With all of the parties and drunkenness and frat angels and screaming at freshmen and giant burning structures and creepy alums and and pig roasts and people trying to get the decade at pig roasts this weekend, a lot of people forget Homecoming's original purpose: to support our sports teams. Almost all of Dartmouth's teams are playing in Hanover on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Here are some of the best games to go see:
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Rugby Rugby probably has the highest success-rate-to-fan-base-size ratio in all of Dartmouth athletics this fall. Possible reasons include the distance to Brophy Field (just one mile and a few hills, people are so lazy), a lack of stands and possibly that the vast majority of students that attend rugby games have no idea what is happening on the field. Here are some reasons to attend: Rugby is the best team on campus right now; Rugby is a beautiful sport to watch when it's played well, regardless of your knowledge level (and it played very well at Dartmouth); Brophy Field is one of the most spectacular sports venues I've ever seen, especially when the hills behind the field are covered in fall foliage (which they are right now). Why doesn't the rugby team, or even better, the College, organize some sort of fan transportation to the field? How hard could it possibly be to charter Advanced Transit buses, or those weird vans the sailing team uses, or something like that to cart people around? Somebody get on this.
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Men's Soccer The No. 16 men's soccer team has regained its form after a pretty awkward stretch of losses and maintained its top-20 national ranking. Between Dan Keat '10, Craig Henderson '10 and Lucky Mkosana '12, the Big Green has one of the most exciting and non-American offenses in the country. The Foreign Legion (I hope that name sticks) can pile on goals from any position, on any set piece, at any angle. Playing a weak Columbia (3-6-1, 1-2-0 Ivy) team on Saturday, the team should put on an entertaining show as it continues to push into the grueling Ivy season. With the level competition at the top of the conference, Dartmouth really can't afford to drop games to teams like the Lions, so get out there and support the Big Green. Plus, Burnham Field is still the best place to heckle on campus.
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Field Hockey So I've apparently become field hockey's number-one fan on this campus. Which isn't hard, because there are maybe three of us. That is a darn shame, because those ladies are still killing it, even if their sport discriminates against lefties like me, and men who are not in Europe. The team just lost a heartbreaker to Yale, with whom Dartmouth was tied for second place in the Ivy League, so it's going to need that fan support to bounce back against Columbia. And seeing as how fan support right now is hovering right around 16 members, 10 of whom are parents and two of which are family dogs, I think that we as a student body can do better to support our classmates. Schools are too often judged solely based on their football and basketball programs just because field hockey doesn't get all of the press, doesn't mean you shouldn't get out there. Even if the sport does discriminate against me in two separate ways.
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Football Football makes the list simply because this weekend's game against Columbia is an absolute must-win. After starting with promise, the team has once again somehow sunk into the same horrible rut it was in all last season. The loss against Holy Cross was expected, but the beating Dartmouth took from a down Yale team two Saturdays ago was not a good sign, and couldn't have been great for team morale. Columbia, usually the goat of the Ancient Eight, has shown some fight this season, including a 38-0 blanking of an uncharacteristically weak Princeton squad. That doesn't mean Dartmouth can't beat either or both of those teams, though. I am honestly out of reasons as to why football keeps losing, and I really hope that the team is out of excuses. If the Big Green doesn't beat Columbia, it has to take on defending Ivy champion Harvard in Cambridge, Mass., the next week, a decent Cornell team the next, and perennial contenders Brown the next before ending the season against Princeton. With a loss at home against Columbia, Dartmouth is in danger of sliding into a deep losing hole. Or maybe not, who knows if there's one thing this team has proven to be, it's unpredictable.
So get out there. Any game is fun when you're in the state you'll be in this weekend.
