Drop and gimme 20: Yale sports bulk up

As the final seconds ticked off the Harvard Stadium
scoreboard that read YALE 9, HARVARD 7, a joyous sea of blue flooded out of the East stands and onto the field to bask in the victory. Yale fans had a lot to celebrate. Not only had the Bulldogs beaten their arch-rivals for the first time in four years, but they had also captured their first Big Three (Harvard-Yale-Princeton) championship since 1991. Moreover, the victory gave the Elis their first winning season since 1990 and proved that Yale football, a program rich on tradition but impoverished in recent success, had finally escaped its darkest era.

Just one year after going 1-9 overall and winless in the Ivy League, the Bulldogs completed a miraculous turnaround, finishing 6-4 (5-2 Ivy) and second in the conference. Under the leadership of second year head coach Jack Siedlecki, the Elis--a consensus pick to finish last in the league for a third straight season--shocked pundits and opponents alike on their way to elite status in the Ancient Eight.

Last year's achievements have many on campus optimistic about the upcoming season. With a strong corps of returning players, the team appears able to meet such  expectations. Offensively, Yale returns several key players at the skill positions, including quarterback Joe Walland, TD '00, who set numerous school records last season, and running back Rashad Bartholomew, SY '01, whose speed allows him to hit holes and round corners faster than virtually any other back in the league. The defensive returnees are also a strong group that includes two excellent defensive ends in Peter Sarantos, MC '00, and Jeff Hockenbrock, PC '00, and solid defensive backs in Ben Blake, PC '00, Than Merrill, JE '01, and Todd Tomich, TC '01. If Sidlecki's young offensive linemen develop as he hopes, an Ivy League title is well within reach.

The football resurgence has been just the latest success story in a dramatic and widespread athletic renaissance at Yale. Since coming to New Haven in 1994, Athletic Director Tom Beckett has rejuvenated a moribund department and begun to restore the school's proud sports tradition. At the turn of the century, Yale stood at the vanguard of the college athletic scene. Walter Camp, Class of 1880, the widely recognized father of American football, developed the sport while an undergraduate in New Haven and later, as coach, established Yale as the premier football power in the nation. Over the years, Yale has won more football games than any other school, including the likes of Notre Dame and Michigan. The University also pioneered other sports. In 1896, the first-collegiate hockey game pitted the Bulldogs against Johns Hopkins University. Yale's rowing and baseball teams were also among the oldest in the country.

Despite this wealth of tradition, Yale athletics fell on hard times in the 1980s and early 1990s. Although there were isolated instances of brilliance--the football team's Ivy title in 1989, the men's soccer team's trip to the NCAA quarterfinals in 1991, the baseball team's appearance in the NCAAs in 1992 and 1993--Bulldog sports as a whole began to lag behind their counterparts around the Ivy League, especially Harvard and Princeton. Beckett, however, began to restore Yale athletics to the upper echelons of the Ivy League by improving relations with the admissions office and hiring highly skilled and motivated coaches.

Some of Beckett's shrewdest coaching moves have come in the soccer program. After compiling a paltry 1-6 league record in 1995, the men's soccer team needed a change. Enter Brian Tompkins, the current head coach. In his three years in New Haven, Tompkins has posted three winning seasons and has twice led Yale to a second place league finish. With the return of Ivy League Player of the Year Jac Gould, CC '00, and First Team All-Ivy performers Phil Harris, SM '00, and Hiro Suzuki, BR '00, the Bulldogs are poised for their first NCAA tournament berth since 1991. Under coach Rudy Meredith, Yale women's soccer has also enjoyed success. Last season, they captured the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) tournament crown behind the play of stars like captain Annie Kwon, CC '99, and Jill Rubenstein, DC '99.

Field hockey has also recently risen from the depths of the Ivy cellar. In 1996, after the team compiled an anemic 1-5 league record, Beckett began to hunt for a new coach. He found Marisa Didio, who had successful stints at New Hampshire and Northwestern, and, in just two years, she has transformed Yale from a bottom-dweller into an Ivy powerhouse. Last season, field hockey finished second in the league, and with returnees like Amanda Walton, SY '02, the Ivy Rookie of the Year in both field hockey and lacrosse, the team is poised for another successful year.

Beckett's most recent coaching changes have been in basketball, a sport in which Yale has nearly always struggled. The men last appeared in the NCAA tournament in the early 1960s, despite the fact that the Ivy champ earns an automatic bid, and the women have never made it to the Big Dance. In April, Beckett announced that James Jones, a former Ohio and Yale assistant, and Amy Backus, a former Northwestern assistant, would lead the men and women respectively. It will be at least a couple of years before their performance can be justly evaluated, but if Beckett's past moves are any indication, Yale may be headed to the NCAA tournament in the very near future. The new coaches will have some excellent talent to work with. The men's team returns guards Isaiah Cavaco, JE '01, and Onaje Woodbine, BK '02 and center Neil Yanke, MC '01. Kelly Denit, DC '00, Jamie Riposta, JE '02, and Caitlin Bair, TD '02, will anchor a strong women's squad.

Yalies hope that the basketball teams can match the recent success of the men's hockey team, which electrified the campus by winning the ECAC conference title and earning a bid to the NCAA tournament in 1997-98. With his most talented senior class in Yale history, coach Tim Taylor looks to recapture some of that glory. Captain Jeff Hamilton, SM '00, perhaps the best offensive forward ever to wear the Yale Blue, was a finalist last season for the Hobey Baker Memorial Trophy, awarded annually to college hockey's best player. If the Elis can find a reliable goaltender, another NCAA run is within reach.

While hockey tends to steal the headlines and the crowds, less high-profile sports are also faring well these days. Under head coach Frank Keefe, the men's and women's swimming teams consistently battle for the league championship, and meets at the Kiphuth Exhibition Pool are some of the most spirited and exciting events on campus. The men's and women's lacrosse teams were both ranked in the top 20 nationally a year ago, and both fell just one game short of receiving an NCAA tournament berth. The fencing teams are also perennial powerhouses in the league, and the women have won the Ivy title for five straight years.

The golf teams, who practice at the luxurious Yale Golf Course in Woodbridge, enjoy success as well. The men's squad qualified for the NCAA tournament last year. Yale's men's squash team was ranked third in the nation last year, and both the men's heavyweight and lightweight rowing teams are among the country's elite. The women's rowing team has struggled recently, but last year's strong novice showings bode well for the future. Perhaps the most consistent Bulldog program is volleyball. In 13 years under head coach Peg Scofield, the team has had one losing season.Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, Scofield's squad was one of only a few Yale athletic success stories.

With the recent turnaround of the field hockey, football and soccer teams, however, the Yale athletic department appears to be entering the next century much like it began this one: way out on top. With potentially outstanding teams in lacrosse and swimming, soccer and squash, hockey and fencing, football and tennis, winning should be commonplace on campus over the next four years. So learn "Bulldog," "Down the Field" and "Boola, Boola." Go out to the Bowl, hike up to the Whale, and swing over to the gym. Because there's never been a better time to be a Bulldog.

Top photo of Megan MacLeod, MC '01, and bottom photo of Than Merrill (8), JE '01, and Eli Kelley (42), PC '00, by Julia Tiernan.

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