Front Row Seat

“Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.”

-Winston Churchill

This season has been anything but storybook for the Dartmouth women’s basketball team. We’ve endured a 13-game losing streak, injuries and just quite a few “growing pains,” but though all of this the idea of effort hasn’t been lost.

Effort is something that one can give no matter what the circumstances and this past weekend against Yale and Brown, I saw so much effort out of our team. In both games we only dressed seven players for those of you reading this … yes, we only dressed seven players, meaning our bench went two players deep but despite that I saw some of the best effort of the season and I really think the effort made all the difference against Brown.

In the first game against Yale, the team had a transformation in the locker room at halftime. They came out with an intensity that I hadn’t seen this season. The best example of this was sophomore forward Arianne Hunter, who despite struggling with sore knees, threw her body around chasing after loose balls, so much so that she went flying into the bench, but she was out there giving 110 percent. Classmate Eve Zelinger was also a perfect example of this. Zelinger, who was battling strep throat all week, pulled it together and got out on the court and gave it her all. She took a shot in the nose, not just a shot, a HARD shot but she didn’t stop, she kept going (after being checked out by the athletic trainer, of course!)  That effort from Hunter and Zelinger was infectious and in the second half, the Big Green just got after it and even though the game was decided they didn’t give up, which was good to see.

The win at Brown, who had just defeated Harvard the night before, was so fun to watch. The effort from the Big Green was there from start to finish. There were bodies flying around, folks going after rebounds and most of all I saw smiles and body language that told me; not only were they working hard, but they were having fun. In a season like ours that has been filled with ups and downs it was really neat to look on the faces of the players and coaches and see fun.  It’s those moments that really make me feel blessed to be apart of this team.

I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this group and I’m glad I’ve got a front row seat for the growth.

Until next time,

Jess Poole