Balancing school work and the practice-and-play schedule of Division I athletics seems challenging enough, so I'm always in awe of double-varsity athletes. Though few and far between, there are some brave and talented students who choose to wear two jerseys in addition to maintaining an academic agenda. This weekend I sat down with alpine skier and men's lacrosse player Gunnar Shaw '14 to discuss his recent ACL surgery, being a two-sport athlete and competing so close to home.
What is it like being a Hanover High alum playing at Dartmouth?
GS: At first I wasn't really sure if I'd like being so close to home. As time goes, this place becomes more separated from the Hanover I used to know. It's kind of a whole new world I've discovered. It is nice being close to home. I see my parents on a weekly basis basically and can go home whenever I want. I really like it.
What was it like to be a two-sport athlete at Dartmouth this year?
GS: It was definitely difficult to pull off. Especially with skiing and lacrosse having adjacent seasons, the lacrosse season starts halfway through the ski season. Making that transition was a bit of a challenge basically. That was probably the hardest part of the two-sport business. I was 100 percent skiing from [First-Year Orientation] on, the way it worked out with the lacrosse coach and everything. He said ski, and then come play lacrosse. I met with him over the summer, and we talked about the logistics and how it was going to work out.
Do you have any rituals or superstitions that you stick to before you compete?
GS: I like listening to music that's basically the only ritual or superstition. I'm not a huge believer in rituals or superstitions, I like to feel lose and let my mind relax and not think about too much. Skiing is such a mental sport.
If you could play any other sport, which would it be?
GS: I think it would be really cool to be on the hockey team. I don't know, I've been getting more and more into pond hockey and really love the sport. It seems like a good group of guys. It seems like a tight-knit team and a lot of fun.
You had ACL surgery recently. What happened and what was that like?
GS: It started my [high school] senior spring I tore my ACL playing lacrosse in late March, so I had surgery to repair it then. It takes six to nine months that is the general timeframe to play intense sports again. I did that whole process and that was all fine. Then I skied this winter and raced and had no issues at all. In early April at lacrosse practice, I re-tore my ACL, which is actually really common. It is called a revision. You can't really get your ACL to get it as strong as it used to be, and that's why it happens again. I had surgery in late April and have been recovering since and a little bit and it'll be a slower process this time since it's not the first time it has been a problem.
How has the recovery process going? How long do you think its going to be before you're back to being 100 percent?
GS: The recovery process has been going slower than the first time I tore my ACL, and that's just because I had a different surgery. I had a cadaver patella tendon as the graft, which takes longer because it takes longer for your body to vascularize your body has to basically regrow the ACL which is a process that itself takes six to nine months. The last time, I used my own tendon as a graft so it was an easier process. So far its been going pretty well and I've been trying to get my range of motion back. Right now I'm still at about a 90 degree range of motion.
What are you hopes and expectations for next year?
GS: I think that next year we're definitely going to do a lot more. I think that we have a really strong freshman class. The incoming freshman class is going to be super stacked. I think we had a lot of contributors this year who were sophomores and freshmen and if we can keep improving then I don't know, the sky's the limit. We're on the verge of doing something big.
