They say that actions are supposed to speak louder than words.
If that were the case, then the stellar goaltending of Sarah Tueting '98 -- who backstopped the U.S. women's hockey team to the gold medal at the Nagano Winter Olympics earlier this week -- would speak volumes over anything anyone could possibly say.
But because of words spoken by Tueting herself -- words that by now have made their way into newspapers across the country -- the very people who logically should be happiest for the 21-year-old goalie, her former teammates, instead are angry with Tueting.
The ill feelings stem from comments that the Winnetka, Ill. native made regarding the Dartmouth women's hockey program that appeared in several print publications, most notably the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Boston Globe.
The crux of the comments were that Tueting (pronounced TEE-ting) felt that she was the only one that cared about winning, and her teammates mostly lacked the intensity it took to play the game. As a result, Tueting was quoted as saying, she had lost her desire to play hockey, as it had stopped being fun for her.
Enter Ben Smith, the coach of the U.S. National Team, who invited Tueting for a tryout, swept her away from the little girls at Dartmouth and gave her the chance to play with some real, intense women hockey players. Or so the story goes.
Many of Tueting's former teammates at Dartmouth -- all of them juniors and seniors, since Tueting played just two years before leaving Dartmouth to tour with the National Team -- resent the fact that Tueting used the spotlight shone upon her because of the Olympics to bash the College's women's hockey program.
But more than anything else, they resent the fact that currently they are ranked first in the Ivy League, third in the ECAC and third in the nation, but all anyone outside of Hanover hears about is how the brilliant gold-medal winning goalie almost quit hockey a couple of years ago, because those girls at Dartmouth didn't care and hockey just wasn't rewarding enough for her.
Several of Tueting's former teammates contacted by The Dartmouth declined to comment for this article, saying that although they were hurt by Tueting's comments, they felt it inappropriate to respond. As one former teammate put it, "Since time has passed ... I think that maybe it is just best to let sleeping dogs lie."
But a few juniors and seniors on the Dartmouth team who played with Tueting felt strongly enough to respond to her comments, citing a desire to have their side of the story heard.
Tueting did not respond to electronic-mail messages sent to Nagano requesting interviews for this story.
Women or 'girls?'
Tueting, who played in boys' hockey leagues all her life until she got to Dartmouth, told the Chicago Tribune that the transition to women's hockey was a tough one: "Guys show up and play. If there's an argument, it's over in 15 minutes ... Girls need social interaction to play and have fun. At least that's what I found at Dartmouth." Tueting added that after a loss, she would get very mad, "and I was about the only one. I didn't think some of the other girls were taking it as hard."
In the Boston Globe, Tueting said, "I'd get frustrated when we'd just lost a 2-1 game in overtime and two minutes after the game my teammates would be laughing and talking about the party the were going to that night." In short, her teammates lacked her intensity, Tueting was saying.
George Crowe -- the head coach of the Dartmouth women's hockey team, who also coached the men's team for nine years in the 1970s and 1980s -- is quick to discount Tueting's comments. "I can talk from experience, having coached men and women. The women are no less competitive than the men, but they do get over [losing] much faster than the men ... There's nothing wrong with that."
Michelyne Pinard '98 initially was reluctant to respond to Tueting's comments in the Tribune, chalking them up to a possible miscommunication between Tueting and reporter Steve Rosenbloom. But after seeing similar remarks in "several different national newspapers," Pinard said she felt compelled to answer.
Pinard, who also made the transition from boys' to women's hockey, said what Tueting calls a lack of intensity "wasn't that at all, but rather a different way of approaching competition. I struggled with the transition from boys hockey as well, but I soon realized that because women don't slam their sticks or yell and swear in the locker room it doesn't mean that they aren't intense. We wanted to win as much as she did."
Wendy Soutsos '99 said one of the strengths of the team is that "we allow individuals to be individuals within the team. Everyone prepares for and reacts to a game differently, and it is not fair to say that one approach is better than the other."
Sarah Hood '98, who also played boys' hockey before coming to Dartmouth said, "Both [men and women] take the game and losing equally seriously, but the same gender differences that apply in the rest of life also apply in sports. Women and men usually react differently to different life situations, but one is not wrong and one is not right, and that is just a fact of life. I don't think Sarah is taking that into consideration when she makes comments like that."
Hood said she was particularly devastated by Tueting's repeated comments that the Dartmouth women's team didn't care about winning. "Personally it hurts me incredibly that as my former teammate, she cannot recognize the fact that I, and the rest of the team, love hockey as much as she does. It has soured much of my happiness for her and makes me not quite as proud that she made [the Olympic team]."
Timing is everything
Many of Tueting's former teammates were outraged at the timing of Tueting's comments -- not only in that they portrayed the Dartmouth program in a negative light in front of potentially millions of people, but also because Tueting did not seem to give any indication she felt this way in the months leading up to the Olympics.
"Seeing her make those types of comments surprises me a bit, because when she occasionally skated with us last year, or worked camps in the summer, or stayed with someone when she visited, or saw us ... at our Nov. 18 game here in Hanover, she gave absolutely no indication of those feelings to our faces," Hood said.
Kathleen O'Keefe '99 said, "I believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but there is a certain respect and courtesy that goes along with expressing it. If Sarah had a problem with our team, the mature thing would have been to talk to us about it two years ago, not to the newspapers now."
Crowe speculated that Tueting's comments may have been an excuse to give her an out when she returns to Dartmouth this spring. "It almost seems like an excuse for her not to be playing when she comes back, which is fine ... We never expected her to play when she came back."
He added, "When you coach and you have a group of individuals, you might have some who get to a point where athletics aren't exciting, but to put this on the back of the whole team and say the reason why is the team's not competitive is incredibly unfair."
Pinard said she is most hurt by the fact that the women's hockey team was always there for Tueting. "We knew she wasn't happy and we were always trying to make adjustments so she would be happy and then she thanks us by bashing some of the best people I know."
She added that in her opinion, Tueting would never have had a shot at the Olympic team had it not been for the Dartmouth women's hockey program and Coach Crowe.
Crowe hesitated to take credit for Tueting's success, but he did offer that Tueting "wasn't even in the picture" as far as the U.S. National team went until two years ago, after her sophomore season at Dartmouth.
"Even after she got [onto the National team] there was so much support for her from the whole team ... Everyone's really been supporting her and there have been a lot of little things," Crowe said.
Comments with consequences
Crowe confidently said that the women's hockey team really has no reason to respond to Tueting's comments -- observe their 14-3-1 ECAC record and their unblemished 7-0-1 Ivy record this season, without Tueting in goal.
But Tueting's former teammates cautioned that the goalie's negative
comments could have ramifications not just for Dartmouth hockey, but women's hockey as a whole.
Hood lamented, "It is too bad that Sarah is not considering the effect her comments have on women's college hockey. We are one of the top teams in the nation, and saying that we aren't competitive people is not only a lie, but detrimental to the future of a sport that is in the midst of a struggle to be taken seriously."
Tueting's comments "not only hurt our team, but women's hockey as a whole," Pinard said. "At a time when women's hockey needs people like Sarah Tueting promoting the sport, her comments create the image that women's hockey shouldn't be taken seriously."
Crowe still believes the Olympic gold will result in an explosion in interest in women's hockey, "especially at the grassroots level." He added, "Everybody's thrilled with the win and the development of women's hockey and the publicity it's getting."
Even so, O'Keefe said Tueting's statements could still overshadow whatever positive publicity women's hockey as a whole has received these last few weeks.
"Being represented in the Olympics should help both Dartmouth College and our program, but somehow Sarah has found a way to make it hurt us. Whether she realizes it or not, young female hockey players will be reading what she says, and associating her negative comments with Dartmouth women's ice hockey."
Moving on
The future will be indeed interesting for Sarah Tueting and the Dartmouth women's hockey program.
Tueting, of course, comes off of a stellar Olympic performance. She blanked China 5-0 in her Olympic debut, gave up just three combined goals in two games against Canada and Finland, and then was brilliant in the gold medal game, a 3-1 win against Canada.
For the tournament, Tueting put together some of the most eye-opening numbers in Olympic history: a 1.14 goals-against average and a 0.938 save percentage. She even outplayed Manon Rheaume -- Canada's acclaimed goalie and regarded as the world's best female net-minder -- in the gold-medal game.
And in her two years at Dartmouth, Tueting picked up a myriad of awards: 1994-95 Ivy League Rookie of the Year, two Second-Team All-Ivy selections, a First- and Second-Team All-ECAC selection, and two New England Hockey Writers All-Star selections. She won 26 games in her two seasons here.
But it seems clear at this point that Tueting and the Dartmouth women's hockey program have arrived at a mutual parting of ways. Unlike her Olympic goaltending teammate, Sara DeCosta, who intends to return to Providence College and reclaim her starting job, Tueting intends to forgo hockey in order to focus on her pre-med studies in neurobiology. She also plans to continue playing the cello with the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra.
If Tueting intends to resume life as an average Dartmouth student -- if a woman who owns an Olympic gold medal can be called "average" -- then the team she left behind when she joined the National squad says they'll be just fine without her.
Freshman goalie Meaghan Cahill '01 is having a stellar season, and the Green already have a shot to clinch the 1997-98 Ivy title this Saturday. The Big Green also figure to go deep into the ECAC postseason tournament.
The Green don't want to get into a bitter war of words with Tueting, and they never intended for any of this to happen. All they say they want is for their side of the story to be heard -- that Tueting is just a vocal minority. She is but one former Big Green player who didn't have a great experience with the program, they say, and in fact there are 20 women now on the roster who love playing hockey for the Big Green.
And of course, the Big Green want it to be known that they do care about winning -- but they care about having fun, too.
Almost as if she were talking directly to Tueting, Hood ended her interview by saying, "Hockey is the most important thing in my life and I am completely satisfied with the effort that I have given during my four years and with the effort my teammates have given. We are in it to win, but we have fun too, and I think it is unfortunate that Sarah didn't have the same experience here."
