Aspiring Upper Valley athletes now have the opportunity to learn from members of several Dartmouth varsity squads, thanks to Athletes United, a newly-formed organization responsible for organizing and overseeing one athletic league for children in the Upper Valley each term. Coaches and referees for the league are drawn exclusively from Big Green athletic teams.
The group was founded by Myra Sack '10 and Becky Poskin '09, both members of the women's soccer team, in order to "unite children of the Upper Valley with Dartmouth student-athletes through a free, organized and fun sports league," according to its mission statement.
Sack said the league represents an important way for her to expand her interests at the College.
"I went home over Thanksgiving break [last year] anxious to do something else while I was here at Dartmouth," she said. "Soccer and school are a huge part of what I do, but I felt that there was something missing."
Sack said her contemplation soon led her to the idea of sharing her positive experiences in athletics with others.
"I was thinking about what I love, promoting the positivity of sport and feeding off of positive athlete-coach relationships that I've had, and I wanted to give that to other people," Sack said. "There were so many Dartmouth athletes who wanted to do more in the community and that's clear in the number of people who want to participate."
In order to get their idea off the ground, Poskin and Sack contacted the directors of local Upper Valley recreation centers, who then invited the pair to propose their idea at a meeting of all recreation directors in the area.
The group's first league, the Athletes United summer basketball league, began this summer and consists of teams from Sharon, Thetford and Norwich, Vt. Participation in the league, which will run for five to six weeks, is free for all fourth, fifth and sixth graders in the Upper Valley.
The program's 15 summer term coaches include Big Green sophomore student-athletes Elizabeth Weintraub, Sara Coffin, Alex Huestis, Eliza Bennett, Chelsea Kirk, Michael Shrubb, Dan Wagman, Andrew Peisch, Evan Nogay, Niles Murphy, Marlon Alebiosu and Zech Glaize.
Coaches in the program are drawn from several different varsity sports, including basketball, lacrosse, swimming, ice hockey, football, soccer, tennis and squash.
The women's soccer team has also been influential in the creation of Athletes United, Sack said, and sophomores Kelsey Quick, Ali Hubbard, Jennifer Stone and Maggie Goldstein are now serving as coordinators of the program.
Goldstein is a member of The Dartmouth staff.
The student-athlete response to the program has been extremely positive, Sack added.
"In the Spring we blitzed out to all varsity athletes and asked who would be interested in participating, and we got an overwhelming response. There were about 75 to 100 people at the first meeting," Sack said.
Student-athlete coaches run two practices for their teams each week at the town recreation centers. The teams each face off for one game at Leede Arena each Saturday.
The group also held a kick-off weekend barbeque outside of Leede Arena to allow children, coaches and parents to meet each other on June 28.
In addition to providing facilities and equipment, Athletes United gives each participant a T-shirt to wear as a uniform during games.
Funding for the first term of the program has been provided by the Dartmouth Athletic Department.
Currently, transportation to and from recreation centers and Leede Arena is in the hands of parents, Sack said.
Beginning this Fall, however, Sack said she hopes that the program will be able to provide a transportation system using College-owned vehicles.
One of the main objectives of this program, she said, is to "shrink the Upper Valley and to extend Dartmouth's efforts to reach out to towns outside of just Hanover."
Although the program has been met with enthusiasm from local recreation directors, the total number of participants has not yet reached the levels the directors had first imagined, Sack said, possibly due to a lack of coordination with the Upper Valley school systems.
"Right now we have three recreation centers participating, and we've had seven or eight say they're interested in jumping on board in the fall," said Sack.
The program will aim to create a league for a new off-season sport each term, Sack said, beginning with a lacrosse league during Fall term.
