Luke Antal ‘07 broke from lacrosse tradition and pledged at AXA.
Photo: Asafu Suzuki/The Dartmouth Staff
As evidenced by the high readership of “The Dartmouth Independent’s” article on fraternity ratings by “Sweet ‘09 Frat Dude,” everybody loves to stereotype fraternities, and a major component of fraternity stereotypes is the perceived athletic affiliations at each house. For instance, Alpha Delta fraternity is often associated with the soccer and squash teams, Psi Upsilon fraternity is linked to water sports and Gamma Delta Chi fraternity is commonly known as the football frat. While it is true that the majority of athletes pledge fraternities that are commonly associated with their sport, there are a number of Big Green sportsmen who buck the trend and pledge elsewhere.
Athletes who pledge other fraternities largely do so to expand their social networks by meeting new people and maintaining close relationships with friends outside of their sports. Bobby Steinsdoerfer ‘07, a pitcher on the baseball team, decided against joining Chi Gamma Epsilon, which is commonly associated with the baseball team, and pledged Chi Heorot his sophomore year. When Steinsdoerfer joined Heorot, there were three baseball players who were members there, including the captain at the time, but he is the only member of the team in Heorot at the moment.
“One of my best friends who quit baseball after freshman year was also rushing Heorot, and another one of my really good friends was rushing there, so I rushed with them,” Steinsdoerfer said. “Rushing there really opened up a new social aspect for me, and I got to meet a lot of new people. I always knew that I would have the baseball guys as my good friends.”
Luke Antal ‘07, a member of the Dartmouth men’s lacrosse team, echoed similar sentiments about maintaining close relationships with friends not on the lacrosse team. Antal is a member of the Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity, while most lacrosse players who go Greek join Theta Delta Chi.
“It was mostly because I didn’t want to lose friends outside of lacrosse,” Antal said. “I knew that I would be spending four hours a day for five to six months of the year with the lacrosse guys, and I found out that a lot of my close friends were pledging Alpha Chi, so I decided to pledge with them because I wanted to maintain the good sense of friendship.”
While both Steinsdoerfer and Antal pledged Greek organizations separate from the ones commonly associated with their athletic teams, neither one became a social outcast on their teams as a result. Steinsdoerfer has not been treated differently on the baseball team for not joining Chi Gam, and is very close with his teammates. The same can be said for Antal.
Steinsdoerfer and Antal both agreed that there is no pressure on the baseball or lacrosse teams to join Chi Gam or Theta Delt, respectively.
“No, I don’t really think there was any pressure,” Steinsdoerfer said. “When it came time to rush, the juniors and seniors on the team sat down and talked about what kind of things they had gotten out of the house, but it’s not really a pressure thing. I think it’s just you go where they go, it’s become a norm.”
Antal made similar comments with respect to the men’s lacrosse team.
“I don’t think there’s any pressure to join Theta Delt. When I was a freshman, I would say that I spent more time at Theta Delt than Alpha Chi. I think people just pledge the fraternity where they spend the most time,” Antal said.
Steinsdoerfer said that members of a given team might not take a close look at houses other than those affiliated with their sport.
“Maybe it’s not that people don’t take the opportunity to look around, but that’s where you’re going to know a lot of people initially so you hang out there a lot,” Steinsdoerfer said. “It’s the same thing with soccer and AD and lacrosse with TDX, but I spent time at Chi Gam my entire freshman year. Sophomore year, I took time to step back and really looked at what I wanted for myself individually, and I decided to pledge Heorot. I think for some people it’s a group thing instead of an individual thing.”
For Steinsdoerfer, the decision to pledge Heorot has been a positive element of his Dartmouth experience, and Antal is completely content with his decision to pledge Alpha Chi.
“I’m definitely satisfied with my decision,” Steinsdoerfer said. “I’ve become the president of my house, and I’ve made some really close friends here.”
