Almost every high school athlete faces a major decision sometime in his or her career: Do I want to be a collegiate athlete? Those who are brave enough to take the plunge into the world of NCAA athletics embark on an odyssey through the cutthroat world of recruiting in order to find their future home.
The college admissions process is different for those who desire to have a collegiate career on the fields, courts and ice of the Ivy League than for those who decide to suit up for the consensus athletic powerhouses of the Southeastern Conference, Big East, Big 10 or the Atlantic Coast Conference. The largest reason for this are the academic standards to which Ivy League recruits and athletes are held. When potential Ivy athletes are being recruited, they are evaluated with a scale known as the Academic Index, which combines their test scores and high school GPA to generate a number that helps put each individual and team into the larger picture of the school. At Dartmouth, this method is used to evaluate all applicants, not just athletes.
As soon as they arrive on campus, athletes are immediately thrust into their team group as offseason training starts. Although most winter and spring term teams do not begin their season in the fall, they still practice a couple of hours a day, using "captains practices" and "optional" team workouts so that the team can bond and train, hopefully leading to a better season, according to interviewed athletes.
"We normally practice two to two and a half hours per day, not counting video," Lindsay Holdcroft '14, the goalie of the women's hockey team, said.
Holdcroft said that although they are only allowed to spend six hours a week with their coaches, players actually work with the team for about 10 hours a week.
"Both in and out of season, we spend three hours per day practicing, five days a week," Kristel Estrella '15, a member of the track team, said. "The only difference is that in season, we have meets every weekend, which normally last for eight hours a day, not including travel time."
Shawn Abuhoff '12, a cornerback and kick returner for the football team, said he spends 20 hours per week on football during the season and 10 hours per week out of season.
Because athletes spend so much time with their teams due to practices, film sessions, lifting, games and travel time, their closest friends, not surprisingly, tend to be their teammates.
"It plays a pretty big role on your friend circle," Kyle Schussler '12, a member of the men's hockey team, said. "You just spend so much time with those guys, it's hard not to be friends with them."
This appears to hold true for all sports on campus.
"It has definitely impacted my friend circle because I'm with them all the time," Holdcroft said. "But a lot of the time when we don't have to be with each other, we choose to be."
Some athletes view their teams as ways for them to find friends. Estrella, Schussler and Abuhoff all said that they would not have the same group of friends if they were not members of their respective teams.
"I think it was a huge help to be able to come to school early because of camp and start off with knowing 100 other guys from the start," Abuhoff said. "Meeting other people on campus came gradually, but it was good to get to know the guys on the team right away for sure."
Holdcroft and Estrella both said that they maintain a "good balance" between athlete and non-athlete friends. Neither of them, however, has experienced difficulty branching out and meeting new people, even with the significant amounts of time that they have to spend with their teams.
Schussler admitted that his teammates generally spend all of their time together and that he does not have many friends who are not either on the hockey team or athletes.
"I'd probably have a different friend circle if I had more time and did different extracurriculars," he said.
These close relationships cultivated in the locker room and on the field spill over into Greek life for athletes as well, though the experience is different between fraternities and sororities. Male athletes are more likely to congregate around certain fraternities where their teammates are members than women are likely to pledge certain sororities based on their athletic affiliation. Most notable is the men's hockey team, of which every player who is eligible to rush is a member of Chi Heorot fraternity.
"It was a pretty easy decision for me to rush Heorot," Schussler said. "It's almost an unsaid expectation for us to join."
Abuhoff, a member of Gamma Delta Chi fraternity, said that he joined because every other football player in his graduating class did so, and he felt like it was the best fit for him.
Most women's teams are spread out among Greek houses. The women's hockey team has players in numerous sororities, including Kappa Delta Epsilon, Delta Delta Delta, Sigma Delta, Kappa Kappa Gamma and Alpha Phi sororities, according to Holdcroft, who said that there is no real pressure to join any one sorority since the team is so spread out.
"It's definitely nice knowing people in the house when you're going through rush," Holdcroft, who is a member of KDE, said. "But I wanted to rush to have that other friend group and branch out."
Estrella said that this type of Greek diversity is also true of the women's track team, but that the men's team, though they are more spread out than the men's hockey team, is mostly concentrated in Beta Alpha Omega fraternity and Heorot.
"There are a lot of Tri-Delts," she said, adding that the team has a contingency in numerous other sororities, notably Kappa. "It's definitely influenced my thoughts. As a '15, not knowing much about rush or sororities, it helps knowing people who are sisters."
Estrella also said that there is no pressure by older team members to join their respective sororities.
Athletes said that they generally only tried to get recruited by schools with good academic reputations, focusing on Ivy League institutions when they sent their names into the recruiting sphere.
Schussler said that while he did wait to hear the results from traditional college hockey powerhouses that do not have as good of an academic reputation as Dartmouth, he "definitely liked the Ivy League and what it had to offer."
He ultimately chose Dartmouth over Yale University.
Holdcroft said that she was pretty much set on the Ivy League when she was looking at colleges, ultimately choosing Dartmouth over Cornell University.
"I thought about some other schools that were closer to home, like Robert Morris [University in Pittsburgh], but I wanted better academics," she said. "It works out well, at least with girls' hockey, because the top programs are often the top-tier academic schools."
Estrella concentrated her search on top-ranking schools as well, sending her information to schools such as Fordham University, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University and Boston College, ultimately deciding to come to the College over Fordham, saying that Dartmouth's status as an Ivy League school was a major factor in her decision.
Many athletes who come to Dartmouth said they felt wanted by the Big Green and immediately found a home when they came to campus. Ric Bucher '83, who played soccer for the Big Green during his time at Dartmouth, summed up the thoughts of a lot of Dartmouth athletes when asked why he chose to come to Hanover.
"They flew me up as a high school junior for an interview with the director of admissions," Bucher recalled in an email. "I'll never forget it: Jan. 20, 1980. A blanket of fresh snow covered everything, and fat flakes were still falling. It was like being in a snow globe, stately Baker Tower to my left, the demurely-lit Hanover Inn to my right. I fell in love with the place right there and decided I would do whatever it took to make my way back."
This sentiment holds true even among current Big Green athletes.
"I loved the campus," Holdcroft said. "It's small and has a great town next to it. I also loved the team and the coaches."
Estrella noted the stark differences between rural Dartmouth and urban Fordham and said that the campus here in Hanover was perfect for her.
"When I flew up here, I loved the campus," she said. "I felt like I would fit in here more than at Fordham."
For Schussler, who hails from Winnipeg, Manitoba, the fact that he has a family friend who attended Dartmouth and that one of his junior hockey teammates played at Dartmouth contributed to his decision to come here. He also noted that when he was recruited, many NHL players wore Dartmouth uniforms, which in part convinced him to attend school here.
It is difficult to define a Dartmouth athlete because they come from as wide a range of experiences and places as any other student. But like all Dartmouth students, Dartmouth athletes are a well-rounded, smart bunch who just happen to have responded to that ever-present question of, "Do I want to be a collegiate athlete?" with a resounding: "Yes."
