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(03/14/18 5:31pm)
Ordinarily, mountain bikers spend most of their time flying down trails that have already been blazed, not carving the paths themselves. But the relationship that native Afghan Farid Noori ’18 has with the sport has hardly been an ordinary one. The founder of Mountain Bike Afghanistan — a non-profit whose stated goal “is to empower Afghan youth with the joy of riding and competing on mountain bikes, as well as to connect people across borders and cultures through their shared love of the outdoors and the sport of biking” — only came to the U.S. to study ßat age 16, a fact surprising to many given the unmistakable feeling of comfort and ease that he projects. He hardly even knew what a mountain bike was until the summer before he began at Middlebury, when he happened to attend a race with his host family in New Mexico.
According to Noori, the connection was immediate. Without hesitation, he asked one of the riders if he could take his bike for a spin — nothing challenging, just a quick trip up and down the mountain (spend some time with Noori, and you’ll realize that he construes the word “challenge” differently than most). “That day, I realized two things,” he later said: “that [mountain biking] is something that I wanted to do; but also, something about that word, mountain biking. We were in the U.S., but all the crazy mountains are back home. Why is there such a thing called ‘mountain biking’ here, and not at home?”
So here he stands now, almost four years removed from that seminal moment and staring down the end of his career as a Middlebury student. It would be hard to envision someone taking a more comprehensive approach to the mountain biking lifestyle: in addition to his short and long-term plans for his non-profit, Noori is also pursuing a professional mountain biking career of his own in the US. Last fall, he “sort of” (his words — a typical understatement) became the first Afghan to race in the USA Cycling Collegiate Mountain Biking National Championship in Missoula, Montana. He has performed well enough to earn a Category–1 certification, qualifying him to race as a semi-pro, and will spend the rest of this year trying to accumulate enough points at races to garner a professional certification.
But for Noori, mountain biking has never come easily. Or rather, one should say that the mountain bikes themselves have never come easily. “Mountain bikes are very expensive,” he explains. “It’s not only an obstacle to entry in Afghanistan, which is a poorer country, but in the US as well, it’s an obstacle. The cost is a huge barrier.” When he first arrived at Middlebury, he knew he wanted to pursue mountain biking, so he immediately got involved with the cycling club and started signing up for races, even before he had wheels of his own.
Noori had to settle for road biking over mountain biking for his first foray into competitive racing. He remembers his first taste fondly. “I invested in a $265 cheap road bike that I found on Google,” he remembers. “And when the bike came in, it actually wasn’t the correct size. So I went to my first race — I hadn’t ridden more than ten miles at a time, and this was a twenty-mile race. It was a s***show. It was crazy. But I had a fun time. My goal was not to come in last, and I achieved that — well, my first goal was to finish this race, to accomplish it.”
He hasn’t looked back since. That fall, he came into the mountain bike season with even more excitement; Kai Wiggins ’16.5, a fellow member of the cycling club who raced professionally, had a spare mountain bike that a sponsor had given him for cross-training. He told Noori to meet him in a parking lot one day and gave him the bike to use as his own. The rest is history. Noori recalls taking advantage of the mild winter in Vermont that year. “It was warm,” he said. “There wasn’t any snow at all. I would ride all winter long, I would do it every day. I was kind of like a dog on a bone, just doing it every day.” But all the while, the thought lingered in the back of his mind: “Okay, I love doing this — but I want to take this home.”
That summer, Noori managed to secure CCI funding to travel to Colorado and work on an entrepreneurship incubator he had started the year before in Afghanistan, continuing his mountain bike training on the side. Of course, he soon realized where his priorities lay. To make his decision easier, the 2016 Summer Olympics were taking place around the same time in Brazil. Just like that, the entrepreneurship incubator fell by the wayside. Noori had become focused on bringing something else to Afghanistan: “We need to be in the Olympics,” he repeated to himself. “Afghanistan needs to be in the Olympics.” His pride in his home country, his own mountain biking career, his desire to spark real social change — everything was coming together, all under the umbrella of what would become Mountain Bike Afghanistan.
“My main attraction was this,” Noori went on to explain: “there’s this beautiful country, with some of the most spectacular mountains in the world — and all people know it for is war. How can we change that narrative? It’s not just a story of, ‘Hey, we’re bringing mountain bikes to Afghanistan.’ It’s about changing narratives: by building trails, by building infrastructure, by growing the sport, all of the sudden you create a projection of the country that people haven’t seen.”
And being the first Afghan mountain biker to represent his country at the Olympics — a personal goal of Noori’s — wouldn’t hurt, either. “That also contributes to the changing narrative, having the Afghan people at the forefront. So that motivates me to race, myself.”
Nor is Noori forcing a match between the sport he fell in love with and the country of Afghanistan. Listen to him talk, and you’ll start to find it a little absurd that nobody else has had this idea. “So in Afghanistan,” he says, “up until recently it was very rural: 80% of Afghans were farmers. It’s a very mountainous country. So they lived in these very isolated villages. I was born in one of them — where I was born, there are only two other houses, for as long as you can see. So how do we get places? My dad walked to school every day, for an hour and a half one way, and another hour and a half on the way back… And even in Kabul, where I live, on the weekends my dad and I go hiking in the mountains, and there’s so many people — women, young people, people who come to run on the mountain, you see people everywhere. So it’s a very active people — everybody is very healthy, they’re outside all the time.”
So Noori has the breathtaking landscape of Afghanistan and a naturally active, engaged people to work with. What will be necessary, as he explains, is simply to put a framework in place. “The thing that’s unique about Afghanistan is that 70% percent of the population is under 25 years old,” Noori says. “It’s a very young population. But in a given young Afghan’s life, based on personal experience, you go to school for three hours a day, and you do homework maybe one hour a day. All of the sudden, you have so much free time — how do you fill it up? What do you fill it up with? There’s so much energy; young people have so much energy.
“And in the US, there are so many opportunities and resources for young people. I joke with my friends that Middlebury has more sports infrastructure than the whole country of Afghanistan. So now let’s take that back to Afghanistan, a country with a young population who have also been deprived of these opportunities for the past four decades. And they’re aware of the fact that they’ve been deprived of these. They can see mountain biking videos on their iPhones and they’re like, ‘We want this… I want to be out there. I’m a young Afghan. I’m strong.’ It’s a very resilient culture, the war has been going on, and people still go about their lives every day, they’re trying to change the narrative, change their lives, and basically champion against the adversities of life in Afghanistan.”
Noori tells a story about a friend to really drive his point home. “I have a friend in Kabul — and she loves running, and she uses the same running app that I use, Strava. But because she’s female and the culture is not very recipient of people running and riding outside, I can see that her runs in Afghanistan are more or less inside a closed building — she does like five miles, but repetitively in a loop, because she’s safe there.
“And it kind of breaks my heart, but it also speaks to that sort of interest [in outdoor activities]. People want to do these things. We’ve just got to open it up. So as far as the interest goes, I feel like we’re not keeping up with it — like, this project needs to be there now.”
So it’s understandable that Noori might have a difficult time limiting the size of his project at first. But despite the size of his ambitions for Mountain Bike Afghanistan (MTBA for short), he realized that if the project was ever going to get off the ground, he had to start small and gradually expand in scope. With on-the-ground help from Sajjad Husaini, a competitive Afghan skier with some mountain biking experience (for cross-training), Noori has put together a team of 10 Afghans — ranging from teens to late twenties — who are ready to commit to serious training in the sport. He has been able to secure a partnership with a third-party organization with 501c status so that MTBA can accept donations as a non-profit. They’ve already received a number of helmets donated by Outdoor Gear Exchange, but Noori and his team still have quite a ways to go before they can even consider serious competition.
“Right now,” Noori says, “we’re raising the funds for a dozen mountain bikes of decent quality, other bike equipment like jerseys, helmets and stuff, and a bike shop/workshop for people to be able to repair their bikes. Once we have that up and going, our plan is to start building trails in this place that these guys are from, which is Bamyan in Afghanistan. It’s in central Afghanistan, up in the mountains, 10,000 feet. They have access to beautiful lakes — it’s the site of Afghanistan’s first national park and national reserve area — so we’d have permission to build trails there.”
Fortunately, the Noori who once had grand plans for an entrepreneurship incubator is hardly absent from MTBA, either. His hands are all over the non-profit’s “dollar-to-trail” concept, designed to attract the attention from major biking companies, in which donations equaling a certain dollar amount are met with a pledge to construct a certain length of mountain bike trail. “We’ll have to do the math of how much money and labor a mile of trail takes,” he says, “but this is a value that a lot of companies want to see. They don’t just want to give away bikes; they want to see some value created, which will contribute to the growth of the industry overall. So all of the sudden you have this new frontier in the world where people can go and bike, and it looks good for [the companies] — they can use it as a marketing tool. If Cannondale can do that and differentiate itself from Giant, then it’s a win for Cannondale. So it’s a good marketing tool for them.”
But Noori has hopes of raising a good portion of his funds from individual donors as well. With a grin, he warns that Middlebury students should stay on the lookout for Mountain Bike Afghanistan t-shirts on campus in the near future. But those eager to make a more immediate impact and support Noori’s tremendous undertaking can learn about MTBA, as well as how to donate, online at www.mtbafghanistan.com.
Or, for those who might find themselves more interested in Noori’s personal story as an athlete, he is currently facing a critical point in his racing career. “It has been a very tough journey,” he explains. “I’m still on those borrowed bikes, from Kai [Wiggins]— a road bike and a mountain bike. And they’re getting old: normally, in the racing world you upgrade your bike every year because of wear and tear. I’ve been riding the same bike for three years, and I’m going into my most important season this year, accumulating points toward getting my pro license. So having the right equipment is super important on this journey. And now I’m faced with the same problem again.” Moreover, after he gets his professional license, Noori has designs to participate in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan — no small undertaking. So to help him reach his goal, Noori has set up a MiddStart page (equivalent to GoFundMe for the Middlebury network), which can be found here: http://middstart.middlebury.edu/mountain-bike-afghanistan-an-olympic-dream/.
Try, if you will, to isolate Noori’s personal dream from his dreams for the country of Afghanistan, or vice-versa. They comprise two narratives — the story of a nation, and the story of a boy from that nation — that have converged at a single, astounding, inevitable point. From where we stand, it would almost be foolish to imagine one without the other.
“The biggest thing about mountain biking for me,” Noori says, “is the idea of getting outside. Forgetting your everyday stress, getting out on the trails, this act of cycling, pedaling out in the woods all by yourself or with your friends… and then after a while, through the very act of mountain biking — it’s challenging, you’re climbing all the time — you get to a point where you’re on top of the mountain, and you have this beautiful view and vista. Regardless of who you are in the world, that’s what it does to you. It’s a very peaceful process.
“And to Afghanistan, that’s so important. There’s an active conflict going on, people are fleeing the country to Europe. How do you instill in Afghans a sense of purpose and love for the place that they’re from? Without their having that perspective to look at their surroundings with an appreciative eye? It’s not hard to see a place that has been affected by conflict for more than 4 decades, where people are losing sight of hope, where there’s a corrupt government, the economy is very bad, there are explosions all around the country, there’s a war going on. How do you take a break from that?
“So my goal with the project is to give people an opportunity. The very act of building trails, and drawing and dragging people away from their troubled neighborhoods, their troubled villages, to a point where you can just relax, and take a moment to not thing about that, is super powerful, super empowering. Because if you always think about the conflict, it’s always going to be in your head. You need a break from it in order to face your challenges, in order for you to have a clear mind — and especially for the young people, it’s super important to have that. So that’s what the project can also provide. And that’s mainly one of the reasons I’m doing it.”
We might say that Noori is living his life in the hope that the Afghan people might find a new way to ride; more than that, he rides in the hope that his people might find a new way to live.
(02/15/18 2:03am)
“I can honestly say I’ve been waiting my whole life for this moment,” said field hockey captain Lauren Schweppe ’18 just days after her team won it all for the first time — after years of highs and lows, of high expectations and dashed hopes. Not the NCAA Division III National Championship, mind you. In case you forgot, when she and the rest of the Middlebury field hockey team brought home the national title last fall, it was their second in three years. And as monumental as their achievement was, who’s ever heard of someone “waiting their whole life” to win something for the second time?
“Losing in ’05 was rough,” she continued, “but I think we all felt like this year was our chance for redemption, and it was.” Naturally, she was talking about her hometown team and the champions of Super Bowl LII: the Philadelphia Eagles. And if Schweppe thinks she’s waited a long time, imagine how her parents, her grandparents — heck, the whole city of Philadelphia — feel. Despite being one of the oldest franchises in the NFL (founded in 1933), the Eagles were one of nine teams who had been around for all 51 Super Bowls and hadn’t won a single one.
But on Sunday, February 4 the Eagles crossed their name off the list of teams who have come up short 51 times and hoisted the franchise’s first Lombardi Trophy (still remaining are the Bills, Browns, Cardinals, Chargers, Falcons, Lions, Titans, and Vikings). For most Philadelphia fans, the joy of the victory has as much to do with the company that they’re joining as with the past they’re leaving behind. The two sides are inseparable: for a place that Time Magazine dubbed “The Worst Sports City in America” as recently as 2015, the long-awaited championship tasted that much sweeter on account of all the heart-wrenching seasons that Philadelphia fans have suffered in the past.
Brendan Donohue ’18, a lifelong Eagles fan as well as a member of the Middlebury baseball team, still hasn’t given up hopes for his first collegiate championship — but also didn’t let that get in the way of celebrating Philadelphia’s success. “I grew up as an Eagles fan and watched every game with my dad,” he recalled. “I still remember the devastating feeling we felt each year watching them lose. I can’t explain how amazing it feels to be Super Bowl champions.
“As a 9 year old in 2005, I cried when we lost. This time I cried even harder when we won.”
As befits the city of Philadelphia, the Eagles’ road to the championship was hardly uneventful. After a blistering 10-2 start that had them positioned as easy favorites to win the NFC, their quarterback and MVP candidate Carson Wentz suffered a torn ACL in their week 14 victory over the Los Angeles Rams. Although fans of some teams might have had their doubts, Philadelphia fans — accustomed as they are to hardship and suffering — see doubt as a luxury not worth indulging in. “Philly fans never give up on their team,” said Schweppe. “Even after we lost Wentz, the overwhelming feeling was that we were confident in our team and confident in [Nick] Foles. We knew the Birds would pull through no matter what.”
Nick Foles, the unassuming backup with the goofy grin and who nearly hung up his cleats two years ago, took the helm in Philadelphia after Wentz’s injury. First, a little background: Foles was a third-round pick for the Eagles in 2012, and would step in to play when the starter, Michael Vick, suffered a concussion about midway through the season. In 2013, he tied an NFL record with seven touchdown passes in a single game and finished with one of the best single-season passer ratings of all time (119.3). The next season, Foles’ record was not nearly as clean, as he threw 13 touchdowns but also 10 interceptions in eight games. In his ninth game of the season Foles broke his collarbone, ending his season. At the time the Eagles were 6–2, but they went 4–4 the rest of the way and missed the playoffs. Foles was traded to the Rams after the 2014 campaign, ended up losing the starting position to Case Keenum, and asked to be released after the team drafted Jared Goff the next year. At this point, Foles was moments away from calling it quits and moving on from the NFL, he has said openly since that time. However, he took a chance and signed a contract with the Chiefs to play as a backup under his former coach Andy Reid. He saw limited action as a backup, but wasn’t satisfied with his role on the team and asked to be released; luckily for him, his skillset convinced the Philadelphia Eagles to re-sign him as backup before this past 2017 campaign.
Which brings us back to the weeks following Wentz’s injury. The Eagles had an uncertain finish to the regular season, to say the least: Foles showed some flashes but didn’t look outstanding on the whole, and it would be hard hard to say that the Eagles were coming in to the playoffs on a hot streak after their 6–0 loss to the Dallas Cowboys in week 17 (of course, the Eagles’ starters barely saw the field — after all, that contest didn’t affect their place in the standings — but it certainly wasn’t a high note to end the regular season).
Despite being the number one seed in the NFC coming into their divisional round matchup against the Atlanta Falcons, there was enough doubt surrounding the Eagles team that Las Vegas books actually had them as the underdog coming into the game — at home, to boot. Philadelphia managed to come away with a 15–10 win behind a solid performance from Foles: certainly not resounding enough to silence their critics, but enough to keep them alive for one more week.
But the team kept on driving, and their fans followed suit, doubling down on their grit and even getting a little cocky about it. “The biggest surprise for me,” Donohue said, “was seeing how resilient the team was once we lost our MVP-caliber QB in Carson Wentz. Everyone talks about the Patriots’ ‘Next Man Up’ mentality, but I could guarantee they don’t make it past the divisional round with a backup QB.”
That faith paid dividends during Philadelphia’s head-turning performance in the NFC championship. Facing a Vikings team led by Case Keenum — the same quarterback that took his job a few years earlier on the Rams — Foles threw for three touchdowns and 352 on 26 for 33 passing en route to a 38–7 trouncing of Minnesota. The highlight of the game came with Foles under center with a 24–7 lead on the Vikings’ 41-yard line: Doug Pederson, the Philadelphia coach who never met a trick play he didn’t like, called the flea-flicker that would seal the game when Foles lofted a pass carefully into the hands of Torrey Smith just inside the end-zone pylon.
Sure, there was some time left in the game at this point, but the narrative for Super Bowl LII was already starting to take shape. Waiting for the Eagles were the New England Patriots juggernaut, led by the Brady-Belichick duo with five Super Bowls to their credit — including last year’s, which they won with the greatest comeback in NFL history, let alone on the biggest stage in football. It was the evil empire versus the lovable losers, the playoff perennials that everybody loves to hate against the against-all-odds, down-but-not-out upstarts with their eyes on the throne. Luke Skywalker versus Darth Vader; Rocky Balboa versus Apollo Creed.
Any sports fan could find a team to root for under such circumstances; still, many student-athletes might feel a special affinity for the thrill of this particular athletic contest, since so often in their own careers they’ve been in the place of one if not both teams on the field. Take Schweppe, who, despite being a Philadelphia fan, plays for a Middlebury team that has more or less been the New England Patriots of Division III field hockey, let alone the Nescac, over the past few years. The fact that she could personally relate to the swagger and absolute confidence that the Patriots play with, only made it all the more exciting for her to root for her underdog Eagles on the big stage. “I think any athlete can relate to the competitive spirit of the Super Bowl,” she later said. “Although it’s definitely more stressful being a spectator who can only sit and scream at her TV than being one of the actual athletes on the field with the game in your hands.”
The game itself was nothing short of an absolute classic, a back-and-forth thriller guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat. Even if you didn’t have skin in the game, it was damn good football. Although Foles gave the Eagles a 38–33 lead with his third TD pass of the game with 2:25 remaining, the game was far from over: indeed, the Philadelphia faithful were more than likely seeing visions of the Patriots’ comeback from last year’s Super Bowl. With the Eagles holding a five-point lead, overtime seemed out of the question in this contest: Brady and the Patriots were set for an all-or-nothing drive, end zone or bust. But just two plays in, Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham beat his man to strip sack Brady well within New England territory, and the Eagles fell on the fumble. Foles and company would play it safe and settle for the field goal to push the score to 41–33 with about a minute remaining. Of course, Brady managed to put the Patriots in position for in a last-second Hail Mary, as everyone more or less knew he would, but Eagles fans across the country leapt for joy as the pass was swatted to the ground to seal the victory.
The City of Brotherly Love may not be known for its hospitable fans, but their victory was one that everyone outside of New England — and a good deal of folks within it — could take at least some share in rejoicing over. With characteristic Philadelphian irreverence, Donohue summed up what the victory meant for him and, by extension, countless others. “Being a Philadelphia fan is in my blood,” he said: “it’s something my dad and I bonded over during my childhood. Being an Eagles fan isn’t just about sports for me. It’s about family, and I don’t care if people think we’re scumbags, because now we’re scumbags who are champions.”
Unlike Schweppe, Donohue is still waiting on his turn to taste a championship in his Middlebury career. But that hasn’t stopped him from taking lessons from his fandom and putting them to use on the diamond. “I love to take the grit I’ve developed over the years as an Eagles fan and apply it to the grit I have on the baseball field,” he later explained. “I never really knew that ‘tears of joy’ were a thing until the Eagles won, and I can’t wait to bawl my eyes out again when the baseball team takes home the Nescac title.”
Here’s to all those underdog dreams coming true — for Middlebury students and athletes alike.
(01/17/18 10:22pm)
The Middlebury Nordic ski team opened their 2018 campaign at the Colby Carnival this past weekend, with both the men’s and women’s squads managing an impressive showing despite the unfavorable weather that caused Saturday’s races to be cancelled at Quarry Road Trails in Waterville, Maine. Skiers competed in the women’s 5K and men’s 10K classical events on Sunday. Thanks to a number of top-ten performances from the Panthers, both Middlebury teams bought home third-place overall finishes. Middlebury’s Alpine skiers will participate in the downhill portion of the Colby Carnival this upcoming weekend, on Saturday, Jan. 20, and Sunday, Jan. 21.
Leading the charge for the women’s side in the 5K race was captain Katie Feldman ’18. Already one of the consistent top finishers from last year’s team, she made good on an offseason of hard work with a career-best sixth-place finish (16:29). Finishing just on her heels was fellow captain Cate Brams ’18 who crossed the finish line 15th overall, just 11 seconds behind her teammate (16:40). Orli Schwartz ’20 rounded out the scoring for the Panther women, grabbing the 19th spot overall with a time of 16:46. Not far behind her was first-year Avery Ellis ’21 with a time of 16:52, just missing the scoring cutoff but still demonstrating the fire and potential that the Panthers look for from their younger athletes.
On the whole, Feldman gave a positive appraisal of the team’s performance on Sunday. “I’d say this weekend was a good start to our season,” she offered. “It was a hectic time between the rain and then the extreme cold [on Sunday]… As a group, I think the team did a really good job adapting to the many changes and being ready to race. Putting three racers in the top ten between men and women and both genders scoring third on the day is a big step in the right direction, and we’re hungry for more.”
In the men’s 10K race, both old and new found their way to the top of the leaderboard for the Panthers. Lewis Nottonson ’19 tied a career-best finish by crossing the line in 28:45, good for sixth place overall. Just two seconds behind Nottonson, Peter Wolter sped to a seventh-place finish (28:47) in his first-ever collegiate race — not an altogether inauspicious beginning for the first-year. The third and final scorer for the Panther men was captain Adam Luban ’18, who was a mainstay on the leaderboards last season. This past Sunday, he crossed the line in 29:12, putting him in 16th for the race.
At the end of the day, the Panther men actually tied with the Colby Mules for third place, having cobbled together 196 cumulative points. However, the Panther women combined for 178 points, enough to secure a 20-point lead over their hosts, who finished in fourth place. Once the two sides were combined, Middlebury’s 374 points gave them sole possession of third place over the Mules. The Panthers finished behind Dartmouth College (486) and the University of Vermont (490) respectively.
As Feldman later noted, this first weekend was hardly just a warmup for the team; with only a limited number of races in the season, the Panthers will be looking to take advantage of every scoring opportunity they have. “Our season is really in full swing,” she said. “These early races are just as important as the later carnivals as there are opportunities for NCAA qualifying points and team carnival points in all six of the carnival weekends.”
Next weekend, the Nordic teams will head up Route 7 to participate in the St. Michael’s Carnival at Sleepy Hollow Ski Center in Hinesburg, Vermont. As mentioned before, the alpine teams will be the ones heading over to Maine, competing in the downhill portion of the Colby Carnival on Sugarloaf Mountain.
(11/30/17 12:07am)
After the dust settled on their national title, we chased down the star-studded senior class — Annie Leonard, Lauren Schweppe, Caroline Knapp, Carson Peacock, Audrey Quirk, and Eva Dunphy — of the field hockey team and asked them to share some thoughts on their tremendous careers and their fitting capstone season. Read on for some brief excerpts of what they had to say.
On what it’s like to be a member of the Middlebury field hockey team:
Eva Dunphy: Something that has made being a member of this team so special is that, since we joined the team, it has always felt like one big family. I’ve been on a lot of different teams, but I’ve never been on one that has been as loving, supportive and close as the the one this program has cultivated.
Caroline Knapp: When we are together we try not to separate by class, which is a huge positive of our team. We all hang out and joke around with each other, and it is unimportant what year someone is. Over the past few years, older players always emphasized that everyone must have space to have her voice heard, so that every individual feels like she has a place, no matter if she is a first-year, sophomore, junior, or senior. I feel like I’m always learning from my teammates, regardless of their year.
Lauren Schweppe: Our coaching staff, led by Coach [Katharine] DeLorenzo is the heart and soul of the team. DeLo is more than a coach to her players. Throughout my four years on the team she has always put emphasis on fulfilling our potential as people and not just as athletes.
Carson Peacock: Having the opportunity to play for Coach DeLorenzo has taught me more about how to be the kind of person that I want to be than anything else. She is unyieldingly dedicated to the game and this team and she pours herself wholeheartedly into each season. She has taught me about passion, hard work, and attention to detail; how to lead by example, how to expect results from those working with me, and what it means to work and operate within a team. She has showed me how I can create the kind of relationships that I want and has helped me to understand the kind of person that I want to be.
I know that all of the seniors are so incredibly grateful for her expertise, love and support and that it would have been a completely different team and an entirely different four years without her.
On their historic 2017 championship run:
Peacock: This season felt different than any other. Like every year, we went into the season hungry for a championship. However, I would say that it wasn’t until after about halfway through the season that we realized how good we were and how serious of a shot we had.
I distinctly remember talking to Audrey [Quirk] and commenting on the fact that we were going to win it all, that we just knew somehow, a kind of feeling that we had never had before. And I think a lot of that feeling came from how the team approached the game this season.
While many teams were eager and enthusiastic to take us down, our team was never concerned with how other teams saw us. We knew and treated every game as if it would be competitive. There was an attention to detail that was wholly embraced by the entire team, and this made us seniors, as leaders of the team, feel more confident in this team than we had ever felt before.
Annie Leonard: What’s most exciting about the postseason is that previous games, records, and statistics are irrelevant: the team that shows up to play is the one that will come out ahead. When November rolled around, we were a totally different team than we were in pre-season, and even than we were in our last regular season game.
We found our rhythm on the field and there was an energy and feeling of connectedness with our passes and set plays that is almost indescribable.
In postseason, nothing is guaranteed, but the team thrives under that constant pressure and it brings out the best in us. Knowing the end goal and how badly we all wanted it maintained our focus. We never let any circumstances affect our game; it was mental toughness that propelled us forward.
On the 2017 NCAA Championship match, a 4–0 victory over reigning national champion Messiah:
Leonard: As seniors, having the opportunity to play our last collegiate game on a beautiful field against the team that ended our season last year, and for the championship title, there wasn’t really much else we could ask for. The circumstances were beyond perfect.
There were definitely some butterflies going into the game, but more for excitement than nerves. In the end, we were looking to play the best game of field hockey we’ve ever played, and we did just that, both on an individual and team level.
Statistically speaking, the game was evenly split, but we capitalized on our opportunities, which allowed us to maintain pressure on our opponents up until the 70th minute.
Winning the game, it was a feeling of pure joy, of happiness, of accomplishment, and of pride. Especially as seniors, we knew what it felt like to win a national championship and wanted nothing more than for our underclassmen to experience that same incredible feeling. For us, to have and share that feeling one more time is particularly special.
On what they hope to have left behind, and the teammates who will carry the standard:
Knapp: The legacy that I hope we leave behind is one of passion, drive, compassion, and support, not just within the realm of athletics but also in life. Being a great field hockey player alone is not what has made this team so wonderful to be on and successful, though that is obviously a piece of it, but rather it is being around supportive teammates, who want to hear how your day was, want to know how you are doing, and want to lift you up.
That support will continue to be a part of the core of this team and benefit each member. I know that I’ve benefited greatly from this support system and can only help that I have given back to my teammates, what they have given me.
Dunphy: The program is headed in such a good direction — there is so much talent and the returning players are an amazing group of players and people. The rising seniors are already great team leaders. They’ll do a great job instilling the values important to MCFH in the incoming group of first-years and setting an example for the rest of the team.
Schweppe: As seniors, we couldn’t have asked for a better group of underclassmen. I know their energy and love for the team and for field hockey will carry over in years to come. The advice I would give to the underclassmen is to value and enjoy your time on this team, because it’s truly a special experience.
I wish I could do it all over again.
(Unfortunately, we were unable to reach Quirk, but we have it on good word that she agrees with her teammates on the above.)
(11/16/17 12:02am)
After a thrilling season filled with ups than downs, the women’s soccer team’s 2017 campaign came to a close in the second round of the NCAA tournament this past weekend.
Playing at the field of regional host MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Panthers opened the 64-team tournament with a 1–0 victory over the Western Connecticut State Colonials on Saturday, Nov. 11.
The next day, the team squared off against the Engineers in what promised to be an exciting match as it featured two top-25 teams (No. 13 MIT and No. 17 Middlebury). There was added intrigue, as well, given that it was the Panthers who eliminated MIT from NCAAs in the first round of the 2016 tournament. This time, however, it was the Engineers who outdid the Panthers. After 90 minutes of tenacious soccer from both teams, MIT emerged with a 1–0 victory to send Middlebury home with a final record of 12–4–2.
After getting bounced from the Nescac tournament in the first round three weeks ago, the Panthers found themselves waiting at home while the conference championship concluded the next weekend. Even though they didn’t yet have the assurance that they’d even be invited to the NCAA tournament, Middlebury was hungry for revenge: they went above and beyond in their preparation to put themselves in the best possible position to succeed.
When they did get the call for the NCAA tournament, they were ready, according to Alex Barber ’19:
“MWS came into the NCAAs sharp and ready to play. Even though we didn’t get to compete in the last weekend of the Nescac tournament, we took no time off and instead played a full inter-squad match on that Saturday. We had an intense week of practice leading up to the first weekend of NCAAs, including a 6:30 a.m. practice and a training session at UVM.
“We don’t mess around when it comes to the NCAAs because we know how great of an opportunity it is and how fierce the competition is. It’s all about how bad you want it, and we consistently battle to show it.”
Their preparedness was more than evident in Saturday’s matchup against Western Connecticut St.
Although the Panthers only ended up winning by one goal, the details of the box score offer a little more insight as to how the game really went.Middlebury dominated the game in terms of possession and managed 19 shots to Western Connecticut State’s nine. Some of the negative statistics even pointed to a dominant Panther team: the fact that Middlebury was flagged for offside violations seven times to the Colonials’ one was indicative of how much more time the ball spent on their opponent’s half of the field.
Barber felt that Saturday’s matchup against the Colonials was a high point in the Panthers’ season, at least in terms of their performance.
“We played technically sharp from the beginning and kept the ball on their half for most of the game, creating continuous scoring opportunities for ourselves,” Barber said. “Defensively, we kept their best player from having any dangerous attacking opportunities. I think that game was some of the best soccer we played all season.”
Barber was involved in Middlebury’s best scoring opportunity of the first half when she directed a corner kick into the penalty box around the 27-minute mark. Alissa Huntington ’18 got her head on the cross, but the Colonials’ keeper managed to fend off the attempt with a diving save.
The Panthers, keeping the crowd on their toes, ended up waiting until the 83rd minute to convert on one of their many scoring opportunities. Clare Robinson ’19 crossed a ball to Barber in Colonial territory, who, in turn, found Virginia Charman ’20 with a beautiful one-touch pass. Charman didn’t waste the opportunity. She laced the ball into the upper-left corner of the net to give Middlebury the deciding 1–0 lead. The Colonials made one last attempt that ricocheted off the crossbar in the 86th minute, allowing the Panthers held on for the 1–0 victory to advance to the second round.
Facing an MIT team on Sunday that had just stomped Castleton 7–2 a day before, Middlebury nevertheless felt ready for what their opponent was going to bring.
“Having played MIT in the first round last year,” Barber explained, “we know what kind of team they are and how they like to play. They play technical and pretty soccer, just how we like to play. Both teams had lots of scoring opportunities and it was a very exciting game, but ultimately, we were unable to find the back of the net in time to score a goal and tie it up.
“MIT is a great team, and we finished the game with our heads held high, knowing that we are a great soccer team that had a fantastic season.”
Head coach Peter Kim didn’t feel that the team came out flat on Sunday or that they were dealing with a victory hangover, either.
“We were capable of winning both games this weekend, to be sure,” Kim said. “Unfortunately, we had difficulty finishing goals this season, and that ended up being the story of the match on Sunday. We created plenty of chances to score, and should’ve finished a few more than we did.”
Middlebury led Sunday’s match in shot attempts, 11–10, but only managed to put two of those on target to the Engineers’ five. Once MIT scored what was to be the only goal of the game in the 22nd minute, the Panthers found themselves playing a frustrating game of catch-up for the rest of the match, colored by shot attempt after shot attempt that seemed to miss by just inches.
In the first half, Eliza Robinson ’21 had a free kick sail high and a second attempt corralled by the MIT goalie in the span of a minute. Eliza Van Voorhis ’21 connected with a header from a Barber corner-kick but missed over the crossbar. In the second half, Robinson had another attempt sail just over the top of the goal. Although possession went back and forth, the Panthers were mostly held away from the Engineers’ penalty box. When the official’s whistled sounded to signal MIT’s 1–0 victory, Middlebury’s season was over.
On the whole, Kim had some very positive things to offer about the Panthers’ season.
“I’ll remember this season as one of resiliency,” Kim said. “We suffered setbacks in a few key games that we felt we should have won, but those results only strengthened our resolve.
“I’m impressed by how we battled back and earned a NCAA tournament berth, then played some excellent soccer in Cambridge. We out-possessed and outshot Western Connecticut St. by a large margin and pinned MIT in their own half for significant portions of the game.
“It was a heartbreaking way to finish the year,” Kim said, “but the final result doesn’t take away from the effort the players put in. Hopefully younger players learned how hard they have to work in order to succeed, both individually and as a team. As for the seniors, they are largely responsible for the resiliency that this team showed. While a Nescac run would have been fitting for them, they can be very proud of the team that they built. They left a lasting legacy and will be sorely missed.”
Barber looked back on the season just as fondly, if not even more so — largely thanks to the close relationships she developed with her teammates over its course.
“Since we graduated 11 seniors last year, it was important to reassess our personnel and figure out who was going to fill important roles on the team that were vacated,” Barber said. “I was consistently blown away by the amount of talent on this team, and how deep our bench is. We didn’t just play with 11 starters the whole season, we played with everyone.”
But she saved her most touching words for her teammates about to graduate: Huntington, Maddie Morgan ’18, Emma Shumway ’18 and Rebecca Palacios ’18.
“Our four seniors have given our team and the soccer program endless dedication, heart and laughs,” Barber said. “They have showed us what it means to work for something you want badly and win, and what it looks like to smile and be grateful in the face of defeat. Alissa, Maddie, Emma and Becca are such special and intelligent individuals, and we will miss them so much as they go off to do amazing things with their lives.”
(11/08/17 5:33pm)
On November 1, 2017, the Houston Astros of the American League defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers of the National League 5–1 in Game 7 of the World Series, capping off a captivating championship matchup that featured some of the most exciting playoff baseball that fans of the game have seen in years. Here, we’d like to look back on a few of the factors that made this hard-fought battle so uniquely exciting.
—2017 marked the first time in the free agent era (i.e. from 1976 onward) that two 100+ win teams faced off in the World Series. The last such meeting took place in 1970 between the Baltimore Orioles and the Cincinnati Reds.
—Coincidentally, Los Angeles and Houston are arguably the two Major League teams that rely most heavily on advanced analytics to run their teams. The Dodgers, for example, distributed cards to each of their outfielders that not only told them where to stand for each different batter in the Astros’ lineup, but also factored in for the different pitchers that the Dodgers were using as well.
—Los Angeles had only lost one playoff game coming into the World Series, a 3–2 defeat at the hands of Jake Arrieta and the Chicago Cubs in Game 4 of the NLCS (the Dodgers won Game 5 to take the series four games to one). They won the rest of their playoff games by two runs or more.
The Astros, on the other hand, had faced a bit of a tougher road: three of their seven playoff wins prior to the World Series were decided by only one run, and they had to climb back from a 3–2 deficit in the ALCS to defeat the New York Yankees in seven games.
—That being said, both teams had at least one thing in common: neither had lost a home game in the playoffs thus far. But when it came to the World Series, the Astros would take wins on the road from the Dodgers — Games 2 and 7 — and Los Angeles would win game 4 on Houston’s home turf.
—On October 24, the recorded temperature for the first pitch of Game 1 was 103 degrees Fahrenheit. The hottest World Series game on record before that? October 27, Game 1 of the 2001 World Series, New York Yankees at the Arizona Diamondbacks: 94 degrees.
—Before Game 2 of this season, the Dodgers were 98–0 when in the lead at the top of the 9th inning. A big part of that equation was their closer, Kenley Jensen: he had converted 41 of 42 save opportunities, sported a 1.32 ERA and a 15.57 strikeout/walk ratio, and held opposing batters to a .177 average. However, Jansen blew the lead in Game 2 by giving up a solo Marwin Gonzalez home run in the ninth inning, allowing the Astros to knot the score at 3–3.
—But, Game 2 was remarkable for reasons beyond that as well. The Dodgers and Astros combined to hit eight home runs over the course of the game, a World Series record. What’s more, five of those home runs came in extra innings: Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa of the Astros hit back-to-back shots in the top of the tenth, to which Yasiel Puig responded with one of his own in the bottom of the inning. George Springer responded for Houston with a two-run bomb in the top of the 11th, and although Charlie Culberson tried to bring the Dodgers back with a solo blast in the bottom of the 11th, it ultimately wasn’t enough as Los Angeles fell, 7–6.
—Game 5, a ten-inning, 25-run affair, saw the Dodgers slip from the lead on three separate occasions, defy expectations by coming back from a three-run deficit in the top of the ninth inning to tie the game, and ultimately to blow it in the bottom of the 10th. The losing pitcher? Kenley Jansen.
—Down 3–2 in the series, Los Angeles looked to be down for the count: the Astros had won every single game that Justin Verlander (their Game 6 pitcher) had started since they added him to the roster on August 31. Verlander took a 1–0 lead into the sixth inning, having only allowed one hit to that point. However, he gave up two runs on the inning and the Astros went on to lose, 3–1.
—Game 7 was undoubtedly the most boring matchup of the series. After scoring two runs in the first inning and three in the second, the Astros more or less cruised to a 5–1 victory to seal the first World Series title since the club’s foundation in 1962.
The only other game that had been decided by more than two runs was Game 4, a 6–2 Dodger victory. Even so, that one was tied 1–1 before Los Angeles scored five runs in the top of the ninth inning.
—The Astros and Dodgers combined to hit 25 home runs in the 2017 World Series, shattering the old record of 21. George Springer, the World Series MVP, accounted for five of those home runs by himself, also a World Series record.
—Brandon Morrow of the Dodgers quietly became just the second pitcher to appear in all seven games of a World Series. But he wasn’t the only member of the Los Angeles bullpen to see heavy usage: head coach Dave Roberts made a record 32 pitching changes over the seven-game series.
—Cody Bellinger, the likely NL Rookie of the Year, struck out a record 17 times — almost 2.5 per game — in the World Series, blowing past the old World Series record of 13 and the playoff series record of 16 set by Aaron Judge in the ALCS.
—Both teams smelled something fishy about the World Series, sort of. Pitchers for the Dodgers and the Astros alike (most notably Los Angeles’ Clayton Kershaw and Yu Darvish and Houston’s Verlander), as well as their pitching coaches, claimed that the baseballs used in the 2017 World Series were slicker than those employed during the regular season. This allegedly gave them the most amount of trouble with their sliders: conspiracy theorists point to the fact that Kershaw, Darvish, and Verlander all used that pitch with much less success than usual in the series.
(11/01/17 6:34pm)
In the quarterfinal round of the 2017 Nescac Championship this past Saturday, October 28, the Middlebury women’s soccer team fell to the Hamilton Continentals in a hard-fought 1–0 defensive battle. The Panthers came into the first-round game as the number three seed in the tournament, the Continentals as the number six; earlier in the season on September 17, the two teams had played out a 1–1 double-overtime tie. However, Hamilton’s victory this time around bounced the Panthers from the tournament, leaving them to wait until next Monday, Nov. 6 to hear if they’ll receive an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament.
Head coach Peter Kim gave credit where credit was due in assessing the match. “On Saturday we played against a strong defensive team,” he said. “Going down a goal early in the game meant that we had to chase the game for 87 minutes, but we did create a enough chances to at least tie the game. However, we didn’t capitalize on the clear-cut opportunities to score, and turned the ball over unnecessarily throughout the match.”
As Kim alluded, the Continentals took advantage of a misplayed ball in the Middlebury penalty area to score just 2:28 into the first period. The rest of the half was relatively evenly matched as both teams did their best to create scoring chances, the Panthers firing off seven more shots to Hamilton’s four. In the 32nd minute, midfielder Virginia Charman ’20 had a well-placed shot on goal from about 15 yards out that the Continental keeper managed to knock away with a diving save.
Eager to make up ground, Middlebury came out on the attack in the second period, and the record showed it: their ten shot attempts to the Continentals’ four in the half was a good indicator of their control in terms of possession. Charman had another good scoring opportunity that she just barely failed to convert, her header caught by the Hamilton goalie. Later, as the clock wound down, the Panthers had one last scoring opportunity when Clare Robinson ’19 sent a header just right of the goal on a set piece. At the final buzzer, the score still stood at 1–0 in Hamilton’s favor.
This game was an especially tough one for the Panthers, especially in comparison to their stunning victory over Williams the week prior. The Ephs had come into that contest ranked third in the nation; the Panthers, coming off a 5-0 drubbing of Bates just a few days before, couldn’t have cared less as they secured a 1–0 victory.
“We actually should have scored two against Williams,” said Kim, “as we were inexplicably denied a penalty kick after Ellie [Greenberg ’20] was hauled down in the box while on a breakaway. Our possession wasn’t great in that game, but that was partly due to the crazy weather conditions.
“On Saturday [against Hamilton], however, turnovers and failure to capitalize on goal-scoring opportunities ultimately led to our demise.”
Moving forward, Middlebury will hope for an at-large bid to the 64-team NCAA national championship tournament, to be decided by the selection committee next Monday; in the meantime, they’ll remain at home while the Nescac tournament wraps up next weekend in Williamstown, Mass.
That’s not to say that the Panthers will just be sitting around, though. Captain Alissa Huntington ’18 explained that Middlebury will prepare with every expectation of being included in the NCAA tourney. “We’ll continue to train in hopes of seeing the results we want,” she said. “We’re really hopeful, and right now all that we can do is keep the mentality that our season will continue and try to fix the issues that hurt us in the Nescac tournament.
“If we get a second chance, I think the most important part is taking on each game of the tournament knowing it could be the last of our season, or for the seniors, our college careers.”
(10/11/17 9:55pm)
On Sunday, Sept. 24, Pittsburgh Steelers left tackle Alejandro Villanueva came to embody, in an unexpected way, the height of the racial conflict that has embroiled the NFL for the past year. Embody, not because he is black or particularly affected by racial injustice in America — Villanueva is of Spanish descent, and has never publicly spoken of himself as a target of discrimination — but because he felt the utmost degree of pressure from both sides of the conflict.
Villanueva is a veteran of the U.S. Army who served three tours in Afghanistan before beginning his NFL career. Prior to that Sunday’s contest against the Chicago Bears, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin had given his players the freedom to decide how, or even if, they would protest during the anthem. Wanting neither to belittle the struggles of millions of people of color, nor to take an action that they worried would send the wrong message, the players ultimately decided under the leadership of captains Ben Roethlisberger and Cam Heyward that “the only course of action was to go inside and remove ourself [sic] from the situation,” in Villanueva’s words. They planned to remain in the tunnel for the duration of the anthem.
Afterwards, Villanueva expressed a sincere regret for what followed. “After the meeting,” he said, “based on my unique circumstances and based on the fact that I’ve served in the Army and pretty much that my life is lived through the military, I asked Ben [Roethlisberger] if there was a way I could watch the national anthem from the tunnel, and he agreed. He said the captains will be out there right behind me, so this plan morphed to accommodate this tough, moral dilemma that I had in my hands to where the players can be behind me in the tunnel.”
Except when it came time for the anthem to take place, Villanueva’s actions had unintended consequences. He walked out until he could see the flag from the tunnel and, as the anthem was about to begin, turned around to motion to the rest of his teammates to join him. But the hustle and bustle of stadium personnel in the tunnel came between Villanueva and the rest of his teammates: by the time the commotion had cleared, the anthem was already underway.
To say that Villanueva felt it important to honor the flag would be an understatement. For him personally, not standing for the anthem would be almost unthinkable. “At the end of the day,” he said, “it happens all the time: people die for the flag. There’s no way else to put it. When somebody’s about to go on a mission … there’s nothing else that’s going to justify other than the men to the left and right dying for that mission.
“I wish I could stay home. I wish we could all play ‘Call of Duty’ and not have to go to war. Some men, some women, sign up for this tough challenge, and they have to do it for the flag. When I see a flag of a mission on the shoulder of a soldier that reminds me that that guy’s with me. It reminds me that I have to fight and lay my life down for him. Whether it’s in my unit, whether it’s Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, it doesn’t matter. You’re going to have a flag on your shoulder, I’m going to identify that, and we’re fighting for each other. So that’s what the flag means to me, that’s what the flag means to a lot of veterans. The national anthem, it means a lot to them, it means a lot to me. I think my teammates respected this thoroughly.”
But that’s not the message that NFL fans got right away. The unintended consequence of Villanueva’s commitment consisted in the enduring image of him standing alone, hand over his heart, just on the threshold of the tunnel and completely apart from his teammates. The photo was immediately and fervently circulated throughout the media. Demand for Villanueva’s jersey skyrocketed, as it quickly became the highest selling over the next few days.
Nevertheless, Villanueva couldn’t have been more upset with the attention he received. Many Steelers, including Tomlin himself, expressed their disappointment in the way he had handled the situation. In turn, Villanueva felt he had betrayed the trust of his teammates and, by extension, misrepresented their values and common brotherhood on the national stage. “That is the very embarrassing part of my end in what transpired,” he later said, “because when everybody sees an image of me standing by myself, everybody thinks that the team, the Steelers, are not behind me, and that’s absolutely wrong.
“It’s quite the opposite. They all would have… actually the entire team would have been out there with me, even the ones who wanted to take a knee would have been with me had they known these extreme circumstances that at Soldier Field [where the Bears play], in the heat of the moment, when I’ve got soldiers, wounded veterans texting me that I have to be out there, I think everything would have been put aside, from every single one of my teammates, no doubt.
“So because of that, I’ve made Coach Tomlin look bad, and that is my fault, and that is my fault only. I made my teammates look bad, and that is my fault, and my fault only. And I made the Steelers also look bad, and that is my fault, and my fault only. So unwillingly, I made a mistake. I talked to my teammates about the situation. Hopefully they understand it. If they don’t, I still have to live with it, because the nature of this debate is causing a lot of very heated reaction from fans from players, and it’s undeserving to all of the players and coaches from this organization.”
Villanueva’s story leaves us with quite a bit to unpack. There are the obvious questions: to what extent was the onus on him to make sure the whole team knew about his plans to view the flag ahead of time? Should he have stepped back into the tunnel? If not, what should he have done differently? The speculations in his account raise the question of hearsay, too: How accurately did he portray the thoughts and feelings of his teammates in his interview, especially when he asserted that they would’ve been behind him? If he strayed from the truth, was it intentional or unintentional? And most of all, we might find ourselves asking: Amidst all the uproar surrounding the kneeling protests in the NFL, the express aim of which is to call attention to the unjust treatment of black individuals in American society, is it fair to begin our discussion with the actions of somebody who made it a point not to participate in the protest?
Of course, we’ve thrown any impartiality regarding the last question out the window by the very fact of our discussing Villanueva’s story. But properly considered, his example gives us insight into a much broader set of questions, ones that run deeper than just one man, one team, or one game. It puts the very fabric of American society under the microscope. It reminds us of our uncomfortable past, the mistreatment of black Americans that stretches back to this country’s foundation. It undermines every attempt we make to pretend that our abuses died with the 13th Amendment or the Civil Rights Act, all the more so in the context of a sport in which 70 percent of the players are black but 83 percent of the fans are white. Most of all, it calls into question our very definition of patriotism and its place in America’s future. Villanueva was awarded a Bronze Star for his military service and fits the traditional definition of “patriot” to a T: if he was wrong to stand before the anthem as he did, ostensibly earnest as he was, then what does that mean for the vast majority of us who have been doing the same?
In short, the issue lies at the intersection of America’s history of racism, obsession with sports, and particular brand of patriotism. Individually, all three are unique to our country. The conflict they have combined to form is even more intricate and delicate. We’ve hardly made any attempt to keep the three separate, and now that they’ve come to a head, we don’t have any precedent to learn from in managing them.
For instance, it’s important to understand that no other country in the world has written patriotism into the rubric of its athletic identity to the degree that America has. From high school sports onward, we play our national anthem before the vast majority of our athletic competitions; at the professional level, it is never omitted. Except when competing as a country — for instance, when the French soccer team faces off against Germany — the rest of the world rarely does the same. They tend to deem it uncouth and self-aggrandizing. Of course, Americans might ask in response: Wasn’t it the same brazen patriotism that won us our independence, and upon which we founded our country?
And somewhere along the way, our athletic patriotism came to be associated with our military, too. Perhaps it was an inevitable consequence of American patriotism on the whole that we would come to associate it with sports. After all, the fact that we’ve fought to earn our freedom is almost inextricable from the very concept itself; our presence on a global scale is largely identified with the fighting we do on behalf of other countries’ freedom, too (or at least under the pretext thereof).
Or maybe our athletic patriotism had something to do with the fact that in the early to middle 20th century, when sports were becoming more and more commercialized, the young men we were watching on the field were the same ones being shipped off to war overseas. Whatever the cause, the proof is abundant. At stadiums across the country, extra care is given to recognize and celebrate military holidays, veterans in the crowd are regularly introduced to a standing ovation, and most of all, a military color guard traditionally presents the flag before the crowd is asked: Please rise and remove your caps for the singing of our national anthem.
It was in light of the above circumstances that Colin Kaepernick, once a starter but only a backup at the time, garnered widespread attention for his decision to remain seated for the anthem before a San Francisco 49ers preseason game on August 26, 2016. When asked by NFL Media about the motivation for his actions, Kaepernick didn’t mince words.
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” he said. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
The United States Constitution protected Kaepernick’s right to do so, just as it protected the rights of thousands of armchair pundits to criticize his decision — some in a more measured tone, and some with exaggerated, incendiary rhetoric. Although he might not have foreseen the magnitude of the ensuing firestorm — which only increased in pitch as athletes across the NFL, and soon across the country, joined the protest — Kaepernick likely anticipated that at least some individuals would take offense at his actions.
In the year that has passed since then, and especially in recent months, Kapernick’s supporters have accused his detractors of losing sight of the real issues at stake. They say that those claiming injury have a skewed sense of perspective. A flag may be under attack on one side, but on the other, human lives and livelihoods are at stake. Dolphins running back Arian Foster, who joined the protest on Sept. 11, 2016, summarized in a tweet: “Don’t let the love for a symbol overrule the love for your fellow human.” Have fun making a case that we should do otherwise.
But it is equally important to understand that any protest is a fundamentally imperfect enterprise. It is the symptom of a sick society, one riddled with injustice and oppression. Only when words fail do we turn to protest as a means of expression. As a result, it will necessarily introduce a disparity between the actions taken and the motivations behind them, some unintended meaning that the protest takes on by the fact — as a fundamentally drastic measure, one that resorts to offense because other means of discourse have proved ineffective.
Show me a protest in which nobody’s toes are stepped on, and I’ll show you a country in which there’s no reason to protest at all.
From this perspective, Foster’s comment might also take on a wholly different meaning. As soon as Kaepernick decided to sit out the national anthem last year, he turned himself into a symbol as well — an emblem of black courage and pride, of refusal to be silenced in the face of oppression that society has relentlessly swept under the rug. His image gave a voice to countless silent oppressed. But much in the same way that Kaepernick’s supporters are right to see a repressive subtext in the symbol of the American flag, his detractors aren’t entirely wrong take offense at some of the unintended implications of his actions. Some felt that Kaepernick’s decision gave the impression of obstinacy, of an unwillingness to take part in the great American enterprise about which they had fewer doubts than he. Others saw in his actions ingratitude toward the military, among them Villanueva himself: “I don’t know if the most effective way is to sit down during the national anthem with a country that’s providing you freedom, providing you $16 million a year . . . when there are black minorities that are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan for less than $20,000 a year,” he told ESPN in 2016.
Kaepernick’s protest took courage from the start. It is an even greater testament to his character and humility that he recognized some of the imperfections of his symbolic action. Although he had stated from the beginning that he had no ill will toward the military, he realized that words were not enough to change the content of his action. He sought out and met with former Green Beret and NFL long snapper Nate Boyer for advice on how to sharpen his message. He decided to change his protest from a sitting one, which appeared passive and disinterested to some, to a kneeling one, which many felt showed much more respect for the flag and what it represents. There may always be a space between our words and our actions, but it is never out of our power to constantly reevaluate that gap and to minimize it as much as we can.
And in the same vein, we ought to praise Villanueva for showing much of the same self-awareness humility that Kaepernick did. Although he publicly criticized Kaepernick’s symbolic action in 2016, he expressed unequivocal support for the cause in the same interview.
“I will be the first one to hold hands with Colin Kaepernick, and do something about the way minorities are being treated in the United States, the injustice that is happening with police brutality, the justice system, inequalities in pay,” he said.
And with his profuse apology in the wake of his decision to step out of the tunnel, Villanueva took responsibility for the disparity between his actions and his words. He didn’t back down in his support for the flag, but he openly admitted that his manner of support lacked foresight and was ultimately counterproductive.
It is indicative of the state of affairs in America that two players might come under fire in such a short period of time for completely opposite reasons — one for sitting during the anthem, the other for standing — and that there might be some truth in the criticism of both. But it is important to remember that, especially in this case, neither side wants these protests to take place. They are a symptom of a sick state, largely thanks to a particular history into which all of us were born and which we can’t do away with by rewriting.
Instead, we have two options before us. One of them consists in allowing that sickness to fester as we respond to symbolic actions with more and more elaborate ones. This seems to be the course of action upon which much of the NFL has decided in recent weeks, as team executives have become increasingly worried about their image in light of President Trump’s recent comments. What started as a genuine expression of protest now runs the risk of being co-opted by the league in an attempt to save face.
Our other option? To see the symptoms of our American condition for what they are — symbols, the American flag and the kneeling Kaepernick alike — and to realize that they only have use insofar as they point us toward a better understanding of the American spirit and the disease afflicting it. Until we cure that disease of systemic injustice, quibbles over the expression of that spirit will drive us crazy. If finding a cure means reevaluating one symbol, or both, so be it.
(10/11/17 9:37pm)
The women’s soccer team had a huge weekend on the road, beating Tufts 1–0 on Saturday, Oct. 7, before heading west to beat Wesleyan in overtime on Sunday, Oct. 8. Middlebury now has momentum looking toward the conference tournament.
“Saturday and Sunday were both important wins for us, against two excellent teams,” Coach Peter Kim said. “We knew it would take a lot of focus and determination to get past both this weekend, and saw it as a challenge to achieve higher levels of play and consistency. Both teams were organized, physical, and direct, and both have very rough field surfaces.
“I think we did a nice job of solving Tufts with quick combinations, while Wesleyan required a more direct approach. Fortunately, our team is very flexible and can therefore adapt to the demands of each game we play.”
The Jumbos came into Saturday’s game with an imposing reputation, having gone undefeated in conference play thus far. Middlebury, however, didn’t allow themselves to be bullied out of their comfort zone. The game resembled most of their previous low-scoring Nescac affairs in which the Panthers, bolstered by their stalwart defense, led in both shot attempts (14–7) and shots on goal (5–3). The first period featured a good deal of back and forth in terms of possession, but both sides struggled to execute successful attacks into the other team’s territory. “I think we spent more mental energy preparing for Tufts knowing that they were undefeated in the NESCAC and would be a really fierce competitor,” she said. “They play a very direct style of soccer and we struggled at first to get the ball down on the ground. Once we figured this out, we were able to be much more successful.”
Middlebury certainly elevated their game in the second half, in which they recorded all five of their shots on goal. Nevertheless, they couldn’t help but keep the fans on the edge of their seats, waiting until the 87th minute to finally convert on an attempt. Virginia Charman ’20 lobbed a cross to Van Voorhis, who headed the ball just off the crossbar. Thankfully, Eliza Robinson ’21 was waiting and ready to gather the rebound and push the ball past the keeper into the back of the net. Neither team scored for the rest of the game, giving Middlebury the 1–0 victory.
The shutout was the third of the season for Ursula Alwang ’20, a total in which the contributions of the Middlebury defense have played a large part as well.
Middlebury didn’t have as much time to celebrate as they might have liked, since they had to hop on a bus to Middletown, Connecticut to take on Wesleyan the next day at 11 a.m. Although the Cardinals came into the match with a record of 1–4–1, the margin of defeat in each of their previous losses was just one goal apiece. Wesleyan demonstrated more talent than their record might’ve shown, especially in the first period of Sunday’s matchup. They outshot the Panthers 7–6, keeping the visitors on their heels for much of the half. After both Eliza Robinson’s shot on goal and a rebound attempt from Sabrina Glaser ’20 were blocked in the 14th minute, the Panthers had difficulty putting shots on goal for the rest of the period; in the meantime, the Cardinals found the back of the net in the 26th minute to give them a 1–0 lead that they would hold through the end of the half.
Middlebury played with more authority in the second half. The defense clamped down to limit the Cardinals to just two shot attempts as the Panthers dialed up their own offensive pressure, coming painstakingly close on a number of occasions. They finally hit pay dirt with just under 11 minutes remaining in the period. Van Voorhis received a corner kick from Barber at the top of the penalty box that she redirected back to Caitlin Magruder ’20, who sent a laser past the Cardinal keeper from 30 yards out.
Neither team was able to score again before time expired, sending the match into an extra period. It seemed that they were headed for another extra period until, with just seconds left before the buzzer, captain Amanda Dafonte ’19 made a charge down the right side of the field. She found Charman running along the flank. In turn, Charman placed a perfect pass just out of Wesleyan’s reach, allowing a sliding Van Voorhis to bring the game to a 2–1 close with her team-leading fifth goal of the season.
“The Wesleyan game was closer than we would have liked it to be,” said Van Voorhis. “I think we are in a great position moving into the final four games of the regular season,” said Van Voorhis.
Middlebury hosts Trinity this Saturday, Oct. 14.
(10/04/17 11:30pm)
Faced with a crucial conference matchup at the midway point of their regular season, the Middlebury women’s soccer team took care of business against Colby this past Saturday, Sept. 30. By defeating the Mules 1–0, the Panthers improved their Nescac record to 2–2–1 and remain within striking distance of the top teams in the division.
Earlier in the week, Middlebury had warmed up for conference play with a 5–0 drubbing of nonconference opponent Keene State on the road on Wednesday, Sept. 27. On Tuesday, Oct. 3, the Panthers defeated RPI 3–1.The combined wins allowed the Panthers to push their overall record to 6–2–1.
Coming into the week, head coach Peter Kim explained the direction he wanted his players to take, especially given some of the team’s recent struggles to capitalize on scoring opportunities in Nescac play.
“We’re still growing as a relatively young team, so players and units are still trying to find their scoring touch,” he said. “We need to focus heavily on scoring goals, and this will be our focus for the foreseeable future.”
That goal was certainly achieved in the midweek matchup against Keene State, in which the Panthers put up 20 shot attempts to the Owls’ 10. Middlebury likely hoped to win by a more comfortable margin in the Colby matchup. After all, the lead they held in shots was even more substantial against the Mules (19–4 in shot attempts, 8–2 in shots on goal).
So while the Panthers fell prey to some of their old habits against Colby, their stellar work controlling the ball and limiting the Mules’ offensive opportunities should not be overlooked either. Captain Maddie Morgan ’18, who plays defense for Middlebury, made sure to note that at the end of the day, the week’s games didn’t leave too much to complain about.
“Our team came out of the week 2–0,” she said, “which is the best scenario we can ask for. Against Keene State, we were able to get some great goals in. We also were able to put the game away against Colby, which, when it comes down to it, is what matters.”
Saturday’s matchup went scoreless in the first half, in which both teams fought hard but didn’t have much to show for it in the way of shots on goal: both Ursula Alwang ’20 and the Colby goalkeeper only had to make one save apiece. The Panthers did come close to scoring on a pair of corner kicks. About six minutes in, Alex Barber ’19 sent a ball across that Eliza Van Voorhis ’21 redirected toward the goal, only to have it gathered by the Mules’ goalie; later, as the half wound down, Olivia Miller ’20 saw her corner kick headed just over the crossbar by Leah Salzman ’21.
In the second half, the Panthers came out determined to convert on one of their scoring opportunities and wasted little time in doing so. Midfielder Eliza Robinson ’21 sent a free kick from near midfield deep into the penalty box, and Van Voorhis jumped at the chance to funnel it past the Colby keeper and into the back of the net. Not only was the goal Van Voorhis’ third of the season, good for the team lead, but it also provided the occasion for Robinson to garner her third assist, tying her with Ellie Greenberg ’20 for tops on the squad as well.
With that taste fresh in their mouths, the Panthers proceeded to send a flurry of shots on goal in the rest of the half, forcing the Mule keeper to make six more saves before the period ran out. Among these were a low shot from about 18 yards out by Emma Shumway ’18, an attempt by Miller that was punched just over the crossbar, and a ball that Sabrina Glaser ’20 sent just off the near post in the final minutes. However, the Panthers were as dominant defensively in the second half as they were in the first, and when the final buzzer sounded, they had more than earned the 1–0 victory over Colby.
Although Middlebury always plays with an eye toward their postseason — the Nescac championship and the NCAA tournament that follows — Morgan stressed that the team has some more immediate goals in mind as well.
“For now,” she said, “we’re still getting used to the new formation we’re using this year, so I think working out the kinks before those tournaments come is important. There are always things to work on, and I think continuing to get better at finishing in the final third is really important for us as a team.”
Middlebury will take to the road for what might prove to be the most important weekend of their regular season, playing at Tufts on Saturday, Oct. 7, before taking on Wesleyan the next day on Sunday, Oct. 8.
(09/27/17 11:33pm)
This past Saturday, Sept. 23, a tough contest against Nescac foe Bowdoin saw the Middlebury women’s soccer team fall victim to many of the same troubles that they’ve been dealing with for much of the season. Despite a 17–9 advantage in shots taken and a 9–6 lead in shots on goal, they ultimately couldn’t find the back of the net, and the Polar Bears handed the Panthers a 2–0 defeat.
Coming into the game, Middlebury was prepared for a dogfight. Midfielder Amanda Dafonte ’19, one of the team’s three captains, said, “Bowdoin is a very good team, and they always give us one of the hardest games we play in the season. So we knew this weekend was going to be a challenge.”
In the short Nescac schedule, every game is more or less equally important. But with the Panthers sitting at 1–1–1 in the conference before the weekend, this match represented a chance to gain some momentum as the season approaches the midway point.
And the coach said Middlebury rose to that challenge.
“We outplayed them in many ways, and were the better team in terms of possession, shots and overall run of play,” said head coach Peter Kim, giving his players the credit they deserved.
“However, Bowdoin was organized and extremely tenacious, and we did not match their intensity or physicality.”
In the earlier portion of the first period, the Panthers came so close to finding the back of the net on several occasions. In quick succession, back Sarah DiCenso ’19 had a shot on goal knocked away by a jumping save from the Bowdoin keeper, and midfielder Virginia Charman ’20 sent a ball just inches over the crossbar. Shortly thereafter, midfielder Emma Shumway ’18 bounced a corner kick off the far post that the Polar Bear goalie was able to quickly smother.
But as the first half was winding down, Bowdoin managed to score two unassisted goals, back-to-back, by capitalizing upon Middlebury errors to take a 2–0 lead.
In turn, the Panthers opened the second half with a flurry of near misses from Dafonte and Charman but couldn’t convert. After that, the match turned into something of a defensive showdown, and neither team came particularly close to scoring again.
When the final buzzer sounded, the Panthers stood at 1–2–1 in the conference.
Looking at the team’s record, coach Kim couldn’t help but point out a recurring theme over the past few weeks.
“All in all, we’re disappointed with our conference record so far,” he said. “We felt we dominated in each of the games but have struggled to score consistently. The longer we’ve gone without scoring, the greater chance we’ve given our opponents to nick one on us.
“In the Connecticut, Bowdoin, and Hamilton games, we failed to put away our chances, then suffered one or two lapses of concentration that cost us the results. To be sure, we’ve had some tough bounces as well, having beaten the keeper multiple times in each of those games, only to be denied by the crossbar or goal post.”
He summarized, “Moving forward, we’re just going to have to make our own luck.”
The team still has reason to be optimistic. As Dafonte emphasized, six conference games remain on Middlebury’s schedule, so there’s plenty of time to put a strong run together.
“I’m extremely excited about this team and our future this season,” she said. “We have a very talented team starting from the experience and leadership of our seniors to the new flare that the first-years bring. We have so much potential to have a winning season, and I think we will.”
She concluded on a resoundingly positive note. “While our position in the Nescac is not where we want it to be right now, it’s still very early. I know we will get the job done from here on out. Right now the focus is one game at a time — we have to get the win this Wednesday and the rest will come.”
The Panthers will look to get back on track in conference play with an important matchup against Colby at the team’s own Dragone Field on Saturday, Sept. 30.
(09/21/17 1:02am)
After a heartbreaking loss against Connecticut College to open conference play a week ago, the Middlebury women’s soccer team got its season back on track with a pair of thrilling Nescac contests this past weekend. On Saturday, Sept. 16, the Panthers travelled to Amherst to square off against a Mammoth team that came into the weekend ranked 12th in the country; rising to the occasion, Middlebury was able to come away with a 2–1 victory. The team wasted no time hopping on the bus and shipping back home, where they hosted the Hamilton Continentals the following Sunday, Sept. 17. Although they trailed 1–0 until the 88th minute, the Panthers found a way to get on the board as the clock wound down and force the game into extra minutes. After two hard-fought overtimes, the game concluded in a 1–1 tie.
With four points total from the weekend (the win counting for three and the tie for one), the Panthers now share fourth place in the conference standings with the Continentals.
Back Clare Robinson ’19, who had a key goal on a set piece in the Amherst game, felt good about where the team stood at the end of the weekend, all things considered. “I think our team did very well this weekend,” she concluded. “Since it was a doubleheader, saving our energy and our legs definitely was a priority. Four points from the weekend is a really good outcome in Nescac play.”
That’s not to say she didn’t think the team had room to improve, though. “There were really good moments in our team’s performance in both games,” she explained, “but I think as a whole we wished we had capitalized on more of our chances. In both games we went down 0–1 in the first half, and we had to fight really hard throughout the entire game to come back and get the win on Saturday and the tie on Sunday.”
Against the Mammoths, that deficit came quite unexpectedly when Amherst laced a shot from 40 yards out that bounced over the head of keeper Ursula Alwang ’20 to open the scoring. Aside from that, however, Alwang was an absolute wall in front of the goal. Even though Amherst finished with twice as many shots on target (eight to Middlebury’s four), she was able to keep the ball from finding the back of the net for the rest of the game, finishing with six saves on the day.
Meanwhile, the Middlebury offense was able to create just enough opportunities to equalize the score and eventually turn the game in their favor. In the 44th minute, the Panthers found a little family connection. Robinson recounted the sequence afterwards: “Since we went down early in the first half, that definitely gave Amherst a little bit of momentum. I came in halfway through the half and really wanted to help my team come back to tie the game.
“With a few minutes left in the fist half, my younger sister (midfielder Eliza Robinson ’21) was fouled outside the box. She took the free kick as our team flooded in. I knew where her cross was going so I made sure to be there, and headed the ball in the goal — and it was that much more exciting because my little sister got the assist.” The goal was the elder Robinson’s first in a Middlebury uniform.
Sixteen minutes into the second half, the Panthers launched an attack that would net them their second goal of the game and put them up for good. Handling the ball in Mammoth territory, back Gretchen McGrath ’21 found midfielder Amanda Dafonte ’20 with a short pass; Dafonte proceeded to fire a laser just under the top crossbar and out of the Amherst keeper’s reach. Although the Mammoths would threaten to score a few times later on, Middlebury’s defense proved enough to secure them the win, 2–1.
At home against Hamilton on Sunday, the Panthers found themselves on the other side of the table in terms of chances. They outshot the Continentals 17–8; after Hamilton closed the first half with a goal, the Panthers dominated the ball in the second period, leading by twelve shots to one. However, they were only able to capitalize on one of those chances, and it came a little later than the Panthers would’ve liked: with 1:50 before the final whistle, the younger Robinson marked her second assist of the weekend when she chipped a pass that forward Eliza Van Voorhis ’21 headed in. Both teams had their opportunities in the two overtime periods, but neither was able to tally a goal before the second extra ten-minute period expired.
In the future, the Panthers’ success will depend on their ability to convert as many of those chances as possible. Head coach Peter Kim has faith in his players’ ability to get better as the season goes on. “The team is young and dynamic, with lots of potential to create sharp, attack-minded soccer,” he said. “We’re still coming together on the field, and will continue to improve in the coming weeks.”
Robinson shared her coach’s optimism. “We are in a very good spot coming out of the weekend,” she offered. “As much as we wanted 6 points, I think we are happy with the results. Heading into this next weekend, we need to stay focused. I think we will work on finishing a lot this week, because we are such a good team and really want to capitalize on all of our opportunities.”
Next weekend, the Panthers will head over to Brunswick, Maine to take on the Bowdoin on Saturday, Sept. 23. The Polar Bears come into the came with an 0–2–1 record in conference play.
(09/14/17 4:05am)
On Saturday, May 27, after The Campus had wrapped for the semester and most Middlebury students had packed up and headed home, Lubo Cuba ’19 spent his morning dominating Claremont-Mudd-Scripps’ Nikolai Parodi en route to the first NCAA DIII singles title in program history. A few hours later, Cuba teamed up with William de Quant ’18 to secure the DIII doubles crown, another Middlebury first, with a resounding victory over Herman Abban and Pawel Jaworski from Carthage. Now three months from that date, with the dust completely settled, we sat down with the pair to take another look at their historic seasons.
If a Just God exists — and, moreover, if he has a vested interest in the outcome of athletic competition at the Division III level — he was probably smiling down on Chattanooga, Tenn., on a late May afternoon as Lubo Cuba ’19 and William de Quant ’18 left the championship court with a pair of national titles under their arms.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a pair of more deserving young men: hardworking, passionate and fully cognizant of how fortunate they’ve been to arrive at their current position.
Sit them down separately, and you’ll see just how different athletic excellence can look in two individuals. De Quant, one of this year’s senior captains, has the demeanor of a confident and vocal leader: Born in France but having grown up all across Europe before finishing high school in Florida, he gives the impression of someone who’d be comfortable in any situation in which you could think to place him, and then some.
Cuba, on the other hand, guards a quiet fire behind a playful but somewhat shy countenance, exactly what you might expect from someone who left behind the glamour of a highly visible, top-25 Division I program — the University of Michigan — to chase a national championship on a lower-profile Middlebury team that, in many ways, is just as competitive.
Get the pair of them in the same room, and it becomes clear that the two have spent more than a little time together as the No. 1 doubles team for the Panthers.
De Quant began, looking back on the season as a whole: “We had a rough patch of two or three weekends in a row where we didn’t do great. But I think we always knew that —”
“— we had a chance to win it all,” Cuba interjected with a smile before sitting back and allowing his teammate to continue.
“We had a chance to win it all,” de Quant repeated. “We knew that, if we played well and up to our capabilities, we had a chance to win. As a Middlebury team, we have the knowledge that we can win and that if we do the work the right way, if we have our heads on the right way, and if luck turns our way on the day, we should be able to win.”
Don’t be surprised if you couldn’t tell whether he was referring to Cuba and himself as individual players, as a doubles pair, or to the entire Middlebury team that spent most of last season at No. 1 in the DIII rankings. Sometimes, it’s unclear as to whether de Quant himself knows. To hear him tell it, he’s at his best when he’s just another player in a Middlebury uniform — unconscious of whether he’s playing in a team match or for an individual championship.
“It’s a different sport when you’re on a team,” he explained. “You’re playing for a different thing, the motivation is different. I think that helps a lot of players grow and develop: being part of a team where you’re on the sidelines, you’re cheering for them. And when you’re actually on the court playing, you’re not playing for yourself. You’re playing for a point on the team.
“The team culture matters a lot to me specifically, because I came in without a lot of confidence on the court. I didn’t have too many good results in Juniors [the individual tournaments in which high-level players compete before college]. But when I came in to the team and bought into the culture of Middlebury tennis, that’s when I started hitting my stride and getting some results.”
That Middlebury tennis has an exceptional team culture is beyond doubt, at least from Cuba’s perspective. And he would know as well as any, having spent a season getting regular playing time for the Michigan Wolverines. He didn’t miss a beat when asked to draw a comparison between his time in the Midwest and in New England.
“I think the team here is closer,” Cuba offered. “We definitely do more together, on and off the court, which is great to see. And I think that definitely contributes to our success.
“Honestly, the training is pretty much the same hours — the last three days, I think we’ve played four hours a day. . . . I don’t think at Michigan we played four hours on a Saturday.”
Of course, more factored into his decision than the number of hours he’d be spending on the court. “The main reason I transferred was, first, to get that more diverse education that Midd offers,” he continued; “second, to compete for national titles. And look, we got them in singles and doubles, but the team title is more important, and hopefully we can get that this year.”
That “team title,” the NCAA Division III Team Championship, is perhaps that to which de Quant was referring earlier, when he spoke of his confidence in Middlebury’s chances every year, every weekend, every time they take the court. As a team, the Panthers have qualified for the NCAA tournament for the past 16 years in a row, winning it all twice and finishing within the top four in each of the last four seasons. Their coach, Bob Hansen, has accrued the most DIII team championships in the history of the sport between his time at Middlebury and at the University of California–Santa Cruz.
So it’s hardly surprising that the Panthers expect themselves to be there every year, and that they’re not fully satisfied with anything less. It’s hardly arrogant for Cuba and de Quant to feel at least some disappointment on account of the team’s semifinal loss to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS for short), even though the two brought home their fair share of NCAA titles.
Nevertheless, excellent players handle both victory and defeat with aplomb.
“Coach Hansen always likes to remind us,” de Quant said, “there’s a difference between winning a national championship, and being a championship team. Last year, we were a championship team, which we weren’t expected to be for a while. So last year was very difficult. We didn’t achieve the ultimate goal of winning an NCAA team championship, but a lot of guys, a lot of guys made big jumps, and there were a lot of individual highlights.
“I think that we should still kind of be proud of the work we put in,” he concluded, as if genuinely worried that he ought to think otherwise.
“Having Lubo come in from Michigan and, in his first year at Middlebury, do what he did? It’s a testament to the year that we had as a team, as a group, because he wouldn’t have been able to do it without everyone else’s effort pushing him and making sure that he continued to play well, too. . . . It was a tough ending, losing that NCAA championship and the Nescac championship, but there were still a lot of really good things to say about the year.”
The game of tennis requires an extraordinary amount of concentration and precision, at a very quick pace, over the course of a match that can stretch out for quite some time. As a general rule, letting one’s focus slip is detrimental. Wasting time focusing on the wrong thing almost always proves fatal. Given how Cuba and de Quant bounced back from the team’s postseason losses — to Bowdoin in the Nescac finals in early May, and to CMS in the NCAA tournament — it’s hardly shocking that the pair already had some experience dealing with adversity during the regular season.
Cuba described the pair’s even-handedness with an appropriately casual affect. “I think that was one good thing that we did,” he said of the team’s brief mid-season woes, “we never looked too far ahead. You know, when we had that rough patch, we kind of just said, ‘Oh, let’s go get a top-four ranking so we can make the tournament.’
“And then once we got in the tournament, in the first round we were down a set, and we were like ‘Let’s just get through this first round.’ It was just little by little, and then we were in the finals and we played what I think was our best match yet.”
When pressed to elaborate on the details of those setbacks, Cuba turned to de Quant with a wry smile.
“You talk about Nescacs,” he said, with an air of deferral.
“I wonder why you’d say that,” de Quant fired back.
Cuba shrugged. His expression became serious, even sympathetic.
“Well, you lived it the most.”
Some background: The year prior, Middlebury and Bowdoin had faced off in the Nescac championship. Although Middlebury came away with the conference title, the Polar Bears had the last laugh when they defeated the Panthers in the 2016 NCAA championship, 5–0. But Middlebury had been victorious in their 2017 regular-season matchup; as the Nescac finals approached, both teams were bracing themselves for a hard-fought contest.
With good reason. Recalling how the match played out, de Quant didn’t mince his words. “We lost 5–4. Last match on, at 4-all — I was actually playing the last match on at No. 2 singles. Split one set apiece. And literally, the last set to decide the match in the Nescac final, it just went his way.
“I didn’t play that well in that last set. He played well. He was solid; he’s a very good player. That’s just kind of the way things turn out sometimes. It was gut-wrenching, because you have your team on the side, cheering you on, you have their expectations and their hopes riding on you, right? So I think that for me, that was tough — losing that, feeling like I dropped the ball for the team.”
Then, as though he were correcting himself: “I don’t think we read too much into that.”
Cuba knew exactly where his partner was going. “No,” he picked up, “I mean, we rebounded fine, the team got through regional NCAAs pretty comfortably. And honestly, even the match we lost in the semis against CMS, I still think was under control. We were up 3–0 after doubles, and every match we lost in singles. I lost with five in the third, we had a couple people lose with six in the third, 7–6, 7–6. I mean, every match was tight, it could’ve gone either way.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way that day.”
You might wonder how Cuba can call a match that he lost “under control.” But he’s a little more qualified than most players to say so, given how many of his matches do go his way. Of the 32 singles matches he played to the finish last season, Cuba only lost three. He was only slightly less consistent playing doubles with de Quant, dropping a whopping six out of 30 matches.
So when a player of Cuba’s stature says he’s got things “under control,” opponents would do well to take note. Nikolai Parodi, the No. 1 singles player for CMS whose win over Cuba in that NCAA semifinal helped bounce the Panthers from the tournament, found out the hard way a few days later how scary Cuba can be when things are going his way. To say that the then-sophomore cruised his way to the finals would be an understatement: he didn’t drop a single set en route. And when he met Parodi in the championship match with a chance for revenge, well, those who were hoping for something resembling their last encounter were sorely disappointed.
Perhaps his own post-match reaction would speak to how effortless the victory was for Cuba. “For singles,” he recalled hesitantly, “obviously I was super happy that I won, but I don’t think I really showed it — as much as I maybe should have?”
A better explanation: “He won his match in 37 minutes,” de Quant broke in. “He didn’t show that much emotion because it was 6–1, 5–1.” If there was traffic in Chattanooga, you might’ve missed the match entirely.
“It was a good week,” Cuba admitted, sheepishly.
But for some reason, the doubles final a few hours later garnered a different reaction from Cuba. “I just felt a lot happier to win doubles — maybe because I had you on the court also with me,” he said, turning to de Quant. “And . . . I don’t know, just that match point when we won it — I was just a lot happier after the doubles one.”
It wouldn’t be out of the question. De Quant admitted to being pretty emotional himself, for a number of reasons. Obviously, as the consummate teammate, part of it was the joy of watching Cuba succeed alongside him with the knowledge that he’d helped him to get there. But part of it had to do with de Quant’s own tennis history.
“It was very special for me because my parents were there,” he began. “I’ve played a lot of tennis for a long time, and my parents have always been very, very invested. . . . And it’s always been kind of a difficult road. I never did that well.
“And so for them to. . . .” He stopped. “I was just unbelievably happy. I was over the moon, because I had finally won something big. And kind of proven to myself that I was capable of doing something like that.
“So for my parents to be there,” he went on, the words coming more easily, “sharing that moment with them was very special, and that made it extra-special for me. And having Bob [Hansen] there as well, patting me on the back and telling me, ‘This was not a surprise to me whatsoever’ — well, it was really a bit of a surprise to me when it happened.
“Going in,” he summarized, “we knew that there was kind of a chance for us to make history with Middlebury never having won an individual title before. We wanted to do that not just for us, but for the program, and for Bob, who had tried so hard and put so much work into the program. He really wanted it as well, so it was also for him.”
Hansen is entering his seventh season as the Middlebury head coach. To hear his players talk about him, you’d imagine he’s the sort of man they’ll be telling their grandchildren about.
At times, the stories of his commitment and dedication border on the comical. “The man could talk for five hours straight about tennis,” said de Quant with a chuckle before quickly adding, “which is a good thing.”
Cuba jumped right in with a grin. “He’ll tell us before practice that he couldn’t sleep last night because he was thinking too much about the direction the team’s heading — always just to better the team, whatever it takes to get us better, he’s always thinking about us first.”
But as the two went on, the impact Hansen has had on them became even more eminently apparent. “You can take the No. 14 guy on the team, technically the worst player on the team, put him on the bottom court against some other player. You could have the best two players on the team playing on the first court, and Bob will go up to the guy, the No. 14 guy, and sit him down and talk to him about his game. He’ll have watched a lot of the match, he’ll have comments, he’ll have feedback on how to build his game. I mean, he cares about every one of the guys, and he is so invested in everyone’s growth.
“And he doesn’t just recruit good tennis players — he wants to recruit someone that he knows will bind to the culture and that he can teach and that he can help grow. He’s spent decades being a leader and a father figure for college guys, and he really cares about us. . . . I don’t know if it hurt him or us more when we lost that match in the NCAA semifinals, because he cares so much about the guys — I’ve never seen anyone as passionate about tennis and the team as he is.”
Cuba hardly remembered his own reaction after his singles title, but he certainly remembered his coach’s. “It was funny,” he said; “I told him before the match that I really wanted one of those NCAA hats that they were selling. And he was like, ‘If you win, I’ll buy you one.’
“And the first thing when I saw him after the match, he had bought me the hat. And he was just as happy as I was.”
It’s hard not to expect success with a man such as Hansen at the helm; with the reigning singles and doubles champions on the team in Cuba and de Quant, it’s nearly impossible. But the players don’t need anyone else to tell them that they’re capable of capturing the NCAA team championship. They can visualize it for themselves.
“I think ending the season the way we did,” said de Quant, “getting those two championships, really set the tone for this next year. They’re obviously individual successes, but having Lubo set his mark the way he did in singles —”
With impeccable timing, Cuba jumped in to correct him: “The fact that we’re both returning players on top of our recruiting class… On top of getting Noah [Farrell, an extremely talented player in his own right who took the 2016–2017 season off] back, I think this is the year to win it.”
“We’ve been close, every time,” de Quant enunciated, “with Noah, and with Lubo, and having the class that we have, we’re going to have all the pieces this year to take it to the house. We’ll keep our heads down and work as much as we can, and hopefully the pieces fall in the right way.”
Smart money wouldn’t bet on them falling any differently.
(09/14/17 4:01am)
Kicking off the conference schedule at its own Dragone Field, the Middlebury women’s soccer team suffered a gut-wrenching overtime loss to NESCAC foe Conn. College this past Saturday, Sept. 9. The Panthers seemed to control the pace of the game and were able to put seven shots on goal to the Camels’ three, but unfortunately couldn’t find the back of the net during regulation: Conn secured a 1–0 victory with a tally 6:10 into the first overtime period.
Head Coach Peter Kim had a positive take on the performance, especially given the circumstances that his squad was missing its first-year players to the weekend MiddView trips. “The team played very well,” he said afterwards. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t finish, hitting the crossbar three times and forcing several big saves from Conn’s keeper . . . We were missing eight key players due to orientation, so we were unable to keep fresh legs in the game as much as we would have liked. We did a good job breaking Conn’s defense down, but ultimately succumbed to the pressure with a brief lapse on a counterattack.”
On the offensive end, forward Ellie Greenberg ’20 paced the Panthers’ charge, leading the team with three shots on target in four attempts. In the closing seconds of the first half, she received a through pass on a Middlebury attack and fired what seemed to be a sure score toward the right post, only to have the ball deflected just beyond the post by the Camel goalie. She nearly put the game away in overtime as well: Three minutes in, she ripped a shot from 18 yards out that smacked off the crossbar and rebounded straight down, never crossing the goal line.
Another big contributor for the Panthers on Saturday was midfielder Virginia Charman ’20. She totaled four shot attempts and kept the pressure on the Camels in a number of ways beyond that, too.
Captain Alissa Huntington ’18, at the helm of the defense in the center back position, has had a pretty good view of Charman’s impact this season. “It’s been so exciting to watch her so far,” she said. “The way she battles both defensively and challenges offensively by taking on players shows such a fire and results in a contagious energy.”
In fact, from where Huntington stands, the whole midfield has shown quite a bit of promise thus far. “I’m really impressed by our midfield in general,” she said, “because Charman, Sara DiCenso ’19, Caitlin Magruder ’20 and Clare Robinson ’19 have been figuring out their positioning and how to work together as a unit. Especially because they sit right in front of me, I love watching them see how to get out of congested areas, be our pivot players that switch the field, initiate the attack, and battle on defense.”
It’s early in the season, but their coordination and field control will certainly be a key for the Panthers this season each time they take the field.
Earlier in the week, on Wednesday, September 6, the Panthers opened their season with a 1–0 win at home over non-conference opponent Colby-Sawyer. Emma Shumway ’18, a midfielder, notched Middlebury’s lone score in the 64th minute. The differential could have been a lot larger, though. Middlebury controlled the ball almost the entire game, firing 11 shots on goal to Colby-Sawyer’s one. The game was a “must-win,” Huntington said, for the Panthers “to start off the season on a positive note. I’m glad we got that result, especially since we realized last year how crucial out of conference games are for NCAA bids.”
After Saturday, the Panthers will certainly welcome their first-year players back with open arms. Even though the team played with plenty of energy, the depth provided by the eight missing players will certainly serve as a shot in the arm. Huntington, who’s looking back from the other end of the spectrum, reflected on the difference three years can make. She recognized that first-years can feel quite a bit of pressure in the more intense college environment. “The biggest difference for me between freshman and senior year is confidence,” she said. “Coming in as a freshman is so tough because you’re playing at the highest speed of play you’ve ever played at — and against stronger, bigger, and more experienced players.”
Looking ahead, confidence will be key for the Middlebury. Coach Kim pointed out that, at the end of the day, the team will need to capitalize upon the advantages they create. “The key to success will be honing our ability to score goals,” he said. “In both of our first two games, we were the dominant team but failed to score off the chances we created.”
If the Panthers can have confidence in their ability to convert when they put themselves in a position to do so, they’ll certainly be a force to be reckoned with in the Nescac this season.
Middlebury has two big conference matchups this weekend: on the road against Amherst on Saturday, September 16, and back home against Hamilton on Sunday, September 17.
(05/11/17 1:32am)
The track and field teams traveled to Williams last Thursday, May 4 to Saturday, May 6, where they put together yet another strong performance at the the DIII New England Championships.
Athletes who finished in the top eight earned All-New England laurels. The women set two new school records as they garnered eight such finishes en route to a sixth place standing out of 32 teams. Meanwhile, the men snagged seven All-New England honors of their own to wind up 10th out of 32.
Maddie Pronovost ’17 added yet another first-place medal to her collection with a resounding victory in the heptathlon. She amassed 4,419 points over the seven events of the two-day event, capped off by event victories in both the 100-meter hurdles (15.13) and the long jump (18′ 2.25″). Her totals surpassed the old school record, set by Hannah Blackburn ’17 in 2015, by over 240 points—not to say that she didn’t take care of this weekend’s field almost as handily, finishing 125 points ahead of second place.
Pronovost had nothing but positives to offer after competition was over. “The meet went really well for myself and the team,” she said. “We had a lot of season–best times and a few school records broken, all well deserved.”
Helene Rowland ’20 put up the other school record set this weekend, tossing the shot put 39′2.5″ on Saturday to finish sixth overall in the event. In doing so she broke the old school record, which Whitney Creed ’06 set in 2004, by 5.5″.
Other All-New England finishes for the women on the track included Sasha Whittle ’17, who finished second in the 1,500-meter run in 4:33.34, and Abigail Nadler ’19, who finished fifth in the same event (4:356.96). Paige Fernandez ’17 crossed the line seventh in the 400-meter hurdles (1:05.16) and Meg Wilson ’20 ran to a seventh-place finish in the 800-meter race (2:13.14). Off the track, Devon Player ’18 landed a sixth-place finish in the javelin (132′1″) and Kreager Taber ’19 leapt to seventh in the pole vault (11′6.5″).
The men’s 10th place finish featured contributions from a usual crowd of strong performers. Kevin Serrao ’18 finished second in the 800-meter race (1:52.40), just ahead of teammate Nathan Hill ’20, who finished fourth (1:53.07). Jimmy Martinez ’19 raced to a fourth-place finish in the 400-meter dash (48.82) and teammate Arden Coleman ’20 finished fifth in the same event (48.93). In the 1,500-meter race, Jonathan Perlman ’19 crossed the line seventh (3:55.39). Over in the field events Minhaj Rahman ’19 threw the hammer 162′4″ to place sixth overall, and in the pole vault, John Natalone ’19 tied for eighth with a jump of 14′2″.
Since only select athletes will be competing in the final two meets of the season, last weekend’s competition marked the end of the season for most of the Panthers. But the decrease in practice numbers won’t get in the way of the remaining athletes, according to Pronovost. “Even though the majority of the team has stopped competing, those that are continuing are still driven to work hard and do well,” she said. “Athletes often get more personal attention during the championship season as there are less people competing, which can be helpful.
“While we won’t have the entire team at practice, people still find ways to see each other who aren't continuing with their season outside of the normal practice schedule."
Next weekend, the Panthers will head down to Williams once again to compete in the Open New England Championships, a meet featuring athletes from all three NCAA divisions. The following weekend, qualifying athletes will travel to the Division III National Championships hosted by the Spire Institute in Geneva, Ohio.