05.2.16
Eduvie Ikoba ’19’s journey to Dartmouth
THE NUMBERS GAME: VIKRAM BODAS ’18 p.6
HOOPS COACH INTRODUCED p.8
JUST A BIT OUTSIDE: SAM STOCKTON ’19 p.6 ELIZA MCDONOUGH, ANNIE DUNCAN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
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The Roundup Compiled by James Handal and Evan Morgan
THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY
contest with the Crimson coming out on top 6-5. Both teams exchanged runs in the first inning. The Crimson scored two runs in the bottom of the second, but the Big Green responded right back with two runs in the top of the third to tie the score at 3-3. Dartmouth and Harvard each got two more runs by the end of the fifth inning to make the score 5-5. The Crimson, however, hit a solo shot in the sixth to get the game winning run. Lourlin Lara ’18 had two RBIs to lead the Big Green. Breanna Ethridge ’18 allowed four runs in 3.2 innings pitched. The Big Green was outhit 10-7. Men’s Heavyweight Rowing
ANNIE DUNCAN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
The baseball team swept Harvard University this past weekend.
Baseball The baseball team defeated Harvard University in its two games on Saturday 3-1 and 2-1 in close pitching duels to keep the Big Green’s Red Rolfe Division title hopes alive. The Big Green is 17-23 and 10-8 in conference play. Yale University lost three games to Brown University this past weekend, losing a chance to clinch the division crown. If Dartmouth sweeps the Crimson on Tuesday’s doubleheader, the Big Green will take the Red Rolfe Division. If the Big Green win one of two, Dartmouth will travel to Yale for a one-game playoff on May 6. In game one, Duncan Robinson ’16 led the Big Green pitching seven innings while allowing five hits and just one run. The Big Green scored a run in the first and then two more in the sixth inning to take a 3-0 lead. The Crimson scored a run in the seventh, but the Big Green held on for the victory. Thomas Roulis ’15 had two RBIs and Joe Purritano ’16 added one more to pace the Big Green. In another tight affair, the Big Green defeated the Crimson 2-1 with runs batted in by Purritano and Dustin Shirley ’18. Beau Sulser ’16 pitched seven innings, allowing one run with Chris Burkholder ’17 recording the two-inning save. The Sunday doubleheader against the Crimson was rescheduled for
Tuesday due to inclement weather to determine the winner of the Red Rolfe Division. Softball The softball team fell in both games 4-3 and 6-5 to Harvard University in its doubleheader on Saturday. The Big Green are 26-14 and 14-4 in conference play while the Crimson are 27-14 and 15-3 in conference play. With its victories over the Big Green, the Crimson took control of the North Division. The second doubleheader on Sunday is now scheduled for Tuesday due to inclement weather with the Big Green needing to win both to clinch the North Division title. In Game 1, after two scoreless innings, the Crimson scored three runs in the bottom of the third. Katie McEachern ’16 and Maddie Damore ’17 each had an RBI to help Dartmouth score two runs in the top of the fourth to trail 3-2. Harvard scored another run in the bottom of the fifth, but McEachern responded with a solo home run to trail 4-3. Tight pitching from the Crimson held Dartmouth at bay. McEachern led the Big Green with two RBIs. Morgan McCalmon ’16 was on the mound and pitched a complete game, giving up four runs on seven hits. The Crimson outhit the Big Green 7-5. The second game was another tight
Rebecca Asoulin ’17 Editor-in-Chief
05.02.16 VOL. CLXXIII N. 72
The No. 12 Dartmouth heavyweight rowing team faced No. 8 Cornell University and No. 10 University of Pennsylvania on the Cayuga Lake Inlet in Ithaca, New York with Cornell winning the Madeira Cup and James Wrap Memorial Trophy. In the first varsity race, Cornell won in 5 minutes 37.7 seconds with Dartmouth placing second in 5:42.5. The Big Green placed third in the second varsity race finishing in 5:57.1. The Big Green third varsity boat placed second in 5:52.4. In the fourth varsity race, the Big Green placed second in 6:04.2 behind the Big Red, the only other boat. Men’s Lightweight Rowing The No. 8 Dartmouth lightweight rowing team competed against No. 4 Cornell University in the 54th Baggaley Bowl on the Connecticut River with the Big Red winning the bowl for the fourth time in a row. The lightweight rowing team placed second in the third and second varsity races versus No. 4 Cornell on the Connecticut River. In the first varsity race, the Big Red won the Baggaley Bowl in
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5 minutes 38.1 seconds, with the Big Green finishing in 5:42.5. Women’s Rowing The Dartmouth women’s rowing team competed against Cornell University for the Parents’ Cup on Saturday on the Connecticut River with the Big Red winning the cup. On Sunday, the rowing team participated in the 2016 Eastern Sprints Regatta, advancing all five boats to the Grand Final. The Big Red won the Parents’ Cup by finishing in 6:24.8, just under four seconds ahead of Dartmouth. In the second varsity and the varsity four, the Big Green were able to defeat Cornell in both races. The Big Green had two boats in the second varsity four with each finishing in 7:32.2 and 7:56.4. In the third varsity eight, Cornell took first in 6:44.1. In the varsity eight Grand Final, Dartmouth finished in third place with a time of 7:05.066. Dartmouth took third in the second varsity eight and sixth in the third varsity eight. In the varsity four A, Dartmouth took fourth place, and in the varsity four B Dartmouth took fifth. Women’s Track and Field Women’s track and field placed fifth in the America East Pre-Conference meet at the University of New Hampshire on Saturday. The team also sent athletes to the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Relays on Thursday. Dartmouth’s eight top-five finishes at UNH included two victories. Nicole DeBlasio ’19 won the 200-meter dash in 25.24 seconds, and Lillian Anderson ’19 took the 5000 with a time of 17 minutes 53.06 seconds. Anderson was followed by Angela Ortlieb ’19 in third place. Elsewhere on the track, Marisa Magsarili ’19’s 4:50.56 secured her third place in the 1500. In the jumps, Kayla Gilding ’19 took fifth in the long jump
and Jazz Van Loon ’18 was third in the triple jump. Dartmouth also placed well in the javelin — Bridget Douglas ’18 threw 40.92 meters to place second, and Olivia Wiener ’19’s 37.79 put her two spots behind. The Big Green’s Marissa Evans ’18 ran double duty at the 122nd Penn Relays, participating in both events where Dartmouth was represented. Thursday morning, she placed 31st out of the field of 52 in the 4000-meter hurdles championship. Then she ran the 400-meter leg of the distance medley relay, aiding Dartmouth teammates Helen Schlachtenhaufen ’17, Bridget O’Neill ’18 and Dana Giordano ’16 to a fourth-place finish in the distance medley championship invitational. If these Dartmouth women hope to compete as centenarians, they may have to confront the 100-dash time of 101-year-old Ida Keeling. At the Penn Relays on Sunday, Keeling established the new world record in the 100+ age group with a blistering 1:17. Men’s Track and Field Big Green sprinters clustered near the top of their events at the University of New Hampshire America East PreConference meet. Victor Williams ’16 took third in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.68. Adam Couitt ’18 finished one one-hundredth of a second behind Williams in fourth, while Guy Green ’17 and Alec Eschholz ’19 finished in fifth and sixth. In the 200, it was Green taking third in 22.99 seconds, with Williams behind him along with three other Dartmouth sprinters in the top 10. The 4x100 relay team of Couitt, Lloyd May ’18, Green and Williams also won its event with a time of 42.32. Elsewhere, Jules Hislop ’17 won the 400-meter hurdles in 55.68 seconds and Parker Whims ’19 was second in the javelin. Colin Minor ’18 (61.12 meters) and Tim Brennan ’17 (58.07) finished 1-2 in the
Rachel DeChiara ’17 Publisher
Annie Ma ’17 Executive Editor
Gayne Kalustian ’17 Ray Lu ’18 Sports Editors
Annie Duncan ’17 Kate Herrington ’17 Photography Editors
TIFFANY ZHAI/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
On its Senior Day, the women’s lacrosse team picked up a victory against the Columbia University Lions.
THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY
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hammer throw, more than six meters ahead of the nearest competition. At the University of Pennsylvania, Joey Chapin ’16 ran in the Olympic Development mile run. His 4:10.27 put him in ninth place of the twelve runners competing. Women’s Lacrosse The women’s lacrosse team earned a 13-11 victory against Columbia University on its Senior Day last Saturday. Ingrid Hermanson ’16, Danielle Lisovicz ’16, Campbell Probert ’16 and Jaclyn Leto ’16 played their final game in green and white at Scully-Fahey Field, where the women improved their home record to 6-1 to finish the season. Dartmouth scored on seven of its 11 shots in the first half, including a hat trick from Leto, two goals from Probert and additional tallies by Kathryn Giroux ’19 and Taryn Deck ’17. The Big Green took a 7-5 lead into the second half, where the team and the Lions played tit for tat. A Columbia goal 40 seconds in was followed by scores from Elizabeth Mastrio ’19 and Deck. After Columbia scored again, Probert answered with a goal, but another Columbia score made the score 10-8 with 17:55 left to play. Leto scored seven minutes later, and then two Columbia goals brought the Lions within one. That was as close as Columbia would get, as the Big Green scored twice more to pull away in the final minutes. Leto finished with four goals, bringing her to 53 on the season — the sixthmost in a season by a Dartmouth player. She also finishes fifth all-time in points and tied for third in goals. Probert also had a career-high three goals and four points. The women (7-8, 3-4 Ivy) needed a victory and a Harvard University loss in order to steal the fourth spot in the Ivy League Tournament. However, Harvard beat Yale University 13-4, meaning Dartmouth’s season ended Saturday. Sailing
Dartmouth’s own Mascoma Lake was the site of competition this weekend as the Big Green hosted and took seventh in the New England InterCollegiate Sailing Association Dinghy Championship/Coast Guard Alumni Bowl. The Dartmouth A boat began the regatta inauspiciously, placing 11th in the first race. But the A boat improved as the weekend progressed, taking eighth in the next race, followed by fifth- and sixth-place finishes. The B boat had an opposite trajectory. After beginning with the best finish of the day — fourth place — the Dartmouth sailors then took seventh, seventh and 11th in the next three races to end the regatta. All told, the Big Green’s total of 59 put it well behind winner Roger Williams University (41) but ahead of 11 schools including Brown University and Harvard University. The latest Sailing World college rankings have Dartmouth’s coed team at seventh in the nation, up from ninth in the previous rankings, while the women slipped from six to 13th. The weekend of April 23 and 24, Dartmouth sailors raced in three regattas. At the Admiral’s Cup, hosted by the Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York, Dartmouth’s coed team placed fifth in a field of twenty. Three boats represented the Big Green, whose performance included secondplace finishes in the A and C divisions and two victories in the B division. Dartmouth also took second in the Boston Dinghy Challenge Cup, hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In nine races, Big Green sailors had four top-five finishes in the A division, seven in the B division and three in the C division. The women’s team competed at Yale University’s Reed Trophy, placing eleventh of sixteen teams. The Big Green’s 280 points were enough to qualify for the ICSA Women’s Semifinals, held in San Diego in May.
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THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY
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Eduvie Ikoba ’19’
BY THE NUMBERS
33 Goals by Ikoba his senior year of high school
11 Points by Ikoba last season, a team-high
100
4 Goals by Ikoba this past season, tied for the most on the team
2 Consecutive Ivy League titles for the men’s soccer team, thanks in part to Ikoba’s contributions
Tracing the star fr
By MAX KANEFIELD The Dartmouth Staff
As the clock crept towards 1 a.m. on a Wednesday night midway through spring term, a lone figure remained seated, leaned forward in his chair, captivated by his laptop computer. That figure was Eduvie Ikoba ’19, the freshman forward who helped Dartmouth clinch its second Ivy League title that sent them to the NCAA Tournament. On the screen, Major League Soccer forwards dribble through defenders, rocket shots past goaltenders and emulate the tiki-taka style made famous by FC Barcelona. “That’s the goal right now,” Ikoba says, gesturing to the screen. “So I watch the highlights to see how they play.” Whether or not he’ll realize that goal of playing professional soccer, his journey through the soccer world is already a remarkable story of passion, perseverance and success. Bettendorf, Iowa
Percent of games Ikoba appeared in last season
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Ikoba’s relationship with soccer began in the town of Bettendorf, a small city of about 34,000 people. He began playing soccer recreationally at age four, but his family’s relationship with the game was what really drew him into the sport. “Growing up with African parents, soccer was the big sport,” Ikoba said. “So it was fun to go out and play with family members and my parents.” Ikoba’s father played soccer in Nigeria. It’s the country’s most popular sport, widely played within families in addition to school and recreational leagues. “It was nice playing as a kid with my family,” Ikoba said. “When I was younger, I would go out and play with my dad in the afternoons or weekends. I have a large family, so we played small games with just our family members, which turned soccer into a family affair that looking back I think benefited all of us.” Ikoba’s first taste of competitive soccer outside of recreational came at age seven, when he joined a travel team in Bettendorf and played a couple years above his age group. When he reached high school, he joined his school’s varsity team as a freshman. Playing with kids years older became something Ikoba would become accustomed to for the rest of his career. But before he could finish out his high school career in Iowa, his father found a
ELIZA MCDONOUGH/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
Eduvie Ikoba ’19 tied with fellow freshman striker Amadu Kunateh ’19 for the team lead in goals this past season with four.
new job that moved Ikoba and his family down south. Madison, Alabama Alabama is a state where most families concern themselves with Friday night lights and American football instead of Saturday soccer tournaments. Bob Jones High School, Ikoba’s alma mater, is known for its strong sports programs. This past week, the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League selected Reggie Ragland, a Bob Jones alumnus and former star linebacker at the University
of Alabama, with the 41st overall selection. But in a state known as a football pipeline, Ikoba nonetheless remained committed to pushing himself to be the best player on the soccer field and in the state. “From my club team, most kids that signed went to local Division II or Division III schools,” Ikoba said. “I was the only one to sign to a Division I team from my high school. In the state, there are maybe one or two kids each year who play at competitive Division I schools, but it was something I wanted.” Ikoba dominated at the high school level throughout high
school. As a leader of his team, he netted 33 goals and 12 assists in his senior season. He helped lead his team to the Class 7A state semifinals and was a two-time AllConference selection. His senior year successes earned him the Gatorade Alabama Boys Soccer Player of the Year Award. To help get better technical training and recognition during high school, Ikoba also played with the Huntsville Futbol Club travel team, where he immediately emerged as a top talent. “Even him playing up, he was the most dominant player on the
ELIZA MCDONOUGH/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
Eduvie Ikoba ’19 scored one of his four goals this past season in a 2-1 victory against the Columbia University Lions.
THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY
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’s Journey to Dartmouth:
reshman forward’s soccer career
ANNIE MA/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
Before coming to Dartmouth, Eduvie Ikoba ’19 played soccer in three different states, honing his skills with several different clubs and coaches.
team,” Huntsville Futbol Club director of goalkeeping James Ssemambo said. “He’s disciplined and wants to put in the extra work to make himself better. He believes in himself and he’s a fighter. He will give you everything he has, and if he comes off the field its because he cannot walk anymore.” Playing with a team above his age group and against older competition, he helped lead his club to one of its best seasons in history. According to Ssemambo, in Ikoba’s first season with the team, he was one of the top scorers for the club’s top team, which went on to win the state championship. Orlando, Florida The success from that season vaulted the team into a higher regional league, bringing more recognition to the program and drawing more attention from college coaches. With the nearest MLS Academy Team nearly 800 miles away in Houston, Huntsville Futbol Club and its success provided the much needed exposure for Ikoba to find his way to Division I scouts. Huntsville Futbol Club, fueled by Ikoba and his teammates, earned a slot in the Disney Soccer Showcase. The annual tournament
held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida is widely regarded as the top place for soccer talent to catch the eyes of college coaches. Ikoba excelled at the tournament and caught the eye of several scouts. While there, his father made a connection that helped establish Ikoba’s first real interaction with a college coach. “I went to a tournament in Florida, and there was a coach who was Nigerian as well,” Ikoba said. “My dad went and talked to him, and it turned out he was a coach at Boston University and coached a top travel team in Boston.” Ikoba was able to join that Boston travel team at another showcase in Florida, where he averaged just about a goal a game in front of a host of colleges programs, including Dartmouth. After one visit, Ikoba could tell it was the right fit academically and athletically, even with other schools calling. Ikoba received interest from several colleges. Boston University wanted him to come after he played with a coach from its team. Colgate University offered him a scholarship, and he also talked with the University of Indiana, Duke University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham further down the road.
“It was Dartmouth that attracted me the most because the coaches seemed very nice and that they really cared about me,” Ikoba said. “Academically we are obviously very well ranked, and the coaches had a clear goal of becoming a top program nationally.”
Hanover, New Hampshire Ikoba’s soccer path has now landed him in Hanover, where he has had a strong start to his collegiate career on the field. He started 14 of the teams 19 games and netted four goals and three assists while helping Dartmouth to its second Ivy League title. Now, he’s
focused on improving before next fall, all with an eye on a future in the MLS. His role model? Fanendo Adi, a Nigerian born striker for the Portland Timbers with an aggressive style Ikoba tries to emulate. Despite a long and winding path, Ikoba has gone from success to success, and we shouldn’t expect his future to be any less bright.
ELIZA MCDONOUGH/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
After leading the team in points with 11, Eduvie Ikoba ’19 will be an integral part of Dartmouth’s soccer team going forward.
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Baseball’s Most Dominant Pitcher On July 2, 2013, the Baltimore Oriels traded Jake Arrieta, then struggling in Triple-A Norfolk while bouncing between the majors and the minors, to the Chicago Cubs. He was optioned immediately to Triple-A Iowa. At the time of the trade, David Brown of Yahoo! Sports said that the Cubs would benefit from the trade if Arrieta could become “a serviceable starter.” On April 21 of this year, Arrieta threw a no-hitter. This no-hitter came on the heels of no-hitting the Los Angeles Dodgers last August with just nine starts in between during sanctioned major league games. As if it could possibly be argued that the two no-hitters were somehow flukes, Arrieta’s record from early July 2015 to the second no-hitter is an astonishing 20-1. To be clear, this means that during that window, the Texas native had more no-hitters than losses. In fact, his only loss came when his Cubs were no-hit by Cole Hamels and the Philadelphia Phillies. His ERA over that span is 0.86. He has surrendered four home runs and hit three of his own. Arrieta has clearly become, at the very least, “a serviceable starter” in Chicago. But how did he transition from struggling minor leaguer to ace? The answer is, in a word, freedom. In Baltimore, pitching coach Rick Adair told Arrieta that he had to abandon the delivery he’d used his entire life. According to Adair, the crossfire delivery — foot toeing the third-base side of the rubber — that Arrieta had used to earn a 23-7 record over three years at Texas Christian University would not work in the pros. Arrieta pitched for Team USA as a sophomore and went 4-0, included in this record. Adair replaced the crossfire step with a straight-to-home one. He moved Arrieta all over the rubber. Arrieta struggled; his ERA soared, and the stuff that led to his godly stretch from June to now was nowhere to be seen. When Arrieta left Baltimore, he took a huge step, a crossfire step that is, towards becoming the ace he is today. In Chicago, Arrieta made two major changes. First, Cubs’ brass, knowing what Arrieta was capable of, allowed him to return to the crossfire delivery he used at TCU. The Cubs freed Arrieta up to pitch how he wanted. Pitching coach Chris Bosio made a few tweaks, but with the Cubs,
Arrieta didn’t have to think — all he had to do was pitch. Second, Arrieta changed his workout regimen. He freed himself from his traditional workout routine and began going to a Pilates studio near his Austin home. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Arrieta said, “Pilates has been around a long time but maybe was taboo in this sport. I think it’s only a matter of time before you see [Pilates equipment] in every big league clubhouse.” With the way Arrieta is pitching, I’m sure he’s right. He credits Pilates with improving his flexibility and balance while adding strength to his legs, taking pressure off his arm in generating power. Since taking up Pilates, he’s been going deeper into games and pitching better while he’s out there. In a time that could be called a golden age of pitchers, Arrieta is the best. Until late last season, saying that anyone other than Dodgers’ star Clayton Kershaw was baseball’s best pitcher was nothing short of ludicrous. To see Kershaw’s name in the pitching probable was to pencil in a Dodger victory. Sure, 2015 was not his best statistical year, but Kershaw remained a strike-out inducing machine with a knee-buckling curveball. What separates Arrieta is what baseball scouts would call his stuff. Arrieta presents an arsenal of pitches that makes a batter’s life impossible. His four-seam fastball tends to come at hitters at 95 miles per hour. However, his two-seam, which he throws at the same speed, is so good he hardly turns to the four-seam. He adds a cutter that serves as a haunting compliment to the two-seam. It comes at different speeds, sometimes low 80s, sometimes mid 90s. It looks like the two-seam until it breaks the other way, when it moves like a slider. It’s the kind of cutter Mariano Rivera used to throw exclusively, only for nine innings, not one. On top of that, unlike with Rivera, the cutter is just one of several devastating pitches. When hitters sit on his quicker pitches, he mixes in a dangerous power curve. Long story short, the variety of Arrieta’s arsenal means that hitters are never comfortable against him. By the time they are certain whether they have been thrown a two-seam or a cutter until they hear a thud coming from the catcher’s mitt. Just when they think they’ve adjusted to the pure velocity of those pitches, he mixes in that nasty curveball. Against Arrieta, you can’t win. Joe Maddon has stated that Arrieta will be pulled from games earlier than last year to avoid unnecessary wear on his arm. This news surely comes as a relief to hitters everywhere. Even with the lightened workload, he will earn a second straight Cy Young by the time the season is over. Finally pitching the way he is most comfortable, Arrieta has developed an unstoppable arsenal. Thanks to the fitness he developed courtesy of Pilates, Arrieta will be able to keep that arsenal on display for a long time.
Each week The Numbers Game will break-down one Dartmouth sport’s statistic. This week’s number: 222 — Ian Kelsey ’18’s overall score at the Ivy League golf championship The 2016 Dartmouth men’s golf season will be defined by the fact that the team came up big when it mattered most. After an extraordinarily successful fall campaign, highlighted by a first place finish at the Quechee Club Collegiate Challenge, head coach Richard Parker and his group got off to a bit of a slow start in the spring. After a 15th place finish in the Cabarrus Irish Creek Intercollegiate, the team knew it had to turn things around fast. In its next tournament, the Yale Invitational, the team got back on track, finishing second out of 13 teams in this perennially
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competitive tournament. Then in the biggest tournament of the year, the Ivy Championship, the team beat expectations by finishing second. The impetus for this impressive finish at the final tournament of the year was sophomore Ian Kelsey ’18. The Deerfield, Illinois native averaged a 73 for the season and scored his low round of the year with a 67 at the Fighting Irish Gridiron Classic. For his solid play throughout 2015-16 Kelsey was recently named to the First Team All-Ivy team. Kelsey fired rounds of 72, 77 and 73 for a total of 222 in the Ivy Championship to finish second in the entire field and just one stroke behind Cornell University’s Luke Grayboyes. The sophomore’s finish is even more impressive when you consider the fact that the field consisted of the 40 best golfers in the Ivy League. If we take a deeper look into Kelsey’s result it becomes clear that his weekend really got rolling on the back nine of round one of the tournament. After a one over front side, Kelsey made three birdies in a five-hole stretch to help get things going in the right direction. Kelsey took this momentum and carried it through the three-day tournament. If we look at the top scores for Dartmouth golfers in the last five Ivy Championships, Kelly’s three-day aggregate score ranks well. Scott Jaster ’17 led the way for the Big Green the last two years, carding a 228 and 222, respectively, in 2015 and 2014. James Pleat ’13 scored a 218 in 2013, while probably the great-
est golfer in Dartmouth school history, Peter Williamson ’12 tallied totals of 213 and 223 in 2012 and 2013. Both marks were the top individual scores at their respective tournaments. Kelsey’s finish stacks up favorably when compared to other Dartmouth standouts through the years. His performance stands out, however, when you consider that he had to win a playoff against his fellow teammate in the days leading up to the event to even have a chance to compete in the Ivy Championship. This fact is a testament to Kelsey’s resilience and also an indication of how deep this iteration of Dartmouth men’s golf really was. It should not go without note that Kelsey was able to corral one of the harder courses in the area. While the 6,908-yard layout of Metedeconk National Golf Club may not sound too daunting, its tight fairways, firm greens and tight approach shots make it an extremely difficult test even for a player of the Kelsey’s caliber. Looking ahead to next year, the team will be returning eight players featuring: Jaster, Jeff Lang ’17 and Kelsey among others. That being said, the team will be hard pressed to replace the experience of the soon-to-graduate Charles Cai ’16 and Dylan Rusk ’16. Hopefully for Rich Parker, who just capped off his 10th season as The Bill Johnson Head Coach of Men’s Golf, Kelsey, along with the rest of the group, will be able to keep the momentum they gained at the end of the spring season and carry it into the fall.
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The effect of NCAA practice restrictions on student-athletes By CHRIS SHIM
The Dartmouth Staff
If you ask any Dartmouth student about his or her day, the answer is usually “Things are busy.” At any given time there can be a lot to manage, from class to extracurricular activities to socializing, to even the little things like when to get meals and do laundry. For a student athlete, add in nearly 20 hours a week in practice and competition, in addition to travel time. “It’s pretty busy, but it’s manageable,” said Justin Donawa ’19, a twosport athlete on the soccer and track and field teams while describing his schedule. Dartmouth’s 35 varsity teams compete in the Ivy League Conference and the NCAA Division I, a high level of competition that translates into over two hours in practice most days of the week. “Typically I’m at practice around two hours a day five days a week. And lift for about an hour two days a week,” said Ashley Zepeda ’18, a member of the women’s rugby team. “Sometimes practice runs a little longer because of meetings with the coaches.” Since it requires such a large time commitment, athletics can easily consume a student-athlete’s life. As a result, the NCAA and the Ivy League place restrictions on how much time each student-athlete is allowed to devote to athletics. Given the stringency with which the NCAA enforces these rules, Dartmouth and other institutions have compliance offices in place to help coaches and teams navigate the rules. “NCAA rules dictate the time demands of kids both in season, out of season, and during vacation periods,” said Jacob Munick, assistant athletic director of compliance at Dartmouth. “I have to be able to articulate all of these rules and make them malleable for the masses, whether that’s for student-athletes, coaches, parents of student-athletes, boosters, et cetera.” The NCAA mandates that when
in season, each athlete can devote a maximum of four CARA, or Countable Athletically Related Activity, hours per day and 20 hours per week with one required day off. These hours are defined as the hours that the coach requires or monitors attendance. The coach does not have to be present for these hours to count. “It is understood that at this level, if you want to compete at this level, you have to practice a lot,” Munick said. “The coaches have to understand the nuances to that rule and understand what it means to be hands off and to be sympathetic to these students and the other things they have going on.” However, the rules change significantly when a team is in a nonchampionship season, such as the fall season for baseball and softball, or when a team is in an off-season, Munick said. In an off-season, teams are limited to eight hours a week and two required days off. Dartmouth, however, must also adhere to the Ivy League’s set of rules, which are even more restrictive than the NCAA. In the off-season, that’s a limit of six hours per week rather than eight. And of those restrictions, the NCAA dictates how these hours can be allocated. For example, during an off-season, a maximum of two of the weekly six hours can be devoted to skills training, which includes anything involving sport-specific equipment or getting into offensive or defensive formations, while the other four must be strength and conditioning. For three-sport athletes, such as distance runners who are on both the cross country and track and field teams, their off-season is limited to the summer. Thus, from late August all the way through June, these runners go through the same weekly regimen. Joey Chapin ’16, a member of the cross country and track and field teams, outlined his weekly schedule. From Tuesday to Friday, the team meets at 3:15 p.m. to start running,
ONE ON ONE
WITH ALLISON CHUANG ’19 BY ASHLEY DUPUIS
Allison Chuang ’19 is the only freshman on the women’s tennis team. This past season, she contributed to the team’s overall 13-6 record in both singles and doubles play. The Dartmouth sat down with Chuang to reflect on her first season in a Big Green uniform. What did you enjoy most about the season looking back? AC: I would definitely say just being able to spend time with my teammates. I feel very lucky to be around such a great group of women, so it’s just really
cool to go through so much with them. That’s a really special part. What’s it like being the only freshman on the team? AC: I feel very spoiled. Since there’s only one freshman to worry about, it seems like a big difference to me from other teams that have more. It was tough at first in terms of just feeling alone, but then after that I became such good friends with the rest of the team that it wasn’t a big deal. In what ways is being a collegiate
ELIZA MCDONOUGH/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
Justin Donawa ’19, a member of both the men’s soccer and track and field teams, has learned to balance his schedule.
doing a workout that lasts between one and two hours depending on whether or not they will lift after the run. On weeks where the team does not have a meet, the weekend is reserved for distance runs, one of which is a “long run” day. They also get Mondays off to run on their own Chapin said. “Normally that makes it a good maintenance day where you run a little shorter and handle on the little injuries you might have accumulating by just really taking the time to stretch and roll out and take an ice bath to help recovery a little,” he added. As for competitions, a day of competition counts as three hours of the 20 hours per week. However, athletes often exceed that with traveling, preparing and actually competing. Every weekend this term, Zepeda has been traveling with the team. They leave campus around 3 p.m. on Fridays and usually return late Saturday nights or early Sunday morning. “During the weekend I’m usually gone from around 3 p.m. on Fridays till pretty late Saturday nights or early Sunday morning when we travel,
which has been every weekend this term,” Zepeda said. Given the large disparity between counted competition time and the actual amount of time an athlete must commit to competition, the NCAA is reconsidering whether or not to count travel time in the 20 CARA hours. “We’re seeing this potential shift to maybe determine that the travel day has to count, maybe it has to count in the hours, but nothing’s set in stone yet,” Munick said. Regardless of whether or not travel hours are counted, they still take up a large chunk of time. “The travel time itself can be really exhausting sometimes,” Chapin said. This often cuts into class time. But professors tend to be accommodating when a student-athlete has to miss class for competition. “I’ve heard some stories of professors being very difficult with assigning a great deal more work for people on the team missing class, but, in my experience, professors have always been very accommodating especially when it comes to rescheduling tests,” Chapin said. “They might assign an exercise
or a short paper to make sure I don’t get behind, but for the most part they just leave it up to us to get notes from other people in the class.” Athlete’s schedules tend to keep them very organized. “I’d say I have less free time to do miscellaneous things but it’s good because my schedule forces me to be on top of my game for school so I can also succeed as an athlete,” Zepeda said. Regardless of the restrictions, the Ivy League seems to have a relatively effective system in place. “The Ivy League wants to show the rest of the NCAA, ‘Hey world, look what we’re doing,’ not for the sake of kids want more time, but more this is what has been working for us,” Munick said. In fact, there seems to be a desire to increase the number of CARA hours. “At the Ivy League level, from the athletes I talk to, there’s a need to want more hours,” Munick said. “These kids are driven, and it’s not that the coach is making them practice, it’s that they want to.”
athlete different than what you expected?
sion I] collegiate level? AC: I don’t know how to fully put it into words, but the idea of being on a team, especially with tennis. It’s a very individual sport — like high school, the level is just different, so for the first time it’s kind of like I’m playing for my teammates and I want to win for them, and feeling that responsibility to them.
become very aware of the time I’m taking up, and I’ve become super efficient as a result. That’s not to say I don’t have time for anything, but it’s just that mentality [of efficiency].
AC: I think that I knew it would be a big time commitment, but I don’t think you ever really realize until you are in that situation. Of course I like it, but with being so busy I don’t always have time to do as many things as I would like. What do you think the strongest part of your game was this season? AC: I think the most important part [for me] was just good energy, especially with tennis the amount of cheering and positive energy you bring to the court can really help your team, like that could be the point that changes the game. What have you learned most playing by playing at the [Divi-
What do you hope to achieve on the courts next year? AC: I mean there’s always stuff you can improve on, probably just positive energy, things like that. How do you balance the responsibilities of being a student and an athlete that competes year around? AC: I would go to class, go to practice then go to the library and study. I’ve
What are you looking forward to most in the next three years at Dartmouth? AC: I think just the new members that come in [to the team]. I just think that each year will be very different. Obviously, I’m going to really miss the seniors, but we’ll also be getting in a new batch of freshmen, so I won’t be the baby on the team anymore, which is kind of exciting. And just being able to build that new team environment every year will be really cool. This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY
MONDAY, MAY 2, 2016
SPORTS
SW 8
TUESDAY LINEUP
BASEBALL VS HARVARD 1 PM & 3 PM
David McLaughlin introduced as new men’s basketball coach By GAYNE KALUSTIAN
The Dartmouth Senior Staff
A skeptical laugh broke the silence in a press conference on Wednesday, challenging newly hired men’s basketball coach David McLaughlin’s hopes of having his new staff hired in just two short weeks. But McLaughlin, standing tall and calm at the front of the room, did not miss a beat, expounding upon his plan to turn the men’s basketball team into a competitive Ivy League program. The staff, McLaughlin continued, will all need to “breathe the same air” in order to pull good recruits and make progress in Hanover. After last season’s 10-18 overall, 4-10 Ivy League finish, McLaughlin comes to the Big Green with several challenges. The team is graduating important senior players like Connor Boehm ’16, one of only two players to start all 28 games last season and a player who contributed 312 points to the Big Green in his final campaign. The team has talent in two underclassmen — Evan Boudreaux ’19 and Miles Wright ’18 — both of whom earned Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors as freshmen but neither of whom enjoyed an overall team record over .500. The team also has untapped talent in current players still seeking to reach their full potentials. In a previous article, athletic director Harry Sheehy said that recruiting and player development both were not up to snuff, allowing Dartmouth only to climb out of the rut left in the 2009-2010 season when then head coach Terry Dunn lead the Big Green to a 5-23 overall, 1-13 Ivy League record. But the Big Green wanted more. Enter David McLaughlin. McLaughlin comes to the Big Green immediately after spending three seasons as the associate head coach at Northeastern University with a total record of 52-48. In the 2014-2015 season, the Huskies went 23-12 to share the championship in the Colonial Athletic Association, garnering a bid to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 24 years. Before coaching at Northeastern, McLaughlin earned his chops at the helm of Division II Stonehill College. McLaughlin ended his tenure in the Northeast-10 Conference with
an overall record of 189-99, lifting a team that had gone 11-45 in the two seasons before he arrived. But McLaughlin’s achievements, Sheehy said at the press conference, were only one factor among many in the competitive coach selection. Sheehy said the school was looking for a coach not only with unbelievable passion but who also was a “great recruiter, teacher and first-class person with high integrity that is also fun to work with.” The press conference, which was held at 11 a.m. last Wednesday, served as McLaughlin’s first introduction into the Dartmouth community. In attendance were other Dartmouth coaches, McLaughlin’s mentor and coach Dick Whitmore, administrative officials and members of the athletic department, media members and McLaughlin’s family. McLaughlin spoke at length about Whitmore’s impact on his life, naming Whitmore as the reason he became a coach in the first place. He thanked others, including the athletic director at Stonehill, Paula Smith; his wife, who he said helped him stuff 300 envelopes searching for a coaching job back in 1997, only one of which resulted in a response; the head coach of his program; and the Dartmouth players. His own 6-year-old son, Colin, charmed the crowd by announcing much to the audience’s surprise that his favorite sport was baseball. Coaching Dartmouth basketball will likely be the biggest challenge McLaughlin has faced since he became a coach out of college. He faces a program that has struggled to show signs of true success in more than a decade — a program that lead to the departure of one of its star players, Alex Mitola ’16, at the end of his junior year. A program that remained stagnant as other Ivy League programs’ success increased dramatically and a program that might lack the personnel to make his dreams happen. But if the courtside doubters and backseat laughers have doubts about the future, McLaughlin appears to be talking over them day in and day out, and that kind of belief and ambition could be what the program needs to reach the next level. “We are going to be a work team,” McLaughlin said. “We’ll
work hard, smart and together on offense…Beyond that we’re going to work on execution. We want to execute at the highest degree offensively. The ball is made to move around the court, and we’re going to do that.” In addition to hoping to “teach guys to play defense,” McLaughlin pointed several times to his philosophy of work, telling the players in attendance that they would be running more this summer than they ever have in their lives. The players the team has now, McLaughlin said, are his “top recruits.” He points, intentionally or inadvertently, to a dark part of history that mired the men’s basketball program after former head coach Paul Cormier’s second arrival at Dartmouth. Cormier brought on Tyler Melville ’14 as his first recruit, later than the other recruits of the class of 2014 who were picked up by the previous coach. By Melville’s senior season, he was the only member of the class of 2014 still on the team. Several players quit while under Cormier’s tutelage. When a new coach comes into a program, whispers circulate about how that coach will treat the existing roster — the one that coach didn’t recruit, didn’t pick and might not see anything in. An
anonymous former player in a previous article pointed to Cormier’s need for more positivity around the team, raising questions about what a coach brings to the team besides offensive and defensive strategy and how that can ultimately affect the team’s performance. “With recruitment it’s recruiting the guys that are here in terms of building trust with them,” McLaughlin said. “I think that’s how you activate that talent. They have to want to allow you to push them. They have to trust you when you give them commands or direction. Our goal is to make great trust levels with them with our entire staff. If we can obtain that by the end of the year, get on the court with them a little bit, I think that’s a huge step heading into the summer.” A great coach, of course, will need both the cultural aptitude and the game sense. In terms of game sense, histories at Stonehill and Northeastern point to a decent amount of knowledge. McLaughlin is an award-winning coach. He was named the National Association of Basketball Coaches Regional Coach of the Year in 2006 and 2011 as well as the Northeast 10 Conference Coach of the Year in 2006 and 2010. With five coaches flown into Hanover by the
athletic department to interview for the job, options were abound for coaches with winning records. What the department needs isn’t a coach who can generate wins — it’s a coach who can generate wins here. And the one who can convince players to come here to ultimately make winning an expectation instead of an exception. And maybe McLaughlin is just the guy to make that happen. “I think as a team we’re really excited to get some new energy,” Boudreaux said. “I think the things he brings to the table in terms of developing players is something that we are really excited for. He’s going to make players better, not just the guys who are starting but the whole team.” The truth of the matter is that nobody knows what is going to happen with the team. That certainly won’t stop people from saying they knew he would win/ lose/do okay/maintain/crash and burn/dominate the moment they heard him speak at his first press conference in Hanover. And a press conference is a moment for a coach to be idealistic without fear of consequences, to be humble while others tout his strengths. But there’s no reason, really, to doubt that he could be the guy — until he shows us that he is or he isn’t.
GAYNE KALUSTIAN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
David McLaughlin was introduced as the new head coach of the men’s basketball team in a press conference last Wednesday.