Athlete of the Week

When she was eight years old, point guard Sara Perkins, MC '01, smashed both of her front teeth. While she had to wear caps on her damaged pearly whites, Perkins did not let the incident smash her dreams of becoming a dentist. She adds, wryly, "I think I'm the only person from Yale who wants to be a dentist." Such energy has also characterized her undergraduate years, during which she was a starter for the women's team as a freshman, took two years off, and has been one of the team's leaders in its first three Ivy League games this season.

REBECCA ROSENTHAL/YH Sara Perkens, MC '01 Women's Basketball Hometown: Tewksbury, N.J. Major: MCDB Favorite book: Memoirs of a Geisha Favorite sports: Baseball Favorite food: Chinese Favorite number: 25 Favorite New Haven restaurant: Hama Favorite singer: James Taylor

During her freshman year, Perkins, who came to Yale with all-area honors in basketball and field hockey, started every game until she was sidelined with a torn ACL in early spring. A major presence on the court, Perkins led the team in minutes (30.1 per game), assists (70), and steals (34). She had originally planned to take her sophomore year off, in light of the minimum six-month recovery period needed for her injury. However, her time away made her realize that she wanted to explore what Yale had to offer outside varsity athletics; she also felt that she and her teammates did not connect well with then-Head Coach Cecilia DeMarco, who left Yale in 1999.

Though Perkins ended up not playing varsity for the next two years, she filled her time with extensive involvement in IM sports. She ended up playing coed soccer, football, and inner-tube water polo, as well as squash, golf, field hockey, tennis, and basketball.

Her life as a varsity athlete might have seemed long over, but something inside of Perkins drew her back to the court. In early September, one of the team's current seniors mentioned that point guard Jamie Riposta, JE '02, had quit. At that point, Perkins began testing the waters, talking with current Head Coach Amy Backus. She had a lackluster start as a third- or fourth-stringer, though she loved the chance to reunite with the other five seniors with whom she had played as a freshman. Perkins attributed her initial awkwardness on the court to her mental attitude. "I wasn't playing with the right mindset," she said. "The two years off was more of a mental block. I would come in and mess up, second-guessing myself in the beginning." It took until early January for Perkins to finally get her groove back. Perkins' relentless defense against Army and her season-high 29 minutes against Harvard earned her a spot on the starting lineup for the next two games against Dartmouth and Brown. "Probably the most important thing I do is play scrappy defense," she said.

The Bulldogs are 0-3 in the Ivy League, and Perkins emphasizes the need to win the upcoming away game against Brown. She harbors no regrets about her time off, though she now has a greater appreciation for playing for Yale at the varsity level. "Being a varsity athlete is a special thing," she said.

Photo by Rebecca Rosenthal.

Back to Sports...