After 26 weeks of editing these sports pages, Rob and Kris have a lot to look back on. Here's their chance to reflect on all of those memories:
Rob: I guess the first thing I think of when I think of Yale sports is tradition. Songs, innovations, wins, and some losses. The key thing is that no matter what happens, every team here gets up and does it again, and they do it with pride-the pride I've seen people show when they wear the Y, and I really think that makes this place special. Even among all the great traditions in college sports, the Yale tradition has a truly awesome mystique.
Kris: Tradition does make this place special. But, looking at Yale sports more recently, the word that comes to mind is inconsistency. Thinking back throughout the year, there have been so many ups and downs. It will be hard to forget for a long, long time the contrasting feelings of two weekends last November. One week brought a dramatic victory over the mighty Princeton Tigers-the eventual Ivy League champions. The next Saturday, however, euphoria turned into depression in a last-second loss to the hated Harvard Crimson-Harvard's only league win all season. It seemed that life in Yale sports would continue that way for the rest of the season. High hopes, quick starts, and impressive performances, often balanced out by heartbreak and disappointment. Four Ivy champions in the winter helped to temper the feeling, but inconsistency still ruled the year.
Rob: Inconsistency. That is an interesting word, in as much as it implies not doing the same thing from week to week, or day to day. I don't know if inconsistency is really the problem. Injuries, weather, schoolwork-all of those factors come into play. I would venture to say that most teams are consistent-consistently mediocre. One of the big problems I have had as an editor has been finding ways to say "Well, we lost, but we're young and the experience will pay off next year," and not sound canned. The problem is that the experience doesn't pay off. It seems like Yale teams are always looking for that missing spark of needed chemistry. And I don't know why it's not there. I don't know what would stop Eion Hu, or give women's lacrosse the skills to beat Princeton. I know people are always working to improve the programs here, but results would be nice.
Kris: The most impressive thing about Yale sports- really Ivy League sports in general-is that the athletes are truly student-athletes. Regardless of how much we complain about the outcomes of games and the final records of teams, I don't think that it is possible to overemphasize how much respect we have for the athletes. I could not imagine finding the time to work and perform at the level at which they succeed. And then to return home to finish that 10-page term paper on Plato's Republic. I wonder how many football practices Lawrence Phillips missed for biochem lab. Not to take anything away from these incredible athletes, but the effort, determination, and time-management student-athletes at Yale demonstrate astound me.
Rob: Athletes here make sacrifices that most people only think about when they watch TV, and their rewards are often minimal. Scorn from professors and classmates, late nights, and quiet weekends all characterize the life of a varsity athlete in-season. What irritates me more than anything are people who talk about Yale sports and say "Yeah, but this isn't real college [fill in sport here]." Let me say once and for all that these are real, as real as it gets. The athletes here are incredible. Big, strong, fast, and smart. Many of them even get the opportunity to perform professionally, or at least at the highest amateur levels. Yale is Division I, and that means it gets the very best athletes in America to come here and compete. Yes, the academics might limit the number of possible recruits, but those recruits are top-notch, and I definitely believe that more people on this campus, and elsewhere, should start noticing.
Kris: And it is a pleasure to cover athletes who are working so hard and accomplishing so much. As a sports fan, I love a great story. I love the stories of Cinderella teams reaching championships and individuals fulfilling lifetime dreams. To me, that is one of the greatest things about sports: no matter what the level, no matter what the sport, there is always a story, always a reason to watch and care about what unfolds. It is drama, and it is excitement. There are winners and there are losers, each with a separate road and story. That is what I love about sports, and Yale sports often epitomize this excitement.
Rob: They certainly do. Win or lose, watching Yale is about as much fun as a sports fan can have. I will miss being in touch with the gifted athletes, with the games and the drama of a long, successful season.
Before I go, however, I would like to say thank you. First, I want to thank the fencing, women's swimming, gymnastics, and men's golf teams for bringing some victorious Ivy home. Next, I want to thank softball for giving me a boost with some truly inspired play. Thanks to the football team (Toads especially) for being one helluva group of guys. Of course, none of this gets done without writers, and I want to thank all of you who put pen to paper for us.
Kris: I'd like to take this opportunity to give a piece of advice to next year's sports editors: take JJ's Dolphins every week in Pick-the-Pros. They won't let you down.
Copyright 1996, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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