All sports fans dream. When you are a kid and you are shooting hoops in the driveway, you dream of playing in the NBA finals and making the game-winning shot. When you grow up and realize you'll never become a professional athlete, you dream of the day your favorite player will make a game-winning shot to win a championship for your favorite team. Dreaming is a way for sports fans to cope with all of the heartbreaks and losing seasons, until that one glorious moment of victory finally arrives (or in many Boston teams' cases, many moments of glory).
If you are a Dartmouth sports fan, chances are you have suffered many heartbreaks and losing seasons over the years but you should still dream. For this week's top 10, I present to you the top 10 accomplishments I want to see happen for Dartmouth athletics.
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A Dartmouth game shown on ESPN It could be soccer or lacrosse or basketball or even sailing. All I want is for a Dartmouth sporting event to be shown on the original channel not the B-side versions of ESPN, like ESPN3 or ESPNU.
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A WNBA player from Dartmouth Even when I dream, I have certain limits, and I know Dartmouth probably will not produce another player in the NBA. So what's the next best thing? The WNBA! With the success the Dartmouth women's basketball team has had (five postseason appearances in the past six seasons), I would not be surprised to see a Big Green player in the WNBA sometime in the future.
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Creative in-game traditions Instead of always singing the alma mater, perhaps we could write a new Dartmouth fight song. Instead of having our mascot do pushups (like the University of Oregon's duck mascot), perhaps we could have Keggy do jumping jacks. Instead of offensive heckling at squash matches, perhaps we could have creative chants that are kept as traditions. Who says Ivy League schools can't have great sports fans?
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A Dartmouth alum playing as a starter in the NFL You know how on primetime football broadcasts, the starters on both teams introduce themselves individually and say which college they are from? For example, Steelers wide receiver Santonio Holmes would say "Santonio Holmes, THE Ohio State University." Now imagine watching "Sunday Night Football" one time and hearing someone say "John Doe, Dartmouth College." I get chills just thinking about it.
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Ending Trinity College men's squash team's winning streak How dominant has the Trinity men's squash team been over the past decade? The team has won 12 national championships and 239 consecutive matches (it has not lost a match since 1998). This streak would make even the University of Connecticut's women's basketball team (who logged 90 consecutive wins from 2008 to 2010) jealous. I would love nothing more than for the Big Green to end its run next year.
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Men's and women's ice hockey teams reaching the Frozen Four It has been five years since the women's team last reached the Frozen Four and 30 years since the men's team has. With Dartmouth's great hockey tradition and the strong rosters the teams currently have, I expect both teams to return to the promised land in the near future.
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ESPN's SportsCenter Top 10 number-one plays At this point, I'll take a number-one play in the Not Top 10.
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An undefeated season in football The last time the Big Green had an undefeated season was under head coach John Lyons in 1996. The team was a perfect 10-0, including 7-0 in the Ivy League. Just two seasons ago, it was hard to imagine the Big Green even reaching the .500 mark. But after a promising 6-4 season last year, head coach Buddy Teevens is poised to take the team to a League title. Can you imagine the scene at Memorial Field if Dartmouth had a 9-0 record going into its final game? President Kim would be doing back flips on the sidelines.
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Men's basketball team reaching the Sweet 16 Okay, I know this is a long shot since the last time Dartmouth got into the NCAA tournament was in 1959. However, after seeing what Cornell University did last March, I have faith that I will see the Big Green in the Sweet 16 sometime in my lifetime.
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A Dartmouth student winning the Main Event at the World Series of Poker Sadly, this is probably the most plausible one of them all. Dartmouth students have always had the upper hand in high-stake poker matches Andrew Seidman '09 even wrote a book on poker, developing his own game-winning theory. So a Dartmouth student better be able to win the Main Event ... anyone want to lend me $10,000?
