For those who do not frequently read the back pages of The Dartmouth, it may come as a surprise that teams representing the College will compete in several meaningful home games over the weekend. With an ECAC first-round bye on the line, Big Green men's hockey hosts rivals Harvard and Brown, while men's basketball, only a year removed from one of the worst campaigns in school history, will battle Yale and Brown in hopes of moving into the Ivy League's hotly contested second spot.
The simple fact that these two Big Green teams are still relevant this late in February underscores a consistently overlooked facet of our fair college. In near-empty gymnasiums and sub-standard training facilities, Dartmouth has quietly assembled a handful of the country's finest athletic programs. Women's hockey is ranked third in the nation, while its male counterpart has darted in and out of the top 20 all season. Both squash teams are among the 10 best in their sport, and basketball's Lady Green remain undefeated in Ivy League competition. At the club sport level, Dartmouth figure skating won the 2004 National Championships and the College's men's and women's rugby teams consistently perform at an exemplary level.
Even men's basketball, which started the season in the shadow of an 18-game losing streak, ranks fourth in the conference with a dignified 5-5 record. From downhill and nordic skiing to track and field to lacrosse, the list goes on and on.
And, yet, despite Dartmouth's considerable athletic achievements, much of the campus remains either unaware or -- worse -- uninterested. Granted, most students do not attend Ivy League schools for big-time sports, but even among our Ancient Eight peers, our lack of enthusiasm is noticeable.
Much is said of the Dartmouth community. We are a small school, and as such, our strength lies in the intimacy that only a 4,000-person university in the middle of New England can afford. We know our athletes on a personal level that undergraduates at the University of Michigan or Stanford cannot. At a time when many college sports programs resemble major league farm systems, Dartmouth's student-athletes are, above all, students. We should take pride in their accomplishments, not because three point shooting percentages or the pole vault have any enduring relevance, but because our student-athletes go through the same day-to-day grind as us. The least we can do is show up to a game or two and offer them our support.
