Three years ago, rosters were filled with '14s excited to begin their Ivy League athletic careers and represent the Big Green on the court, on the field and in the water. But as seniors, we notice how many of our classmates are no longer a part of the varsity teams they were recruited for, as many rosters are heavily populated by underclassmen.
We spoke to several of these former Big Green athletes to discuss their decisions to stop playing and how much their Dartmouth experiences changed afterward. There doesn't seem to be a pattern about who drops their sports: men and women, recruits and walk-ons, starters and practice players, we heard from them all.
No one can deny that being a varsity athlete is one of the biggest time commitments you can make at college. Between morning workouts, afternoon practices, traveling for games and tournaments and other team obligations, an athlete has to plan his or her life around the sport. The minute a sport becomes an obligation and practice feels like something that you have to do rather than something you want to do, the experience might become more negative than positive.
This sentiment was echoed numerous times by our sources this week, who we granted anonymity to protect from repercussions from former teammates and coaches.
"Being on a varsity sport is a huge time commitment, and when you stop loving it, you start hating it pretty quickly," one former Big Green athlete said.
No one questions the passion of Dartmouth student-athletes, and we will be the first to recognize the tremendous dedication it takes to compete at this level while balancing athletics and academics. But some Dartmouth athletes realize that they want different things from college that being on a varsity team doesn't leave enough hours in the day for.
Dartmouth praises itself for the D-Plan, highlighting the increased flexibility and opportunities that this schedule allows. Student-athletes, however, are often prevented or greatly limited in the off-campus programs and off terms they can participate in.
While many athletes are recruited to play for the Big Green, as an Ivy League institution Dartmouth offers no athletic scholarships. This contributes positively to the academic atmosphere here, and ensures that the only contract athletes make to keep playing is a contract with themselves. Yet when this lack of financial incentive is combined with a loss of heart, athletes find it hard to justify the time commitment.
For many athletes, the decision to stop competing wasn't helped by the culture the coach encouraged on their teams. For those already uncertain about their future on the team, a negative and unsupportive atmosphere was often the straw that broke the camel's back. A coaching change or a change in a team's philosophy is often enough to lose almost an entire recruited class. Sometimes the decision to drop a sport comes down to a coach making it clear that he or she doesn't want to carry athletes that the coach did not personally recruit, a coach offering a roster spot with a promise of no playing time despite previous success on the team in past seasons or a coach treating you like "a commodity" and once injured "no longer having a reason to care for you."
Coaches have an incredible power to turn a sport from someone's number-one passion into something one athlete said "would literally make me sick every season."
"If you don't feel like your coach respects you and wants you there, it makes you really question why you are there," a former athlete said. "You want to contribute to something meaningful and learn from it but then it just stops being rewarding."
Life after D-I sports changes the trajectory of college life in ways Dartmouth athletes might never have previously imagined, though they never forget their experiences. Next week, we'll discuss the effect that this trend has on individual athletes, their former teammates and the programs that they leave behind.
