Sacrifice. If you are a senior athlete, you should be familiar with the word.
Over the past four years, we, the community of aged players, gave everything we had, whether we wanted to or not, to our coaches, our teammates, and our university.
What we gave for the success of our teams was not easy nor was it always pleasant. It wasn't easy getting up for 6:45 a.m. Todd Rice workouts. It wasn't easy practicing for two and one-half hours every day. It wasn't easy going to the gym at 5 and not leaving until 9, all the while knowing that you had hundreds of pages to read, a bunch of papers to write, a couple of tests to study for, and a million job applications to send out before you would go back and do it all again the next day. It wasn't easy constructing useful time-management techniques in order to balance the important things in your life.
It also wasn't easy saying "no" to all your friends who wanted you to go out and have a few beers the night before a big game-they could never truly understand your commitment. It wasn't easy missing the Saturday Night KC-101 Dance Party while you were still cruising home in the Peter Pan bus. It wasn't easy missing Thanksgiving dinner with your family, living out of a suitcase in various hotels over Christmas, or traveling during spring break when you could have used that time to do other things. But if playing a sport for Yale had been easy, everyone would have done it.
So why did we do it? We didn't get scholarships. We didn't get paid. And we didn't get special treatment. If we were to sit down and make a list of all the things we could have done had we not played a sport, the ink cartridge in the printer would run out. At such a cosmopolitan university, there are so many other cool things to do that require less time, care, and commitment.
But we wouldn't make a list, because we know all the good things that come as a result of all those sacrifices. The rewards of playing a sport for four years are intangible.
Sure, we all have our letter sweaters, our gray t-shirts, our hockey sticks, and our bats, but we could have bought almost all those things at the nearest sporting goods store. The good stuff, the real rewards for playing were not handed to us on a silver platter. We worked for them.
One of the greatest gifts we received was the chance to represent Yale to the country, and sometimes the world. In this, we got an opportunity that so few people will ever have: the opportunity to wear Yale across our chests.
Every time we took the field or stepped onto the court, we represented the finest institution in the Ivy League, the Northeast, and, quite frankly, the United States. This is an exhilarating experience the singers, the actors, and the politicians, as much as we respect them, will never be able to know. It is truly something special.
Another reward for our devotion was great friendships. Who is the first person you call to go to Naples on Thursday or Toad's on Saturday, or anywhere in between? Chances are it's a teammate.
Built in battle and tested in fire, these friendships are unique. Your teammates, your friends, are the people with whom you shared some of the most delicate moments of your life. You told them about your frustrations, laughed with them after a good joke, cried with them after a heartbreaking loss. They are your friends now. They will be your friends forever.
So while we gave a lot, we made an infinite number of gains. Stacked against each other in number they don't match up. But stacked against each other in terms of lasting importance, I think we all know which side comes out ahead.
Though the road seemed long and the ride was a little bumpy at times, we all chose to stay on. For we, the athletes of Yale, have something that can never be taken away from us: best friends and the pride of an Eli.
Kathleen Offer, MC '96, was the point guard on the women's basketball team for four years. She served as the team's captain during her senior season, and leaves Yale as the school record holder in numerous categories. Kathleen also found time to write for the Herald, and for Yale sports information office.
Copyright 1996, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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