The life of a varsity athlete at Dartmouth presents both athletic and academic challenges. It means hours of practice every day and requires the ability to manage whatever time one has have left in order to keep up with a strenuous school schedule.
Now, imagine multiplying it all by two.
With athletic training and practice almost year-round, two-sport athletes must be dedicated to spending much of their time in Hanover. Most two-sport athletes may not take off-terms or study abroad, and most must take sophomore summer off to accommodate their sports' schedules. But the strongest tie is an intense love for the sports they play.
While the life of a two-sport athlete is highly demanding, Dartmouth is home to many student-athletes who manage to balance academics and multiple athletic team commitments. Among the standouts (according to Dartmouth Sports Information) is Robby Pride '10, a junior captain for the men's basketball team and also a midfielder for men's lacrosse. Last season, two-sport athlete Josh Gillam '10 scored 22 goals with a lacrosse stick and seven with a hockey stick, also picking up eight assists on the ice in the 2007-08 season.
Four athletes can claim membership to both the football and men's track and field squads, including Muhammed Abdul-Shakoor '10, Peter Pidermann '10, Don Kephart '11, and Steve Morris '11.
Ben True '08, with cross-country and skiing, Lucretia Witte '10 with squash and equestrian, and Meghan Everett '12 with field hockey and softball also join the ranks of the school's two-sport athletes.
(For this article, we excluded runners who participate in cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field.)
Here's a closer look at the lives of four multi-sport Dartmouth student-athletes:
Ashley Hines '09 is coming off a 2008 field hockey season in which she tallied six goals and five assists, giving her 17 total points, which is second-most on the team. The senior from Massachusetts captained the Dartmouth field hockey team this season, her fourth year with the team. She was named second-team All-Ivy in the 2007 season and was co-most valuable player on the team.
Hines was recruited to play field hockey from Philips Exeter Academy, where she played not two, but three sports: field hockey, lacrosse, and ice hockey. While at Philips Exeter, Hines led her field hockey team to a 17-6-6 record in her final two years and was also a captain her senior year.
Despite not being recruited for lacrosse, Hines decided to try out for the team during her sophomore year and earned a spot on the roster.
"I guess I always kind of thought about playing two sports, and didn't know if I could do it," she said. "I thought it would be a challenge to try out for the lacrosse team, and I think I would regret never trying."
She cites her brother Derek, a former ice hockey player at West Point who also tried out for and made the lacrosse team, as inspiration.
Now Ashley has a full year-round schedule, playing field hockey in the summer and fall and lacrosse in the winter and spring.
"I don't really have time for anything else," she said.
Last year, Hines had two days off in between the end of field hockey and the beginning of lacrosse training.
"It's hard because after playing a whole season, your body is so broken down," she said, "But once you get there it's fun. I really like doing both sports. So it sounds like it's hard, but it's really not because I love it."
There are certain unique challenges to being a two-sport athlete. Playing two sports inevitably leads to time conflicts and overlap, and Hines is always playing catch-up since she misses the off-season for both sports.
It is clear that sports have always been a part of Hines's life, though, so a busy life is nothing new. But after playing three sports in high school and two in college, what's next?
"I'm very competitive, so I'm definitely going to need to find something to replace that competitiveness," Hines said.
After taking a little time away from sports, Hines hopes to do some coaching, among many other future endeavors.
For Glenn Randall '09, skiing was a family affair. His father was a member of the United States ski team, and his mother skied for the Norwegian national team, both after skiing in college. Now Glenn continues in their footsteps as one of the country's best cross-country skiers. Glenn learned to ski in the Colorado Rockies and last March won the NCAA cross-country championship in the men's 10-kilometer freestyle race, which he finished in 30:37.3, 11 seconds better than second-place finisher, University of Alaska-Fairbanks' Marius Korthauer. It was a course that featured long, tough uphills, which suit Randall well.
Time is always tight when ski season is only the middle sport in a three-sport schedule. In the fall, Glenn runs cross country, and in the spring, he runs the 10k and 5k distance races in outdoor track.
"At first it was like, running is a great way to stay in shape for when ski season comes around," Randall said. "But then it eventually got to the point where I enjoyed running enough that I wanted to continue doing it in college instead of just using it as training for skiing. It's actually a lot of fun."
Although the ski team has already started practices, Randall will not be able to participate until after running season is over.
The quick turnover should not be too much of a problem for Randall, who says that he can get himself into pretty good ski shape and that running actually makes his legs feel better during skiing season.
The end of ski season is then just the beginning of track, a cycle that provides both athletic and academic challenges.
"Athletically, one of the biggest challenges is going into track season from ski season because you have to jump right into running training and just kind of hope that you make it," Randall said. "Academically, you don't get any time where you're not doing anything other than classes, but because I haven't had any of those times, it just seems normal to me."
Despite the challenges, Randall, a physics major, has excelled in both the athletic and academic arena. Last May, he received the Alfred E. Watson Award for the best male athlete of the year at the annual Celebration of Athletic Excellence banquet.
After college, Randall plans on taking a much-needed year off before going to grad school, "to keep my sanity," he said.
With his extensive success with skiing, it would be no surprise to see him in contention in future skiing competitions.
Ted Newhouse '09 has played sports all his life. In middle school, he played lacrosse with kids in the neighborhood and picked up squash at a local court near his house. In high school, he played squash and lacrosse all four years and captained both as a senior. For Newhouse, there was no hesitation when it came to playing both squash and lacrosse at Dartmouth.
"I knew that if I had to drop one, I would really miss it," he said, "I didn't even know if it was possible to play both, but both coaches were extremely helpful and they let it happen."
Most of the fall is taken up by squash, which means no lacrosse fall ball. Newhouse does not join the lacrosse team until March, usually after the first actual game has been played.
Playing squash and lacrosse means that Newhouse has to be on campus all Winter and Spring term. Like most two-sport athletes, he has been unable to take a term off or to study abroad.
"I've been at Dartmouth a lot more than a regular student, but I can't really complain," he said, "I mean, Dartmouth's a great place. I love it."
After college, Newhouse hopes to continue playing both squash and lacrosse.
"The reason I played both of them in college is because I love both of them and that hasn't changed over the past four years," Newhouse said. "I'd like to play them for as long as I can."
Jimmy Mullen '09 is relatively new to the two-sport athlete club. At Mt. Lebanon High School in Pennsylvania, he played both lacrosse and football and captained both teams. He was recruited for lacrosse but has always wanted to play football again, though pre-med requirements coupled with an economics major did not allow for much extra time.
After finishing his pre-med requirements, Mullen met with football head coach Buddy Teevens, who then invited Mullen to preseason camp. He has been playing football for the Big Green ever since.
"It's been awesome getting to meet so many new people," Mullen said. "That's probably the best part, just getting to know people I probably wouldn't have known as well otherwise. It's great to be playing football again, and playing a new position. I played running back in high school, and I'm playing wide receiver now, so that's definitely been a challenge to adjust. It's great to be back to a sport I haven't played for four years."
As for missing fall ball, Mullen said that it shouldn't be too much of an issue. The only downside is that he will be unable to get to know the freshmen lacrosse players.
Not all two-sport athletes are able to make such smooth transitions; coaches who want athletes to only focus on one sport can get in the way.
"Sometimes certain coaches don't like their athletes playing two sports," Mullen said. "My coaches were both very supportive. I was a little nervous to call the lacrosse coach at first, but once I did he was actually pretty excited."
Mullen did not play in Saturday's game against Cornell, because he was busy completing medical school interviews, but plans to join the team for the remainder of the season.