Correction appended
Alcohol and drug use and abuse is constantly featured in sports news. J.J. Redick, Bode Miller, Antonio Bryant and Koren Robinson are just a few of the big names on the list of athletes who have made headlines for issues relating to drugs or alcohol. Just two weeks ago, that list expanded to include Zach Randolph, a key starter for the Los Angeles Clippers, who was arrested on suspicion of a DUI in Los Angeles.
Whether we hate it or love it, Dartmouth's image has also historically been closely linked to alcohol. Our unofficial mascot is Keggy the Keg, and the stereotypical snapshot of the College's social scene is often considered to be a basement littered with Keystone cans.
Athletes on each of Dartmouth's 34 sports teams, however, for at least one season, must find a way to remedy the dual realities of collegiate athletic competition and the Dartmouth social scene.
According to its official web site, the National Collegiate Athletic Association mandates that athletic departments at colleges and universities establish their own specific drug and alcohol policies for athletes. Many athletic departments around the country establish a set of policies and then allow coaches to determine more specific regimens for their own teams. These "dry policies" reflect the coach's and team's stances on the use of alcohol, and serve to provide concrete rules about when and how to abstain from alcohol, particularly in relation to upcoming athletic events.
Benjamin Driver '12, a member of Dartmouth's men's swimming team, described his team's dry policy.
"The swim team has a strict 72-hour rule before swim meets, and we go completely dry a month before the Ivy League Championships," he said.
Driver noted that for athletes, even the slightest hangover can be detrimental.
"Blacking out is strongly discouraged as it can undo weeks of training," he said.
A member of Dartmouth's baseball team, who wished to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of this issue, said that his team adopts a similar stance towards drinking in-season.
"The baseball team follows about a 48-hour rule," he said. "There is no drinking on away trips, no matter what, and no drinking the night before a game."
The policy seems to be working out for the baseball team this year: the squad just finished a road trip to Yale University and is currently rolling through the Ivy League with one of its best starts in history.
When asked about the alcohol policy on the men's and women's golf teams, one member of the women's team, who wished to remain anonymous because she was unsure of the official rule, said her team also generally adopts the two-day rule. Both the men's and women's golf teams have also enjoyed success this season, and will finish off their schedules by competing in the Ivy League Championships at Atlantic City, N.J., this weekend.
"I'm not sure, but I think it is a 48-hour policy before tournaments," she said. "Mainly, we rely on our own judgment, because there is no official policy."
Many players interviewed by The Dartmouth noted that they were similarly unsure of their team's exact policies because their teams do not maintain specific rules, instead allowing each player's common sense and a sense of responsibility to inform most decisions about alcohol.
John Turco, director of Dartmouth Health Services, said that a moderate level of drinking probably does not pose a serious risk to athletes' performance in competition, but that drinking during the season could become a problem if it began interfering with an athlete's schedule and rest.
"Anything in moderation, like a glass of wine after dinner or one beer, isn't going to significantly interfere [with an athlete's performance]," he said. "But alcohol does interfere with your ability to sleep, which, over the course of a season, could wear you down."
Several athletes interviewed by The Dartmouth noted that dry policies, regardless of whether they are codified or left up to the specific judgment of each athlete, are extremely important for each team.
"The policy is taken very seriously by the team and by the coaches," Driver said of his experience on the swim team. "It's a small team, so people will know if you violate these rules, and it is looked down upon. The punishment is a restriction from swimming at Ivy League Championships."
An unnamed athlete from the women's track and field team added that her team abides by a similar code of common sense and personal responsibility.
"There is no strict policy per se, but the captains have always said just to 'be smart' concerning alcohol," she said, adding later, "You don't have to be completely dry all the time, but going out the day before a big meet and partying is definitely not a good idea."
A member of the equestrian team, who also wished to remain anonymous, echoed this sentiment, explaining that a team's dry policy is essentially set by team standards.
"The equestrian team does not have an official policy on drinking," the athlete said. "Teammates are encouraged not to drink before competitions, and being hung over and not performing well are extremely frowned upon."
Beyond any dictates handed down from its coaching staff, the team takes the responsibility upon itself to perform at its best level during shows, this member said.
"We rely mostly on peer pressure and team members' sense of duty and responsibility to their teammates and coaches," this athlete said.
The equestrian team recently finished second at the Ivy League Championship, successfully competed at the Dartmouth Classic and traveled to the National Championships this past week.
Perhaps the strictest alcohol policy adopted this spring has come from the women's crew team, which this season adopted a completely dry policy, abstaining from alcohol throughout the entire season.
Katherine Harney '09, a captain of the women's team, explained that this year's policy is more strict that those outlined by the team in previous seasons.
In other years, the team has adopted a "two-drink rule," which allowed women on the varsity team to have two drinks per week for the first few weeks of the term.
The women then went entirely dry for the rest of the season, in preparation for their league championships.
Harney said that the change in policy stemmed from the specific mentality of this year's team.
"The decision wasn't necessarily for the health benefits, but rather, it signifies a mental shift for us," she said. "After last spring, the team came up short. We've been making a lot of changes and putting in a lot of extra effort since to try and secure a bid [to the NCAA tournament] this year. In order to focus on our ultimate goal, we decided to go all in and go totally dry for the whole season."
In the past, the men's crew team has also adopted a completely dry policy, but Harney said the men's teams have not adopted a completely dry policy this year.
The coaches of the men's lightweight and heavyweight crew teams Steve Perry and Christopher Bordeau, however, both said that each team has maintained a completely dry policy throughout its season.
Turco said that he was not aware of good studies exploring whether a two-drink per week-style policy was preferable to a 72-hour-rule type of policy, adding that he believed the type of policy a team adopts is less important than the fact that it adopts any policy at all.
"The things that are most effective is when a team sits down together and says, 'Here's what our policy is going to be,'" he said. "If you don't talk about it, and then somebody says, 'I think Sally or Fred is getting loaded three nights a week,' then the team ends up saying, 'Did we have a policy or didn't we?' And it makes it difficult for anyone to know what was agreed upon."
Members of the crew team are not the only Big Green athletes who will stay completely dry this season. Many members of teams make the decision to abstain from alcohol completely, the unnamed member of the women's track and field team said.
"A lot of athletes, especially the really serious ones, are entirely dry in-season even though the rules do not require it," she said. "Although some party to celebrate right after a meet, no one would go out prior to the meet."
Harney said that sacrificing alcohol is often not a tough decision to make for members of a team.
"It's nice because everyone on the team follows the rules," she said. "There are no explicit consequences for breaking the policy -- the feeling of letting down a teammate is punishment enough, and everyone respects the team enough not to do it."
While some may sacrifice more than others, then, the ultimate decision on sports and alcohol at Dartmouth seems comes from the individual athletes, with the help of teammates and coaches.
Heavy drinking, for these athletes, appears to take the back seat to the commitment they have made to their sport, as the top priority of Big Green athletes seems clear: For most athletes at Dartmouth, the games played on the tracks, diamonds and fields are simply much more important than the games played in any basement.
An athlete who wished to remain anonymous out of respect to his team summed up this logic simply.
"If I liked drinking more than my sport, I would drink, but I like my sport a lot better," he said.
The original version of this article cited the captain of the women's crew team as having told The Dartmouth that the men's crew teams were not enforcing a completely dry policy this season. In fact, according to the coaches of the men's heavyweight and lightweight crews, both of those teams have adopted completely dry in-season policies.
