Winter Carnival is over and the Legends lived to tell the tale. The Legends get a lot of requests from Big Green athletes, but this was the most romantic one.
Kelly Hood '12 and Liz Blanken '13 of the women's field hockey team sent an elaborate E-Greeting card to the Legends which said, "Double-date with some Leverone legends?"
The Legends, always looking for love, could not resist the ladies' charm and agreed to the date.
Hood is from Berlin, N.H., but moved over to Holderness for her high school years, where she was introduced to field hockey by Gordon Bombay of "The Mighty Ducks."
After learning the knuckle-puck from Keenan Thompson is Kel still alive? and executing it flawlessly in a game, Hood started receiving a lot of college offers. She was very impressed with Dartmouth's recruiting process because the school promised to name its art museum after her if she agreed to attend.
The Hood Museum of Art is currently showing Figural Art from Africa and Hood encourages everyone to check it out.
Blanken comes from Millburn, N.J., where she attended Millburn High School, just like Anne Hathaway from "The Princess Diaries." A defensive stopper throughout high school, Blanken received the nickname "the Blanket" after consistently shutting down the opponent's best scorer and giving warm hugs.
Millburn High School has a sorting hat instead of a guidance department, so Blanken was chosen for Dartmouth, although most of her family got placed into Hufflepuff.
The date was scheduled for 2 p.m. on the Saturday of Winter Carnival, but the Legends struggled to wake up on time since they were tired from preparing one-liners and special cologne flavors during the week.
When they eventually arrived, they brought with them tuxedos, bouquets of flowers and a string quartet led by track athlete Rob Contuzzi '12 on the violin. As soon as the Legends arrived, they realized this "date" was actually a Rec League challenge.
The Legends had been hoodwinked but thankfully were prepared for anything they ripped away their tuxes to reveal name-brand athletic wear from Wal-Mart.
Still in the romantic mindset, the Legends pushed for coed teams, but Hood and Blanken enforced a middle-school dance format boys on one side, girls on the other and no contact allowed.
Ludlow put his arm around Katz and said, "Look man, you've got that hot girlfriend back home. Let's just play sports."
The rules of the game were two-on-two, play to nine, keep the ball elevated and no flirting. Blanken and Hood got off to a quick start with a one-timer from Hood off a Blanken pass.
Katz attempted to knuckle-bump with Blanken after her goal, got rejected and called for a flirting penalty. Ludlow frantically pulled Katz aside and inspired by the Mighty Ducks said, "I know it's early but let's do the flying lower-case i."
With Katz lining up behind Ludlow, they headed straight towards the XX chromosomes. Hood flashed her Ivy League Player of the Week medal, which distracted Ludlow into whiffing his shot and ruined the Legends' only set play.
The Legends found minor success when Katz beat Hood around the edge. Hood then turned to Blanken, and said, "Let's try now."
Four minutes later, the score was 8-0. Katz and Ludlow were bruised and tired, and they really just wanted to take the girls to Canoe Club. Ludlow (the optimistic Legend) consoled Katz (the sad panda Legend) and said, "Turn it on now for the Legends, for The D, for Morristown."
Katz shed a tear, refocused and illegally kicked the ball to Ludlow, who unleashed an incredible rising shot that bounced twice before scoring.
As the Legends celebrated by streaking the field, Hood and Blanken scored their last goal for the 9-1 win. The Legends left the field feeling like failures, but they both received Facebook friend requests the next day.
This was truly a Legendary experience, and Ludlow and Katz are grateful to Blanken and Hood for taking the time out of their Carnival to compete. The focus they showed in the middle of the Winter bodes well for the Big Green field hockey team's fall campaign.
Until next week, be legendary.
