to five sets after making a comeback by winning the third and fourth sets. Four players recorded double-doubles, including Glinka, Leonard, team co-captain Emily Astarita ’17 and Maddy Schoenberger ’20.

Part of Glinka and Astarita’s double-double included 11 and 15 kills, respectively.

The Big Green will travel to New York to play Columbia University on Friday at 7 p.m. and Cornell University on Saturday at 5 p.m.

SOCCER

The women’s soccer team fell to Harvard University 0-2 at Burnham Field on Senior Day. With the loss, the Big Green remains at eighth place in the Ivy League with a 6-6-2 overall record and a 0-4-2 conference record. The Crimson is on a two-win streak, keeping it atop the conference standings.

Neither team started the game with an offensive advantage as the opening 10 minutes did not include any shots. In the 36th minute, however, Harvard’s Rachel Garcia broke the deadlock to lead, 1-0.

In the second half, Brittany Champagne ’18 had a chance to tie the game when her shot bounced off the crossbar on a corner kick, but the ball could not find the back of the net. The Crimson added to its lead in the 62nd minute with a goal from Margaret Purce off an assist by Garcia for her 11th of the season.

Dartmouth was unable to break the Crimson defense in the remainder of regulation play. Harvard led in shots, 11-6, and each team had four corners and two yellow cards.

Up next, the Big Green will play a non-conference

Rachel DeChiara ’17 Publisher

Annie Ma ’17 Executive Editor

10.31.16 Vol. CLXXIII No. 136

Gayne Kalustian ’17 Kourtney Kawano ’18 Sports Editors

Ashley Dupuis ’19 Evan Morgan ’19 Sam Stockton ’19 Assistant Sports Editors Annie Duncan ’17 Kate Herrington ’17 Photography Editors Jaclyn Eagle ’19 Templating Editor

match against the University of Massachusetts Lowell at 6 p.m. on Tuesday before ending its season with a game against Cornell University on Saturday.

After winning four of its last six games, the men’s soccer team hit a bump in the road this past Saturday, losing, 0-1, against Harvard University in a pivotal match for the race for the Ivy League title.

While the Big Green outshot its opponent 7-6, Harvard led in corner kicks, 4-5, one of which resulted in the fateful goal by the visiting team. With the loss, Dartmouth falls into a two-way tie for second with Columbia University, while the Crimson stand at first in the conference. James Hickok ’17 made three saves, while Jonathan Nierenberg ’18 and Wyatt Omsberg ’18 each recorded a shot on goal. The match was a very aggressive one, with the Big Green making 11 fouls, and Harvard making seven.

Before the men return to Ivy League play against Cornell University this Saturday, the team will travel to Boston to play its last non-conference match against Northeastern University on Tuesday.

Cross COuntry

Both cross country teams competed the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships on Oct. 29 with that in mind. The women placed seventh this year at Princeton University’s Windsor Fields.

The Big Green earned 142 points, while Harvard University, who won this year’s title, scored 33 points. Helen Schlachtenhaufen ’17 completed the 6-kilometer race in 20 minutes 57.1 seconds, leading the way for the Big Green with a 14th place finish out of 92 runners. Harvard’s Court-

ney Smith won the individual title with a time of 20:19.6.

On the men’s side, the Big Green moved up to fourth place after finishing sixth at last year’s Heps. Julian Heninger ’17 earned First-Team All-Ivy honors, completing the 8-km course in 24:03 to place seventh out of 94 runners. Daniel Salas ’17 finished just 15 seconds later for a spot in the top 20, while Matt Herzig ’17 was just edged out to finish in the 23rd spot.

ROWING After pulling off impressive times in the Head of the Charles, the men’s heavyweight rowers built onto their performance with a strong showing at the Princeton Chase on Oct. 29. In the men’s heavyweight 8+ finals, the Dartmouth A boat finished in 12 minutes 46 seconds, a close second to Princeton University’s A boat. The team’s B boat

finished in 13th-place with a time of 13:23. In the men’s heavyweight 4+ finals, the Dartmouth B posted a time of 15:04 for eighth place, while the A boat finished in 21st place. The women’s A boat placed 12th in the varsity 8+ final with a time of 15:11, while the men’s lightweight team’s A boat placed 13th in the varsity 8+ race.

SAILING

This past weekend, the Big Green coed and women’s sailing teams competed in the Erwin Schell Trophy and the Victorian Coffee Urn races, hosted by the Coast Guard Academy.

Out of 18 teams, Dartmouth finished seventh in the Erwin Schell race.

Charles Lalumiere ’17, Christopher Williford ’19, Rebecca McElvain ’19 and Sophie Kerr ’17 finished in ninth place in Division A, while Robert Floyd ’17 and Madeline Cooney ’17 finished in fourth in Division B. In the Victorian Coffee Urn

FOOTBALL

Rebecca Asoulin ’17 Editor-in-Chief

MONDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2016

During Saturday’s Homecoming game, the football team fell to No. 23 Harvard University 21-23 in a tight game in which the Big Green almost staged a comeback. This loss brings Dartmouth to a record of 1-16 against the Crimson since 2000. After the weekend, both teams remain in their respective standings within the Ivy League. Dartmouth stands at eighth place with four losses while Harvard is tied for first with the University of Pennsylvania with four wins.

In the first quarter, Harvard scored two touchdowns to lead, 14-0, in a dominant first half. The Big Green

defense limited the Crimson offense in the second quarter to zero points while Stephen Johnston ’18 scored a one yard pass from Jack Heneghan ’18 to trail 14-7 going into the half.

In the third quarter, Harvard scored a field goal to lead 17-7 before Miles Smith ’19 scored a three-yard touchdown run to trail, 17-14. The Crimson responded with eight seconds left in the third, scoring another touchdown to extend its lead to 23-14.

After the referees made a roughing-the-passer call in Dartmouth’s favor following an interception, Heneghan scored a touchdown late in the fourth quarter to bring the

In the men’s freshman 8+ finals, two boats finished in the top 10, and the women’s novice boat placed fourth in the 8+ final. This weekend, the men’s heavyweight and lightweight crews will host and compete in the Gardner Cup on Saturday. All three teams will compete in the Green Monster races on Sunday.

race, the team placed ninth with 188 points. Emma White ’19 and Peninah Benjamin ’20 finished in fifth place in Division A while Margaret Kilvert ’18 and Mia Steck ’17 placed 11th in Division B. Next week, the team will compete in multiple races on Nov. 14.

score to 23-21. Head coach Buddy Teevens ’79 elected to use all of Dartmouth’s remaining timeouts to secure previous driving attempts, allowing Harvard to kneel and win after making a first-down with less than a minute left in the contest.

Heneghan went 32-48 with a touchdown for 301 yards. Hunter Hagdorn ’20 had 11 catches for 118 yards, while classmate Isiah Swann ’20 had nine tackles and an interception on the defensive side.

Dartmouth has three Ivy League games left in its season, beginning with an away match against Cornell University this Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

MONDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2016

Rugby

FIELD HOCKEY

After defeating Brown University in the Ivy Semifinal match this past weekend at Brophy Field by a score of 4514, the rugby team advanced to the Ivy Championship at Harvard University. Overall, the team boasts a 6-1 record, four of which were against conference rivals.

In the contest against the Bears, Kat Ramage ’19 and

TENNIS

At the ITA Northeast Regional Championship in Philadelphia, David Horneffer ’20 and Charlie Broom ’20 represented the Big Green, making it to the final day of the tournament last week Monday. In his quarterfinal match against Cornell University’s Colin Sinclair, Horneffer won, 6-3, before narrowly losing in the semifinal round to the University of Pennsylvania’s Josh Pompan, 7-6, 4-6, 6-3.

Broom qualified for the quarterfinals

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Frankie Sands ’20 scored the opening 21 points for the Big Green before Ashli Cook ’18 added another seven to put Dartmouth up, 28-0 at intermission. Isabel Boettcher ’20 scored another 12 points off of two tries and a conversion.

The women will travel to Boston on Nov. 6 to play Harvard for the Championship.

as well, but could not make it fast Cornell’s Mike Vrabl, who defeated him, 6-4, 6-0. The men competed in Harvard University’s UTR Open this past weekend at Cambridge. Results were unavailable by press time.

On the women’s side of the ITA Regional Championship, Taylor Ng ’17 and Racquel Lyn ’20 represented the Big Green in New Haven, Connecticut in last Monday’s closing matches. The duo lost to Syracuse

University’s doubles team, 6-2, 7-6, in the semifinal game. In the quarterfinals match for singles, Ng defeated Syracuse’s Gabrielle Knutson, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3, before dropping her semifinal match against St. John University’s Jessica Livinau in another tight match, 7-5, 5-7, 6-3. This weekend, the women will host and compete in the Big Green Invite, and the men will travel to Minneapolis, Minnesota for the Gopher Invitational.

Dartmouth field hockey fell 1-3 on Senior Day against Harvard University on Saturday at Chase AstroTurf Field before losing to the University of New Hampshire, 6-2, on Sunday. Dartmouth now has a 4-12 overall record and a 0-6 record in the Ivy league. With the win, the Crimson clinched the Ivy League Championship following Princeton University’s loss against Cornell University this past weekend.

In a tight first period between the Crimson and the Big Green, neither team notched a goal. In the second period, Harvard’s Bente van Vlijmen scored three consecutive goals in 12 minutes, two of which were unassisted.

Morgan Philie ’18 helped the

Big Green respond with a goal in the 67th minute of play. Hailey Valerio ’19 recorded 14 saves, and overall the Big Green led in saves, 17-2.

On Sunday, Philie and Amrit Ahluwalia ’19 made two goals against the Wildcats, which were not enough to overcome UNH’s four-goal lead at the end of the game. Similar to the game against Harvard, three of the Wildcats’ goals were off a hat trick. The Wildcats led in corner shots, 101, as well as shots, 28-5. Emma Plumb ’20 made 10 saves in the loss.

The women will end their season with a final game against Cornell University on Saturday at 12 p.m.

Men’s hockey SOCCER

TIFFANY ZHAI/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The Big Green opened this season with a win over No. 8 University of Michigan at Thompson Arena.

TIFFANY ZHAI/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The Big Green outshot No. 8 University of Michigan, 35-24, in its 3-2 win this past Saturday.

“It was a really good effort from our guys, and we played with a lot of energy against a team that is very good. Despite giving up a few goals on the power play, we kept our focus and did some really good things. It was a great win, and now it’s time to turn our focus to Cornell.”

-BOB GAUDET ’81, MEN’S HOCKEY HEAD COACH

By JONATHAN KATZMAN The Dartmouth

Troy Crema ’17’s goal with 49 seconds remaining in regulation propelled the Dartmouth men’s hockey team (1-0-0) to a 3-2 win over No. 8 University of Michigan (3-3-1) on Saturday night in front of a sold-out crowd in Thompson Arena.

Devin Buffalo ’18 produced a 22-save effort in his first-ever home start for the Big Green, bringing back fond memories of his stellar 37-save performance in his first career start in Ann Arbor last year. His Michigan counterpart, Jack LaFontaine, withstood consistent Dartmouth offensive pressure throughout the game, registering 32 saves in just his second collegiate

contest.

Dartmouth head coach Bob Gaudet ’81 was pleased with his team’s effort, in addition to the spirited crowd.

The Wolverines opened the scoring at the 17 minute mark of a back-and-forth first period when Adam Winborg deflected Alex Kile’s shot from the top of the left circle past Buffalo on a man-advantage.

However, the Big Green responded just two minutes into the second stanza as Kevin Neiley ’18 solved LaFontaine low, stick-side from the top of the slot after collecting a loose puck in the offensive zone. Dartmouth took the lead at the 11:46 mark when rookie Cam Strong ’20 collected Will Graber ’20’s pass in front of the crease and fired a backhanded top-shelf over LaFontaine.

Encouraged by a spirited home crowd, Dartmouth forced LaFontaine to be active early in the third. The Wolverine freshman netminder, however, responded to the test and kept the visitors in the contest before Kile put his name on the scoresheet for the second time. The senior captain took the puck coast to coast on the power play and managed to sneak one past Buffalo 10:33 into the period.

With Dartmouth continuing to apply pressure in the offensive end just after the 15:00 mark, Strong appeared to have notched his second of the night before a video review waived the goal off due to goalie interference. A long video review failed to cap Dartmouth’s momentum, as it was Crema who lifted the Big Green just minutes later. The Toronto native fired

a quick wrist shot inside the far post past LaFontaine after collecting a favorable bounce off the skate of line mate Corey Kalk ’18. Crema’s winner capped a physical battle in the ninth overall contest between the two teams.

Dartmouth outshot Michigan 35-24, yet came up empty-handed on five powerplay opportunities. Despite its man-up unit finishing 2-4 on the evening, the Wolverines return to Ann Arbor winless on their New England trip, having lost 3-0 to the University of Vermont on Friday.

The Big Green returns to the ice next Friday evening for its ECAC opener against Cornell University. The puck is scheduled to drop at 7:05 p.m., with Saturday night’s contest against Colgate University slated to begin at the same time.

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

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Sports have a long and storied history at the College and to this day make up an enduring component of campus life with around 25 percent of the student population participating in one of the 35 varsity intercollegiate teams.

As members of the Ivy League, students have the unique opportunity to compete at the Division I level, while challenging themselves with rigorous academic opportunities off the field. Balancing the dual dimensions of being a student-athlete comes with its fair amount of challenges and rewards; however, not all those who begin their college careers as athletes finish them as athletes. A number of athletes decide to step away from their sports for a multitude of reasons including injuries, divisive team cultures, lack of playing time and general burnout. This week The Dartmouth will look into why some athletes quit their sports and the overarching themes that apply to their decisions.

love

MONDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2016

For the

A survey of what makes athlet B

Academics and Other Opportunities

Participating in a Division I sport is extremely time consuming. The National Collegiate Athletic Association caps weekly training time at 20 hours a week while in season, and most sports will utilize this time fully. In the Ivy League, athletes cannot receive any scholarship assistance based on athletic performance. Therefore, every student-athlete essentially takes on a labor and time-intensive job that is unpaid. Combined with academic demands, the life of a student-athlete can become stressful and chaotic quickly.

One study published in 2013 surveyed 229 active and inactive athletes in a Division II program in the western United States. Athletes in Division II programs, though different than those at Dartmouth, share some similarities. Division II athletes often receive lower scholarships than those at Division I programs, and Ivy League students receive none. The study found that “there might be more of an intrinsic motivation to play when given less funding and/or when there was less of a chance to earn substantial money playing in professional leagues after graduation... It also seems plausible that some Division II student–athletes feel burdened by time constraints that prevent them from earning money that is necessary for them to pay bills and to purchase necessities.”

The importance of outside priorities, such as employment and academics, is a common theme among athletes.

Patrick Kang ’17 noted the intense demands on Dartmouth student-athletes he has seen as a swimmer and for other athletes. Kang quit the swim and dive team early into his sophomore year after suffering a back injury in his rookie season. He later tried to rejoin the team his junior year but was unable to gain a spot until senior year.

“There were a lot of different factors [that led to my decision to quit],” Kang said. “I think one was that my expectation was that it would be very similar to high school. The academics would be easy enough that you could just focus on swimming, but the thing was that swimming was definitely tougher than it was in high school — I’d never had morning practices — and so going to morning practices and then following that up with a bunch of classes was hard. I didn’t do as well as I wanted to.”

In addition to a difficult mix of athletics and academics, student-athletes often find themselves wanting to try new activities, often in the process finding new interests. Alex Wolf ’18, a former Big Green basketball player and Connecticut Boys Gatorade Basketball Player of the Year noted being able to experience more of the College in his time away from the sport after injury.

“When the off season came around it felt so nice not to have 6:30 a.m. lifts and four hour practices everyday,” Wolf said. “Just to get to be a regular student and experience the school because that was something I really just wasn’t able to do really my freshmen fall or winter.”

Wolf cautioned any athlete in quitting simply to pursue an “easier” lfie. He stated that while someone may have more free time as a non-athlete, becoming one while not pursuing other passions is unwise. An athlete considering the transition, Wolf said, should explore other interests during his or her offseason.

“If they find or already had something that really excites them and inspires them to wake up in the morning and their sport is prohibiting them from fully diving into it, then I think not playing anymore can be justified,” Wolf said.

For Wolf, stepping away from basketball meant more time to dedicate to new interests like computer science and the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network.

Team Culture and Coaching Shifts

Athletes often cite the community their sports teams provide as a key factor to their continued involvement and love of the sport. While the some environments may keep athletes on their teams, others can also prompt the decision to leave. Some athletes find their team environments to be divisive and toxic. Coaches play a tremendous role in fostering team cultures, and at times conflicts with them can prove a turning point more than conflict with peers, as was the case with the women’s lacrosse team. A number of players cited a culture of distrust, bullying and emotional abuse that they claimed was prompted by head coach Amy Patton and at times other players. Other players, however, denied this culture and came out in support of Patton as a coach.

“If you don’t get along with the coach that’s a big problem because if you don’t get along with them you probably don’t believe in him or her, and if you don’t believe in them you have almost no motivation to put in the work necessary to succeed, so you’re going to be frustrated all the time, and you’ll probably end up leaving pretty quickly,” Weatherley-White said.

Walk-On Retention Some sports on campus have a thriving walk-on membership, and each year those teams rely on these athletes to make up their teams. Men’s and women’s rowing, as well as women’s rugby, are prime examples. Over the past few years, these programs have seen some of the lowest retention rates on campus. Part of this could be the implications of having waves of walk-ons trying the sport, often with no prior experience. “[Walk-ons’] reasons for joining are they want to see what it’s like to compete in a sport at the D1 level, and they want to see how well they can do in a new sport,” said Cortland Weatherley-White ’17, the team’s commodore and a first-year walk-on. “A lot of time they figure out the answers to those questions are they don’t really like being in a D1 sport, and they’re not quite as competitive as they thought they might be able to be. They decide that their time might be better spent on things where they have more natural ability. And that is a pretty logical decision. I would say that is the reasoning for the bulk of people that leave.”

Women’s rugby, a recent addition to the college’s varsity sports lineup, has also seen low retention rates for its athletes. The team’s statistics are not included in the data, as the team is only in its second year as a varsity sport; however, the team has had its fair share of player losses. Like the rowing programs, many of the team’s players are comprised of walk-ons.

ALEXAND

While athletes regularly leave teams, some teams have higher rete

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

MONDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2016

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of the game

tes leave the games they love

By Ashley Dupuis

DER AGADJANIAN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

ention rates than others.

Burnout

After years of dedication to a single sport, many athletes face an inevitable burnout. Even if athletes are relatively new to their college sport, the combination of academic and athletic rigor can dismay many.

“I wouldn’t say [basketball] was my absolute passion,” Wolf said. “I definitely enjoy it, and I really loved it at points in my life, but when you play a sport for so long… it kind of reaches a threshold of fun, and becomes a more of a burden and commitment.”

Injuries

Injuries are an unavoidable part of sports and often propel athletes to reevaluate staying on their teams. Some players find their college sports careers unexpectedly cut short, suffering season-ending or career-ending injuries. Others find that their injuries are severe enough to warrant taking a step back, and rededicating their time and energy elsewhere.

“I had a back injury, which got worse through my [freshman] year here,” Kang said, “My sophomore year, when I decided to take harder classes and my back still wasn’t better, it just got to the point where I didn’t see myself enjoying the process anymore because I knew I’d be stressed by academics. Even if [the injuries] are not clearly visible, they still hurt us in real ways.”

For Wolf, injury proved to be a crucial component to his reason to step away from a sport that had dominated his life.

“It kind of wasn’t really my decision to quit,” Wolf said. “I fractured my back, so I kind had to stop playing. My type of injury was one where I could have made a full recovery, but I played on my injury my whole freshman year. I should have listened to my body.”

Doctors continually told Wolf that he was fine, leaving him unsure of how to cope with the pain and wanting to please those around him who expected great things from his play. He received pressure from coaches to keep playing or risk falling behind and potentially face a cut; therefore, when his freshman season came to a close he found himself questioning if he should stay. Ultimately, he made the decision to step away after a season of little playing time due to pain, and the new passions he discovered off the court.

Concussions, which the National Institute of Health said account for approximately 10 percent of injuries, also play a crucial role in Ivy League athletes’ decisions to play or not play. While sports like football have taken measures to curb concussions in practice by means of the Mobile Virtual Player now in use by some college and NFL teams, the risk of head injury can never be fully eliminated. A 2014 NCAA publication on self-reported concussions among NCAA student-athletes found that 19.4 percent of male athletes and 13.1 percent of female athletes, from a pool of approximately 20,000 athletes, reported at least one concussion. The study also found that 3.2 percent of women and 6.1 percent of men reported more than one concussion.

Concussions, according to the NIH, can cause physical, cognitive, sleep dysregulation and emotional symptoms. Students in particular may find their regular responsibilites dramatically impacted, and the NIH suggest that “educators should understand that recovering students may not be able to meet the usual expectations for class participation and homework completion until symptoms have cleared and neurocognitive function has returned to normal.” Injuries with a clear connection to the ability to complete schoolwork provide a barrier to play for student athletes in recovery.

Playing Time/Status

For athletes, returns on the time they invest may come in the form of individual or team success, or even something as simple as playing time. Upon coming to the college, however, many athletes will find that their once lengthy time on the court has been cut short. For athletes that never even make it into the game, this can become even more frustrating. With an unequal input to what they are getting out of their athletic experience, some people will decide to step away from their sport, and pursue other activities. “[If you’re] not getting the kind of reward you hoped to get from it, you’re going to search for that reward elsewhere,” Weatherley-White said.

Sean Oh ’17, a lightweight rower who walked on to the team freshman year, also noted that for many not making it into the top boat is a deciding factor when leaving the crew team.

“Most walk-ons don’t make it to the 1V,” Oh said. “So if you think about it practically you’re like ‘well why am rowing if there’s no point, I’m not rowing for the future,’ so I think a lot of people wager ‘should I be spending all this time rowing?’”

Cuts

Some players will leave athletics through no choice of their own, but rather because they are cut. Teams operate with travel rosters, and players that don’t make the travel roster are not always the victim of cuts, as can be seen with Dartmouth’s largest team, football. However, other sports with smaller operating budgets often have to winnow their numbers.

An article published on the National Federation for State High School Associations’ website discussed the “necessary evil” that is necessitated by budgetary constraints. Mark Rerick, an athletic director in North Dakota since 2006, wrote in 2015 that “As much as we’d like to base our entire program in just meeting our three department goals (having fun, learning how to compete, and learning the sport), the reality of an athletic department is that all of our stakeholders — athletes, coaches, parents, public — still expect us to be able to compete with the intent to win games.”

Cuts can also occur as coaching staffs hope to make more room on the team for coveted recruits, once again having limited resources to hold more players on the roster than necessary. Football at Dartmouth remains an anomaly having over 100 players on their roster, many of whom never take the field.

Why Stay?

With so many obstacles and drains that come with being a student-athlete, one questions why so many even stick with a sport throughout college. Many athletes cite the sense of identity the sport provides, the welcoming team culture, supportive coaches and an undying love in the sport. Whatever, the reason may be, the decision to be a student-athlete comes at a price, a price which some are willing to pay.

“At the end of each year I’d ask myself if it was worth staying on… I didn’t get recruited here there was no [prior] commitment,” Oh said about being a student-athlete from freshman to senior year. He noted rowing has provided him with a strong community at the College.

“I’d say 50 percent of the reason I stay is because of the team, and another reason is that I really respect the assistant coach that I had… For him to take the time to build us from freshmen year all the way up, I feel like I owe it to him to give back all the effort he put into me and put it back into the team,” said Oh, adding that he feels the more regimented style of in-season helps him do better academically as he is more focused.”

Kang cited similar aspects upon reflection of his time on and off the swim team. He began swimming again at the beginning of his senior year.

“To be with the ’17s one last time, for one last swim means a lot to me,” he said. “I also loved the sport a lot, and walking away wasn’t easy. I think when I had some time off I just realized how much the sport meant to me, and I think senior year was a great time to come back.”

Ashley Dupuis is a member of the women’s rugby team.

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THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

lot like “Westworld.” Yeah, part of the plot in the HBO show “Westworld” is literally, “these violent delights have violent ends.” Foster has taken too much punishment from the game of football and now his career in football ends; could it be that “Westworld” is really based on the true story of Foster’s retirement? Is Foster a “Westworld” superfan, perhaps even a Host? Or maybe Jay Ajayi stole Foster’s starting running back position, and Foster doesn’t have the wheels or the self respect not to dwindle on his NFL days in mediocrity? Take it easy, Foster. Goodbye.

Surprises I’m not going to lie — I get surprised very easily. Not usually even in a surprise birthday party kind of way where everyone generally ends up thinking that the surprise is cool and well-intentioned.

Rather, imagine something more along the lines of casually tapping your friend on the shoulder and watching him seize, proceeding to cramp up throughout the rest of the day. Between random Homecoming shenanigans and some unreal happenings in sports, this past week was full of surprises, both good and bad. From the potential heartbreak between the Chicago Cubs love affair and destiny to some of the most amazing events before the weekend, I can only be sure of one thing; it’s been incredibly fun.

5:06 p.m. Oct. 24, Arian Foster retires — It’s a little sad because injuries prevented Foster to continue, but if you read what he had to say about his retirement story, you’re happy for him.

“Faceless gladiators have been shuffled in and out of this arena for decades...but my body just can’t take the punishment this game asks for...This is a beautifully violent game...That bittersweet taste will forever linger with me.” His exit is emotional and the way he respects and honors football as an intellectual makes me glad that he figured out it was time to move on. However, the story he spins his retirement around sounds creepy and a

8:48 p.m. Oct. 25, the Chicago Cubs drop their first game — Corey Kluber.

The man threw down eight strikeouts in the first nine outs, setting a World Series record for the most strikeouts in the first three innings. I would imagine facing Kluber would feel like having someone only serve aces to you in pong. Surprise number one, Roberto Perez homers to break the game open 3-0 for the Cleveland Indians. Cleveland won 6-0, and I was extremely disappointed not because I’m a bias sports fan who’s still a little bitter that the Cleveland Cavaliers spoiled the best regular season team in the history of the NBA, but because... actually I know it’s stupid but that’s exactly why I’m going to continue rooting for the Cubs. Yeah, I hold grudges.

9:50 p.m. Oct. 25, Golden State Warriors blown out by the San Antonio Spurs — You already know what it is, you know the routine; I have to mention the Warriors, at least a little bit because with the new addition of Kevin Durant, who played his first official game with the team, and the energy from the crowd in Oracle, it would be a blow out.

Surprise number two, only I was wrong about which team was blowing, us.

7:08 p.m. Oct. 26, Cubs are back — The Cubs tie the series, 1-1. Kyle Schwarber is a legend, and Arrieta looks like the ace that he is. Quality from the Cubs that you expect; for not one second did my confidence waver.

The Cubs are back!

8:08 p.m. Oct. 28, just kidding Cubs lose, again — In what can only be described as a pure arms race, Cleveland’s bullpen just edged out Chicago’s, making the Cubs lose, 0-1.

11:03 a.m. Oct. 29, Jose Fernandez toxicology report released — Fernandez’s death has been a true tragedy. I can’t really say if this is a surprise or not, but Fernandez’s toxicology report revealed his blood alcohol limit was nearly double the legal limit while his other two friends were under the legal limit. Fernandez and one of his two friends who also died had cocaine in their system as well.

8:08 p.m. Oct. 29, Cubs down 3-1 in World Series — This was not good.

Kluber was back to deliver an almost fatal win to dash Chicago’s World Series hopes. How did this happen? Cleveland is just one win away from clinching it all and against the team that I thought was destined to win. A team that not only won a ridiculous amount of games during the regular season but also had what seemed to be the perfect combination of young talent and innovative coaching. Why does Cleveland have to ruin everything that’s nice? The Tribe’s performance as a whole in this series has been, to me, the greatest surprise this week and it pains me.

I guess most surprises really aren’t that great. I don’t even want to talk about the Homecoming football game.

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MONDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2016

SPORTS How Cleveland Took Control (and how Chicago lost it) Game 1 can be summed up pretty much in two words: Corey Kluber. The Cleveland Indians’ right-hander was tremendous, hitting his spots, never missing up in the strike zone and never giving drivable pitches to the Chicago Cubs.

In his two World Series starts, Kluber has pitched 12 innings, given up just one run on nine hits for a 0.75 ERA, struck out 15 and walked just one. In both of his starts, he kept the Cubs consistently

Week 8: A Struggle Stop reading for just a second, and take a look around you. If you’re on campus, you’ll notice books and papers laid out across any flat surface, trash bins filled to the brim with empty coffee cups and energy drinks as well as your favorite caffeine-crazed columnist rocking back and forth in the corner of the Stacks as he pumps out his weekly column. The scene may vary depending on who or from where you are looking, but we are all cracking under Hanlon’s fetishized academic rigor. It’s week 8, and things could not be any more

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No athletic events scheduled

uncomfortable in the batter’s box with a barrage of off-speed pitches, which hitters have struggled mightily to put into play.

In Game 2, the Cubs showed signs of being the same 103-win team we have been watching all season. Jake Arrieta turned in a performance similar to those he made in 2015 and early 2016. After tearing his ACL and LCL just six months ago, Kyle Schwarber seemingly came back from the dead just to play in this World Series.

He looked good in Game 1, and then he drove in a pair of runs in Game 2. With the series tied at 1, the Cubs looked to be in great shape heading back home for three games at Wrigley Field.

Game 3 was a classic postseason baseball game: unpredictable, dramatic and inconclusive until the bitter end. On a night when the wind was blowing heavily out of Wrigley, it was the pitching that the stole the show to give Cleveland a 1-0 win.

More significant than the score was what became apparent late in Game 3 and obvious in Game 4.

Once the Cubs fell behind in Game 4, baseball fans realized the Cubs were doing something for the first

time all year — pressing. It was Kris Bryant throwing away two balls from third base in the same inning. Granted, neither was an easy play, but both were mistakes Bryant does not typically make. It was John Lackey trying so hard to make a perfect pitch that he missed the strike zone entirely.

Most notably, what seemed wrong was the Cubs’ approach at the plate. Since Theo Epstein took over in Chicago, he has preached a philosophy of “selective aggressiveness.” What this means in practice is twofold. First, the Cubs want to be patient at the dish. They want to make pitchers work until they make a mistake. Secondly, when pitchers do make a mistake, the Cubs want to pull the trigger, regardless of the count.

Against Cleveland, especially as Game 4 dragged on, the Cubs seemed progressively to move further and further from this approach. They started chasing pitches they hadn’t chased all season. It was most obvious in their young players, specifically Willson Contreras and Javier Baez, who have thrived on always playing at 1,000 miles-per-hour and always being aggressive, before seemingly

running into a wall now. Both of them were waving at pitches well outside the strike zone in a desperate attempt to make something happen. They want to hit so badly they just cannot contain themselves.

While some Cubs’ hitters seem to have lost the “selective” component of Epstein’s philosophy, others have lost the “aggressive” component, causing even more trouble for the Cubs. Contreras and Baez have played an aggressive but borderline reckless style throughout the season. It is that style of play that earned the two players spots in Joe Maddon’s lineup. However, the unwillingness of other Cubs’ batters to pull the trigger remains extremely problematic.

What has become clear over the course of the postseason is that the only way teams have been able to find any success against the Cubs is to feed them a steady diet of off-speed pitches while mixing in the occasional fastball to keep them on their toes. If that fastball is the first pitch of an at-bat, that hitter may not see another. What that means for the Cubs is that they must swing at fastballs over

the plate, whether they are the first pitch, a 0-2 pitch or a 3-0.

Against Kluber in Game 4, the Cubs appeared reluctant to pull the trigger on these pitches, even their veteran hiters like Anthony Rizzo and Ben Zobrist looked shaky.

As I write this on Sunday morning, the Cubs find themselves down 3-1 in the World Series, in a deep but hardly insurmountable hole.

In Game 5, Jon Lester, their best starting pitcher, will face Trevor Bauer, Cleveland’s worst. They will be playing for pride and looking to avoid ending the season with three straight home losses.

If the team is able to pull out any kind of win in Game 5, the Cubs will plant a seed of doubt in Cleveland’s mind as they return to Progressive Field. The fact is that Chicago must win three games in a row or its championship drought will continue. The good news, though, is that those three games will be started by its ace Lester, Arrieta, the reigning National League Cy Young winner, and Kyle Hendricks ’12, the pitcher who finished 2016 with the best ERA in the MLB. If you’re the Cubs, you can’t hate those odds.

grim.

Spirits are down. Tears are falling. And even the readership of this column has rapidly plummeted with the decreasing creativity and intelligibility of my content. Things have hit rock bottom here in Hanover. And as I sit on the floor, munching sunflower seeds and sipping on a Monster energy drink, I ask myself how my journey as a Dartmouth student could have peaked this early. After all, wasn’t my column supposed to have elevated me to a status above a mere NARP? Alas, we are once again brought back to the timeless maxim by JeanPaul Sartre: “Man is condemned to be NARP.” And as I contemplate my pathetic NARPly existence in the midst of my incomplete biology lab report due right after tomorrow’s psychology midterm that I have not even started studying for, I cannot help but look fondly at the memories of this past week; memories that will inevitably serve as a beacon of hope in this dark time.

It all started Wednesday night, when my dream of becoming a singer finally came true. Adorned

in the classic blazer, khakis and boat shoes combination, my Sig Phi Epsilon brothers and I were tasked with the mountainous challenge of serenading every single sorority on campus. And as we put on a brave face and drank from the goblet of no regrets, we proceeded to roll out onto the greatest adventure Webster Avenue would ever see.

We were only five minutes into our journey when we all realized that we may have perhaps drank too deeply from the goblet. My fellow comrades and I were stumbling all over the place, as our hype had caused many of us to develop cramps in our legs. Yet we persevered because we could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our mission did not change one bit from start to end. We were determined to provide quality entertainment to all ends of this campus.

And as we bounced from house to house, emboldened by the resonating cheers of Sister X, our adventure slowly simmered to an end, as nothing gold can stay.

Even as we reached our war-torn basement, coming to the final destination of our journey that night, nothing about that experience ended with just that night.

Capturing the hearts of our fellow classmates along the way was a noble but ephemeral perk, but the pride and glory of completing the arduous task remains eternal. For that night we all received a taste of fame and glory, a taste we would never forget. Everything about the night was cold and depressing, but even the sub 40-degree weather could not stop us from shining like stars.

But passing out on McLaughlin’s common room couch will do it.

And as I woke up the next morning still wearing a suit and tie, I quickly rolled off the couch and headed to Novack to buy a bagel.

As I waited for my food, I looked at my phone only to realize that I had my weekly 8 a.m. breakfast with a good friend. Bagel in hand, I quickly ran over to Collis, proceeding to have a lovely breakfast with him. By 8:45 a.m., I was at a crossroads: go back to my room and sleep a bit more, or go to my 9 a.m. biology x-hour. I woke up two hours later only to realize my teacher takes attendance. RIP. Four days later, I find myself with a serious case of déjà vu. It is a Sunday afternoon, and I am

once again at a fork in the road.

I can either diligently prepare for my psychology midterm or write my weekly column. Because I am a hard-working Dartmouth student, it is obvious which route I chose. I unhesitatingly chose to word-vomit 800 words of pure banter for your entertainment. What a time to be alive.

But things are different this time around. For the past two weeks, I have encountered enormous difficulty producing a quality article by the looming Sunday afternoon deadline. In fact, my articles were so absurd that even my editors, who are notorious for their lack of discretion about what is posted in this and previous columns, were questioning what the hell was going on in my column. Yet two weeks later, I can confidently say that things have changed with this article. Although many things in this column will be called into question by the nefarious editors, and there is no guarantee of quality for the content written in this piece, I can still beat my chest with a cheeky grin and say that this article will be submitted before the deadline.

NARP Meets World-1. Editors-3.