After figure skating throughout high school, women's crew captain Sarah Alexander 10 was looking to try a different sport at Dartmouth. While waiting in the computer line during her freshman year Orientation, she was approached by the novice women's crew coach, who suggested trying out as a walk-on. Alexander took this advice, and is now one of many walk-on athletes on the Big Green.
With recruit-dominated rosters and intense preseason practices, only some Big Green teams have room for walk-on athletes.
Other teams, however, such as the three crew teams, rely heavily upon walk-on students. In fact, the current captains of the lightweight, heavyweight and women's squads are all walk-ons.
Lightweight captain Josh Patch '10 attributed this to the fact that the skills required by other sports are more difficult to refine in the short amount of time between tryouts and competition than those required for crew.
"When I first started, I didn't know anything about boats or taking efficient strokes," Patch said. "You pick up a lot of boat feel,' so you can feel what is going on inside the boat and what you need to do to make it go faster."
Patch also cited a difference between the number of walk-ons on the heavyweight versus lightweight crew teams due to the different body types required by both.
"Lightweight relies more on walk-ons because we generally get more," he said. "When you walk around campus, you see more average-height, average-weight guys. The odds are better that you are going to get better walk-ons."
In the lightweight boat competing at the Head of the Charles race this fall, there will be four recruits and five walk-on athletes, including the coxswain.
While the lightweight varsity boat has often had more recruits than walk-ons in previous years, new coach Daniel Roock has been more open-minded to walk-ons this year, especially because the team has a smaller number of recruits than usual, Patch said.
The women's crew team also has a high percentage of walk-ons more than half of its members are not recruits, according to Alexander. In the women's boat competing at the Head of the Charles, there will be four recruits and five walk-ons.
Alexander acknowledged the potential for walk-ons to succeed at crew, but also said that the team can be intimidating for walk-ons when they first join.
"People who have never rowed before can be in the top boat for the freshmen their first year," Alexander said. "There definitely is a little bit of an intimidation factor, but the varsity squad has made it a goal to try and incorporate walk-ons more ... to hopefully help our retention rate."
The Big Green equestrian team relies exclusively on walk-on athletes, as no one is recruited, according to Samantha Wright '10.
Football, tennis, track and field, men's lacrosse, field hockey, baseball and soccer are all sports that utilize walk-ons athletes to some degree.
The Big Green football squad generally has three or four walk-ons per year, according to head coach Buddy Teevens.
This year, two notable walk-ons are Tanner Scott '11 and Luke Hussey '11.
Wide receiver Scott initially tried to walk onto the baseball team his freshman year, but later decided he wanted to play football, he said.
"We gave him an opportunity," Teevens said. "He was a tall, lean kid. He really put a great year in and physically developed. He has really worked and made himself a competitive receiver."
Teevens, impressed with Scott's work ethic this summer, allowed Scott to play in the scrimmage against Harvard, he said. Scott has now played in all five games this season and started the last two against Yale and Holy Cross.
In those five games, Scott has made 18 receptions for a total of 205 yards, scoring one touchdown and averaging 41 yards per game. He is second on the team in both receptions and average yards per game.
"It was a good message to a lot of the guys," Teevens said. "We tell them nothing is ever final. He had a double locker and a double number, and then all of sudden he was basically a starter."
Hussey, a linebacker who has played in all five games this season, was not recruited to play football, but said he was in contact with the football coaches before the season and was therefore involved in preseason practice.
"The coaches recruited me after I went to their summer camp," Hussey said. "But, after looking at my academic profile, they decided not to use an official spot on me."
Dartmouth field hockey also relies on a few similarly "recruited" walk-ons, according to head coach Amy Fowler.
"We currently have one player who was admitted to Dartmouth on her own and asked to join our squad," she said. "After researching her skill level, we invited her to preseason of her rookie year and she has been on the squad ever since."
In the last five years, the Big Green field hockey team has seen about three other similar instances of athletes joining the team in this manner, Fowler said.
Still, Fowler also acknowledged that it is difficult for true freshman walk-ons to be accepted onto the team because of the missed month of preseason practice and games.
Austin Bowers '11, the only walk-on on the men's soccer team, took a different route to join the squad. He began training with the team his freshman spring, and started playing his sophomore fall.
"First, the coach told me I would be on the team and start as a practice player," he said. "He was extremely fair in the whole process. I started about half the games this season and, in terms of playing time, I couldn't be happier."
Bowers has played in 10 games and started six at midfield this season, scoring one goal and contributing three assists.
The decision to join the soccer team has largely influenced Bowers's Dartmouth experience, he said.
"I went through my entire freshman year not as an athlete," Bowers said. "I did a DOC trip. I played club soccer and intramural soccer which no varsity athlete is going to be doing. I have had to change my time management."
Co-captain Julia Zak '10 of the Big Green women's tennis team missed out on the recruitment process during her senior year of high school. She was able to walk onto the squad by hitting with first the assistant coach and then with head coach Robert Dallis during her freshman year.
Zak went 5-8 in doubles play in the 2008-2009 season and 10-3 in singles play in the 2007-2008 season.
Currently the only walk-on on the team, Zak stressed the difficulty of missing preseason training.
"There is definitely uneasiness because everyone already knows each other," she said. "They had already been through preseason, which is really big for bonding. On the tennis court, I tried really hard to impress them. I remember I used to try and show up to practice extra early."
Dartmouth's men's track and field squad also has a limited number of walk-ons, according to head coach Barry Harwick. The addition of walk-on athletes potentially occurs once or twice a year, he said.
"Our men's team, like other squads at Dartmouth, has a roster limit," Harwick said. "Our recruited student-athletes fill the vast majority of those spots. The Ivy League is extremely competitive, and successful athletes need to be able to perform at a pretty high level immediately."
For Big Green baseball, Ezra Josephson '10 is currently the team's only walk-on. As an infielder, he played in 16 games and started eight in the 2009 season, after starting only one game the previous year.
In Josephson's 37 at-bats in 2009, he had a .189 batting average.
The men's lacrosse team currently has around 13 walk-ons, including some two-sport athletes, trying out to walk onto this year's squad, according to head coach Andrew Towers.
"When we're selecting the team, we don't think this guy's a walk-on, therefore he is different and not as good as any of our recruited guys,'" Towers said. "In the end, we don't care how you got here, supported in admissions or not, we want the best 40 or so student-athletes."
According to swimming and diving head coach Jim Wilson, his 34-member men's squad is made up of 17 walk-ons, while the women's 22-member team only has two walk-ons.
Swimmer Ryan Goldhahn '04, perhaps the most successful non-recruit in recent Dartmouth athletics, holds the school record in the 100-meter freestyle, and is a member of five Big Green record-setting relay teams, The Dartmouth previously reported.
The Big Green men's basketball, women's basketball, and women's hockey squads currently have no walk-ons on their rosters, according to their coaches.
Women's hockey coach Mark Hudak cited an inadequate skill level among students who have tried to walk on to the team in recent years as the reason for the lack of walk-ons on the team.
For men's basketball, meanwhile, the traveling limitation placed on the team has affected its ability to accept walk-on players, coach Terry Dunn said.
"Because the Ivy League only allows us to travel with only fifteen players, it is sometimes difficult for a student-athlete to give up valuable academic time where there are very few perks," he said. "As a walk-on athlete, one would have to understand the sacrifices early on in the process."
For those athletes who have successfully walked on to their teams, there does not seem to be a divide between walk-ons and recruited athletes, according to several such students.
"I am a walk-on, but it is something that never really crosses my mind anymore," Zak said. "I am as much a part of the team as anyone else."
Bowers also stressed that there is no importance placed upon being a walk-on versus being a recruit.
"I like to see myself as an equal member of the team, and my teammates would say the same thing," he said. "After playing for a while, you kind of forget you are a walk-on. At the end of the day, you are just trying to win games."
