The women's ice hockey team will participate in ECAC's Pink at the Rink initiative when it welcomes Rensselaer on Friday. The Big Green women will take the ice in pink jerseys and socks while coaches will show their support with pink scarves and ties.
The coaches' scarves and ties will be personalized and auctioned off on eBay following the contest to raise funds for the American Cancer Society, which founded the Pink at the Rink program in partnership with ECAC.
The initiative is a part of the Coaches vs. Cancer program, which encourages schools to join in the fight against cancer through athletics. Coaches vs. Cancer is best known for its pre-season NCAA basketball tournament.
On Saturday, the women's basketball team will promote the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's Think Pink initiative to fight breast cancer when Dartmouth takes on Yale.
Big Green athletes will be wearing pink shoelaces and pink jerseys to increase awareness for breast cancer. The College is one of over 800 schools nationwide that supports the Think Pink initiative.
In addition, both the hockey and basketball teams will give thanks to the people who make treatment of cancer possible in the Upper Valley.
"We wanted to put our own spin on it," said Sam Hopkins, Dartmouth's assistant athletic director for marketing and promotions. "So we're giving out free tickets to the staff at Dartmouth-Hitchcock's Norris Cotton Cancer Center and recognize the work that they put in."
In addition to supporting breast cancer research, the teams will celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day when the basketball team takes on Brown on Friday and when the ice hockey team hosts Union on Saturday.
National Girls and Women's Sports Day was founded in 1987 to honor the accomplishments of Flo Hyman, a women's volleyball player for the U.S. Olympic team. It has since been celebrated to honor the participation of women in sports and recognize female leaders in the athletic realm. Youth teams from the Upper Valley area will receive free tickets as part of this promotion.
In addition, the Dartmouth women's basketball team will be participating in the NCAA's Pack the House program this weekend.
The aim of the Pack the House is to encourage participating schools to set attendance records at athletic events. Dartmouth set its attendance record last year during the Blue Sky Challenge when 2,153 people packed into Leede Arena to watch the Big Green take on national powerhouse Duke. Dartmouth, despite having the lowest capacity home court in the Ivy League, has led the Ancient Eight in attendance for the past five years.
Hopkins hopes that the Big Green can gain a sizeable home court advantage as a result of the promotions.
"It seemed logical to have these two promotions at the same time to encourage attendance," Hopkins said. "We're going to have a lot of kids there from local leagues, though it will be tough to beat the attendance record we set against Duke," he said. We're not going to draw 10,000 fans like Maryland, but we want to show that we have passionate fans and set an example for the rest of the league to follow."
The women's basketball team is currently in a four-way tie for first place in the Ivy League with Cornell, Harvard and Yale. The Big Green hopes to pull away from the pack with a strong performance this weekend. Dartmouth is favored in its game against Brown, who has one win on the season, but the match against Yale will be a more difficult contest.
The women's hockey team, on the other hand, is currently in fourth in the ECAC. The Big Green has an identical conference record with third-place Clarkson, but the Golden Knghts have the tiebreaker over Dartmouth by virtue of their superior conference record. The Big Green hopes to pass Clarkson in the conference table, as Union and Rensselaer are ninth and 12th in the conference, respectively.
