Student-athletes are faced with the challenge of juggling intense training, a full schedule of games and rigorous course loads. Derek Prill '08, a swimmer, described his daily routine in a nutshell: "Swim-eat-work-swim-sleep." Such a relentless schedule is typical of most teams on campus during their seasons.
Carolyn Shea '08, who plays both field hockey and lacrosse, said, "Being a part of a team is much more a part of your life at college. In high school, playing a sport is just an activity. In college, it becomes a part of your identity."
Across the board, student-athletes say that they work more efficiently and are better organized during the season. Many view their practices as productive study breaks. "The energy that would have usually driven me insane while working was used to swim 7,000 yards, allowing me to sit in one place long enough to get my assignments done!" Prill exclaimed.
Benjamin Softness '06, captain of the men's crew team, joked, "It means I can spend only one to two hours checking Facebook on any given day instead of the preferred five to six."
Team members practice together, eat meals together, travel together and party together. All this togetherness fosters strong bonds of friendship. Meghan Dickoff '07, who plays both ice hockey and rugby, said that the team functions as a built-in support network, "I feel like I have people who are there for me when I need them. Unlike most people, though, they've had the chance to prove me right about this time and time again. When you're on a team, you go through the highest highs and the lowest lows together."
Softness expressed his admiration for his team mates on the crew team. "It is a team of brilliant men and women, and my being on it exposes me to an amazing diversity of interests and talents," he said.
These bonds sometimes take form in surprising ways. After finishing their daily runs, the members of the track and field teams dump buckets of ice into a small tub in order to make the water as cold as possible. They then squeeze into the tub, at least five at a time, to relieve their sore muscles.
Ginger Polich '06, captain of the women's track and field team, said that these ice baths are times for bonding. "We complain about how miserable we are, ask each other if the ice bath actually works, sing a few songs and then get out," Polich says.
Maintaining contacts with friends outside the team when the season is in full swing, though, can be difficult. "During the season, my non-swimming friends joke that we have to schedule times to hang out and catch up because I'm so busy," said Adam Lewkowitz '06, tri-captain of the men's swim team.
Each team has their own traditions and rituals that boost morale and unite the team. Many teams exchange gifts of inspirational notes and candy to psych each other up before games. Other teams put on purple face paint, dye their hair purple, wear purple hair ribbons and otherwise incorporate the color purple. Before playing a match against Williams, the women's tennis team eats Cow's Tales, a chewy caramel candy with a cream center, in jest of Williams' well-known mascot, the Purple Cow.
Every fall, the women's field hockey team gathers in a circle on the field late at night, holding candles. One team member tosses a ball of yarn across the circle, unraveling the yarn and says a few kind words about the receiver. By the end of this game, a web of crisscrossing yarn interconnects all the members of the team.
On the night of Crossett Christmas, a night guaranteed to be frigid, the men's and women's cross country teams carry out a tradition dubbed the "Underwear Mile." Wearing minimal clothing, the team members complete a full mile, running through each dorm on campus. Stripping is not unique to the cross country team. The men's crew team has an annual naked row.
In the spring, some swimmers on the men's team, mostly first-years, shave their heads in order to go faster and prepare themselves mentally for the final meets of the season. "Nothing gets you psyched up more for an event than a shaved head and the feeling of water rushing over your skull," Prill '08 said.
Despite their grueling schedules, athletes cherish their experiences being on a team. "Although practices are hard and many, the hours I spend in the water are some of the best spent times I have during the scholastic year." Prill gushed, "I would not trade my experience as a swimmer here at Amherst College for anything."
Lewkowitz considers Williams' crushing defeat by both the men's and women's swim teams two years ago as a more memorable moment than his acceptance into medical school. Softness reflected upon the long-term rewards of playing sports, "The gratification one receives, after years of grueling work, is unlike any I have ever experienced outside the world of athletics."
This intangible reward that lies towards the end of four demanding years of being an athlete at Amherst can be said to define an experience many of them would not exchange for any other.