There's nothing quite as refreshing in college sports as the intense confidence that meets every new season. As different as the myriad teams that sport the Dartmouth green may be, somehow the beginning of the season always brings a certain special feeling common to all.
It's a feeling that says "this is going to be the year. We're picked to finish in the middle of the pack, but we've got what it takes to get our name etched on the Ivy League Championship Cup."
This form of school spirit will be quite evident when this year's freshman class, the Class of 1997, shoves cynicism and pessimism aside and tosses on identical class jerseys for the first home football game of the year; it will be reinforced when Leede Arena is packed for a basketball game, and students can be heard yelling at the referee as if she were their own mother.
Fall Sports
With due apologies to the soccer teams, the football team simply owns fall sports. But not without good reason.
Dartmouth's gridiron gladiators have won or tied for the Ivy League Championship for three consecutive years, and with Ivy League Player of the Year Jay Fiedler '94 returning at quarterback, you couldn't find an analyst who isn't picking Dartmouth to win number four.
Last year, Fiedler led all Division-I signal-callers with a 169.35 passing proficiency rating and set eight Dartmouth records. Take a good look at the record books now, because by the end of this year Fiedler & Company will probably rewrite all of them.
As good as Dartmouth football is, it still won't be ranked nearly as highly in the nation as the men's soccer team. Last year, in what Coach Bobby Clark called a "rebuilding year," the team won the Ivy League Championship for the third time in five years and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals before losing to top-ranked Virginia.
The women's soccer program, which for years slid around in the men's team's shadow, is truly on the upswing, establishing itself as a force in Ivy League soccer last year. The women went 10-6-1 and made their first ever post-season appearance.
Winter Sports
The 1992-1993 season vastly improved the recent fate of the College's hockey program as the men had their best season in 13 years and the women won the Ivy League Title and skated to the semifinals of the ECAC Tournament. The two teams electrified Thompson Arena all winter, as more than 4,000 fans rocked the place witnessing the men pull off a shocking 4-3 upset of the Ivy League's reigning hockey sovereign, Harvard.
For the basketball teams, the winter months proved to be more oppressive. The men came in with as talented a squad as it had seen in several years and made an early charge for the Ivy League title -- a prize the team hasn't won in 33 years -- only to fall apart at the end and finish sixth in the League.
The women's season was an inverse of the men's. After an injury-laden 2-12 start, the team rallied and ended its season 6-8 against Ivy opponents. The team is still looking for the form that gave it eight championships in 10 years during the 1980s.
Spring Sports
Spring is never an easy time for Dartmouth athletics as Hanover basically turns into a ball of mud and slush for the end of March and at least the first half of April.
Ironically, the baseball team played its best ball when it was forced to practice indoors. The team went 10-6 over the first part of its season, and an abysmal 4-13 over the last part. Still, the team won five more games than the previous year and improved its batting average by 60 points. The team has heightened optimism as it possesses a wealth of talent in the younger classes.
Tennis was arguably the Big Green's strongest sport as the men won the EITA Title for the first time in the league's 87-year history and the women tied for second in the Ivy League. The women highlighted their year with a walloping of league-champ Princeton and a win over Harvard for the first time in 13 years.
The women's lacrosse team was one of the hottest teams in the country last spring, lofting its national ranking as high as fourth. The team was unbeatable at times, finishing 11-4. The news for the men's lacrosse team was not nearly as promising. The team failed to win an Ivy League game for the seventh year in a row and finished 3-9 overall.
One of the biggest wins of the spring sports season was scored by the men's varsity lightweight crew team, which took first place at the prestigious Eastern Sprints.
This is by no means a complete look at Dartmouth sports scenes -- there are more than two score varsity sports for both men and women and dozens of intramurals and pickup games lurking around every corner.
One last word about those long-sleeved, green class jerseys: yes, everyone does really wear them. It's all part of school spirit.
