QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF DARTMOUTH PEAK PERFORMANCE & DARTMOUTH ATHLETIC SPONSORS FALL 2013
IN THIS ISSUE THE WINDING ROAD PAGE 12
SERVING UP LEADERS PAGE 18
RISK REWARDED PAGE 22
THE BODY WHISPERER PAGE 28P E A K | FA L L 2 01 3
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OFF AND RUNNING The men’s cross country team kicked off the 2013 season with its annual home meet at Hanover Country Club. Dartmouth started the year ranked 29th in the country as it pursues a Heps title and NCAA berth.
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SENIOR CARRY Senior running back Dominick Pierre and the football team started the year with a 30-23 win over Butler in Indianapolis. The 2013 schedule features six home games and Memorial Field will be sporting a new HD video scoreboard.
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DRIVE Seventy-one studentathletes participated in the Summer D.R.I.V.E. program as part of DP2 Leadership. The annual program combines weekly classroom sessions of leadership topics and departmental values with weekly experiential exercises in the outdoors. The students at right were among the 31 students who completed every classroom and experiential session to receive full DRIVE certification.
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ACADEMIC NOTES
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QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF DARTMOUTH PEAK PERFORMANCE & DARTMOUTH ATHLETIC SPONSORS FALL 2013
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FEATURES 12 THE WINDING ROAD Alex Adelabu and Elijah Soko are the latest in a 20-year line of high-level soccer players from Africa to make their way to Hanover 18 SERVING UP LEADERS Third-year coach Erin Lindsey is using her unique leadership background to propel Dartmouth Volleyball
ACADEMIC NOTES
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PEAK Dartmouth Peak Performance 6083 Alumni Gym Hanover, NH 03755 EDITOR Drew Galbraith
22 RISK REWARDED How a rising star in the coaching profession ended up on the Big Green sidelines 28 THE BODY WHISPERER Anna Terry has transitioned from world-class athlete to an invaluable resource in keeping Big Green athletes healthy ABOVE: The men’s hockey team took in the sights of Rome during its playing tour of Italy and Switzerland in August.
DEPARTMENTS 10 From the Desk of Peak Performance 30 Parting Shot
SENIOR WRITER Bruce Wood ADVERTISING Sam Hopkins ASSISTANT EDITOR Katelyn Stravinsky CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Bob Miller, Donnie Brooks, Claudette Peck, Steven Spaulding PHOTOGRAPHY Mark Washburn, Gil Talbot, John Risley, Mike Scott, Steph Bambury Problems or Accessibility Issues? dp2@dartmouth.edu © 2012 Trustees of Dartmouth College
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EDITOR’S LETTER
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FROM THE DESK OF PEAK PERFORMANCE DREW GALBRAITH, SENIOR ASSOCIATE AD FOR PEAK PERFORMANCE
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here is an old adage in college sports that what wins games is “not the x’s and o’s, but the Jimmy’s and Joe’s.” It’s true -- to a point. Recruiting is critical to the mission of any high achieving college sports program. Developing the young people in our programs is just as critical, and is central to the mission of any college. These two ideas are why the combined resources of Dartmouth Peak Performance and Dartmouth Athletic Sponsors make so much sense. Dartmouth Athletic Sponsors put Big Green coaches in a position to recruit the best and brightest studentathletes from across the country and around the globe. Through official visits, expanded in-person scouting and home visits, and greater resources for recruiting, Dartmouth coaches have the ability to identify and attract elite student-athletes to Hanover. Founded in 1955 by Ort Hicks ’21, the Sponsor Program has grown from six members to more than 1,000 today. Since the Ivy League legislates that the expenses for Official Visits for recruits cannot be budgeted items, the group plays a critical role in ensuring the success of athletic recruiting at Dartmouth. Dartmouth Peak Performance (DP2) is a scant 56 years younger than the Sponsor Program, but plays just as critical a role once student-athletes arrive on campus. DP2 provides the resources necessary for a student to reach his or her potential as a student, as an athlete and as a person during their time in Hanover. It is all about driving high performance and not limiting that to just one aspect of a Dartmouth student-athlete’s life. In just a few short years, DP2 has begun to have a significant impact on the way our student-athletes, coaches and staff approach their responsibilities. From academic support to sports medicine to strength and conditioning to nutrition to leadership training, there is an intent and purpose to everything we do. Peak Quarterly was started last fall as a way to tell the stories of that impact.
While many of our returning readers are members of the Sponsor Program, we welcome those Sponsors who are new to Peak Quarterly. This publication will serve as a quarterly reminder of the great work taking place among the studentathlete population and within the athletic department. Longtime readers of Big Green Sports News will still see recognition of sponsored visits of student-athletes and we think you will enjoy the stories. As we look ahead at the 2013-14 academic year, the theme of Dartmouth Athletics is Developing Comprehensive Excellence. We are working hard to ensure that every coach, student-athlete and staff member is committed to a process-based approach towards excellence in everything we do. Our Director of Athletics, Harry Sheehy, has further defined the values-driven skills that will lead to comprehensive excellence: Development – seek to establish a growth mindset in developing yourself and your teammates; Resilience – develop mental toughness and be adept at energy management; Ingenuity – be creative and innovative in finding solutions to meet the goal, establishing critical thinking skills, and adapting to the changing nature of the athletic environment; Valor – demonstrate courage for the sake of the team and the greater good by developing your communication skills to hold others accountable and manage conflict; and Excellence – learn how to set goals consistently and always look to achieve the next level of proficiency. The acronym is DRIVE. You will see these words around the Athletic Department on walls, in locker rooms and on team t-shirts among other places. DRIVE is a reflection of our determination to be better in everything we do. Thanks for all of your support and let’s have a great year. Go Big Green!
Founded in 1955 by Ort Hicks ‘21, the Sponsor Program has grown from six members to more than 1,000 today.
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DARTMOUTH ATHLETIC
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SPONSORS WHO ARE THE ATHLETIC SPONSORS?
Athletic Sponsors include more than 1,000 Dartmouth alumni, parents and supporters who love Dartmouth, who love sports, who either played or watched athletics as undergraduates, and who feel that Dartmouth should be a leader in the classroom and on the field. We are men and women in our 20’s and our 90’s and we are represented by nearly every class. WHY DO WE DO WHAT WE DO?
We know that success on the playing surface begins long before the contest starts... it has its genesis in recruiting. Without outstanding talent, success can only be an occasional dream. We are therefore committed to providing Dartmouth coaches with the resources they need to recruit exceptional student-athletes. We also know that Dartmouth has a unique and powerful trump card. The campus is close to irresistible when experienced in person. That’s Dartmouth’s edge! The trick is to get impact scholar-athletes face to face with this great institution to make a decision for Dartmouth. That’s the primary focus of what we do. We fly student-athletes to Hanover and send coaches to their homes. HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS TO THE COLLEGE?
Very! While the NCAA allows one paid visit to campus, the Ivy League legislates that those expenses cannot be budgeted items. That’s where we come in. We provide the non-budgeted funds. Every year we fly in about 250 potential impact athletes, and of those recruits accepted by the Admissions Office, the vast majority (about 90%) decide to enroll at Dartmouth. WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT?
Satisfaction and pride! You’ll be sent our official online newsletter Peak, and your name will be listed in the next season’s home football programs. If you choose certain membership levels (see box at right) you will also be informed of a specific athlete whose recruiting trip your donation made possible, so you can follow his or her progress through four years at Dartmouth. Most important, all Sponsors share the rewards of helping young men and women make a decision to embark on the very special “Dartmouth Experience.” That’s the real reason our program has grown from 6 members in 1955 to more than 1,000 today!
Sponsors and Friends enjoy the complimentary pre-game tent overlooking Memorial Field at each home football game
MEMBERSHIP LEVELS
ADDITIONAL BENEFITS
$300-$599
Assigned a recruit every 3-4 years
$600-$1199
Assigned a recruit every 1-2 years and listed on our Leadership display in Alumni Gym
$1200-$4999
Assigned recruit annually, Leadership display & special recognition in football program
$5000 & up
Assigned recruit annually, Leadership display, special recognition in the football program & VIP Reception at Homecoming
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ALEX ADELABU ‘15 ON THE ATTACK
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THE WINDING ROAD FROM AFRICA TO HANOVER ALEX ADELABU AND ELIJAH SOKO ARE THE LATEST IN A 20-YEAR LINE OF HIGH-LEVEL PLAYERS FROM THE CONTINENT OF AFRICA TO MAKE IT TO DARTMOUTH, BUT THE PATH EACH TOOK TO GET HERE IS UNIQUE.
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he junior forward on the Dartmouth men’s soccer team who showed up for football tryouts as a middle schooler cheers these days for his hometown Texans over the Dallas Cowboys like any good Houstonian. He has one brother who played high school football and another whose first love is basketball.Like his teammate, the sophomore forward on the Dartmouth team traveled a long way to attend a prep school in New England, where he grew into a Boston Celtics fan and came to appreciate the wonders of fall foliage in this part of the country. They might be typical, All-American boys except for one small point. They are both from Africa. Alex Adelabu was born in Nigeria and lived there until his family moved to Houston when he was 12. Elijah Soko lived in his homeland of Zimbabwe until coming to the United States to attend prep school. Cold weather, snow, food, language, cultural and educational challenges notwithstanding, the hard-and-fast friends aren’t just surviving but are thriving on the soccer pitch, in the classroom and as Ivy League student-athletes at the school that is the reason why their paths crossed. Adelabu and Soko grew up more than 2,000 miles apart in Africa but they have a school 500 miles from the Upper Valley to thank for helping them become Dartmouth teammates. Soko hadn’t really given much thought to playing college soccer in the United State until his freshman year of high school when he caught the eye of the Penn State head coach during a college showcase in Zimbabwe. “He took me aside,” Soko recalled, “and he said, ‘You are way too young for me to take now, but keep working hard. You will find a place.’ That kind of disappointed me, but it got me thinking maybe I was good enough to try and get a scholarship and an education at the same time if I worked hard enough.” Adelabu, meanwhile, actually signed a Letter of Intent to play for Penn State. In fact, as a high school senior he was weeks away from starting summer classes in State College before his future changed suddenly and dramatically. “Penn State saw me play in February of my senior year,” he said, “and I thought it was a really good school to go to until the coach who recruited me retired three weeks before I was supposed to go.” Penn State’s loss would be Dartmouth’s gain. Times two, actually. Growing up in the world’s seventh-most populated country, Adelabu was sent off to a Nigerian boarding school at age 8. “Both of my parents are educated and it was something they stressed,” he said. “Where I lived there were no good schools and my parents wanted me to know how to speak English and get a good education. My sister had already started boarding school so I just went and joined her about two hours from home.” Soko, too, benefited from parents who enrolled him in a challenging school in Zimbabwe. “When my dad was in eleventh grade he got a scholarship to
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go to Germany,” he explained. “I think in total he did eight years in Germany, learning German and getting a degree in electrical engineering. My grandparents valued education too, so after my father was promoted and doing well he decided to move me from a government school to a private school. “We were moving to the capital city anyway, so for me it was just changing schools. I didn’t realize the importance of it at the time.” Just a boy when his family relocated from Nigeria to Texas, Adelabu wasn’t privy to the reason for the move. Houston became their destination, he reasons today, in large part because his mother’s sister was well-established in the area. When he heard about tryouts for the school football team in the fall of seventh grade it seemed like a chance at normalcy in his strange new world. “But when I got there they gave me a helmet,” he said, laughing easily at the memory. “I thought, ‘This is not what I signed up for.’ ” Needless to say, Adelabu did not play football in his first year in Texas. Neither did he play futbol that fall, although once he got to high school he quickly became a standout, eventually committing to Penn State. To his relief, soon after that opportunity fell through he received unexpected feelers from Cornell and from Dartmouth. “Give great credit to Trevor Gorman for that,” said Jeff Cook, former Dartmouth head coach. “Trevor was an assistant coach with us and his dad had been head coach at Penn State for many, many years. Trevor had seen Alex at a recruiting tournament, so we contacted him after the new coach at Penn State decided not to honor his scholarship.” At least in part because it was so late in the recruiting and admissions process, Cook tapped a few connections and helped Adelabu land at Kimball Union Academy in nearby Meriden, N.H., where he enjoyed a valuable year as a prep. “Going to boarding school in Nigeria and then KUA prepared me for college,” Adelabu said. “I had to meet different people and learn about others. The academic side was challenging, but because I had already spent four years in high school the materials were familiar. “What I really worked on was my writing. I think what sums up my KUA experience is I wrote a college essay before leaving my high school in Houston. When I compare it to the one I wrote at KUA I really know how much I learned there.” Former Dartmouth soccer great Methembe Ndlovu ’97 knew about Soko from his role as Zimbabwe Director for Grassroot Soccer in his homeland. Soko had been a promising rugby player until deciding to
Where I lived there were no good schools, but both of my parents ere educated and it was somthing they stressed.
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ACADEMIC NOTES concentrate solely on soccer in eighth grade. He almost missed his best chance to play on this side of the ocean a few years later when Cook visited Zimbabwe with a Grassroot Soccer tour that included a talent showcase. “My high school coach knew the Coach Cook was coming so he said I should go there and play,” Soko remembered. “There was a big party going on that weekend and I was thinking should I go to the party. But I like playing soccer, so I decided to go.” As an excellent student at a top private school and a talented player, Soko was a strong candidate to play in the Ivy League. Thanks to Grassroot Soccer connections he almost ended up following Adelabu to Kimball Union Academy. When that didn’t work out because of enrollment issues, KUA steered him to Brooks School in Massachusetts, a kindness for which Soko will ever be grateful. “Going to Brooks made it much, much easier to go to college,” he said. “Even though there are a lot of differences, I really felt like it wasn’t that much of a ‘whoa’ when I got here. I can safely say it was a nice easy, step-by-step from a private school in Zimbabwe to Brooks and then to Dartmouth.” Not that ending up in Hanover was a slam dunk after the Harvard coaching staff started sniffing around Brooks during Soko’s second year at the school. “I had a really special connection with Coach Cook because he is the one who came to Zimbabwe,” he explained. “That really did play a big part in my decision. “It made me feel a little more home that he knows where you come from. He has seen the kind of fields you play on. They are not like they are here. He has that understanding.” It is ironic that while they both faced challenges coming to an Ivy League school in rural New England, perhaps the biggest problem facing Adelabu and Soko when they arrived in Hanover a year apart wasn’t the schoolwork or the weather or the food. It was their fitness. “I came in and I remember we were doing the fitness test and I just couldn’t do it,” said Adelabu. “I had to have a different mentality. When you have been playing in high school and you are really good, you get complacent. Getting to college where everybody might have as good a skill set as you, you have to stand out with hard work. “After I got into shape I started playing well but when classes started it was too much for me. My performance on the field dropped down. At the end I came back and started playing well again, but the fitness thing was still there. I was really struggling and at some point I even thought I was going to quit the team.” After working hard in the offseason following his freshman fall, Adelabu met with Cook, who told him he had all the talent he needed to be an All-Ivy player but wouldn’t get there unless he got in better shape. While that resonated with him, it was a summer working at a homeless shelter in Houston as part of the Dartmouth Partners in Community Service program that spurred Adelabu to make the changes he needed to reach his potential. “Interacting with people that were homeless, who didn’t really have that much, made me value what I had,” he said. “There was an urgency to work harder, to take advantage of the things that I have. It wasn’t that I wasn’t taking advantage of it before, but I had to take things to the next level. That was a really, really life-changing
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ELIJAH SOKO ‘16
experience for me.” The payoff came last fall when a dramatically more fit Adelabu led Dartmouth in scoring with nine goals and three assists while making the All-Ivy League first team and the AllNortheast Region team. Chad Riley, who takes over this fall as head coach, got his first look at Adelabu last year after coming to Dartmouth as an assistant, and he immediately liked what he saw. “He’s a talented athlete and very driven,” Riley said. “I’ve been very impressed at how he’s gone from where he was to where he is now. There are things that come naturally to him but fitness isn’t necessarily one of them and he really put a lot of effort into it.” One year after Adelabu arrived at Dartmouth it was Soko’s turn. He, too, struggled with what it takes to play an American style of soccer that puts more of a premium on the ability to run all day and less on the fancy ball skills he perfected on the dusty fields of Zimbabwe. “I came in and I did the (soccer conditioning) ‘beep test’ and it was the worst score ever,” he admitted. “My confidence went down, big time. So I started doubting myself. “And then the season was not great. As soon as I started getting a little confidence I got a knock to my knee. In the end, the first season was not good at all.” Soko ended up playing in just three games with no starts and no points. Fortunately, he had Adelabu to lean on when things were not going his way. The two had bonded quickly. “It was automatic from the get go,” he said. “Before we even started practice we saw each other on campus and clicked. I am very close to Alex. Most of the free time we are hanging out together. “It makes life much easier,” Soko continued, “since he has already gone through the fitness thing. He was telling me that he failed a fitness test. It gives me hope. It encourages me to know it can be done.” That encouragement paid off during the winter and spring, as Riley could attest. “College soccer is a challenging transition for all freshmen, but I also think it was just a different type of soccer then maybe Elijah was used to,” he said. “I’m not sure he had an idea what it was going to be like last year. We had depth at the forward position so he was used sparingly. “But he had a great fall of training and then had great winter and spring terms. We’re really looking for him to have a breakout year as a sophomore.” Both incredibly soft spoken, quick to laugh but very serious about their faith, the two Africans seem to have hit their stride on the field and in the classroom. Adelabu served as a mentor to a high schooler from East Boston in the college’s Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth program earlier this year and expanded his horizons by taking part in DP2’s DRIVE Summer Leadership program for Big Green athletes. He’s grateful for all the benefits that he’s received since soccer brought him to Dartmouth. “I keep learning every day,” he said. “One of the things that I feel like soccer has taught me is being able to receive criticism. When you don’t take it personal but take it as a
chance to improve and get better that is the first step to be able to seek out help whenever you need it. “This school is really helpful in a lot of aspects. You can talk to your professors outside of class. There’s tutoring. If you are not doing well in a class people don’t compete with you to get better grades, but want to help you. With the facilities you can go out and train at any time. There is a saying in Nigeria that “people are my wealth.” That’s really true, especially when it comes to Dartmouth.” Soko feels much the same way. “Knowing it was an Ivy League school, I was a little bit worried about whether I would be able to pull my weight,” he said. “Would I be able to do well academically and everything? But the amount of resources that Dartmouth has is really amazing. It’s almost like they give you that extra hand that helps you with tutors, academic counselors and whatever you need. “On top of that you have teammates and coaches who really care about you. Since the team has been doing well academically they want to keep that up. It is not only soccer that is important here but all aspects of life. That is something I am really happy about and grateful to God for providing this opportunity.” Adelabu declared an economics major last spring and hopes one day, he said, to do something that helps others. Soko is a government major who described himself as being “passionate” about the subject and intensely curious about the mechanizations of government in his native land. Both young Africans came to Dartmouth clinging to their childhood dreams of some day playing the game they love professionally, but with horizons expanded by their time in Hanover they feel increasingly ready for whatever the future holds. “I hope to continue playing,” said Adelabu, “but I’ve learned at Dartmouth that the education part is really, really, really important, even if you end up playing soccer. “I don’t know exactly, but I would like to work in an environment that tries to help others -- probably in the education area. Most of the things that I’ve learned here, other people need to learn about. It is important to know how to write, to know how to speak, to know what do say.” Said Soko: “I can safely say the one thing that really drove me to come to the U.S. is not only that I wanted to be a professional soccer player, but I really value that idea of education and sport at the same time. I thought it would be something to fall back on if sport didn’t go so well. “The drive to be a professional soccer player has always been there for me. But the more I am learning about the world, the more I am learning about what is happening at home – like the elections – I am starting to realize that even though my childhood dream is to play soccer, I think I would be fine putting that aside after Dartmouth. I may try to do things that I wouldn’t say are more important, but would be more meaningful not only to me but to others around me.” Penn State’s loss truly wasn’t just Dartmouth’s gain. It was the world’s.
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SERVING UP LEADERS Third-year coach Erin Lindsey is using her unique leadership background to propel Dartmouth Volleyball
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rin Lindsey knew what was coming. OK, she didn’t know what the final record would be and she didn’t know exactly how the Ivy League season would play out, but she had a pretty good idea that there would be bumps along the road in her second season as Dartmouth volleyball coach. That’s often the way it is in college sports. “It happens with a lot of coaching transitions once you start bringing in players that are your own recruits,” the native Hawaiian explained. “The upperclassmen that are traditionally in leadership positions can feel threatened by the underclassmen. If you are coming from the bottom you are generally losing more than you are winning and that creates even more anxiety, more insecurity and more pressure. “In a program that consistently has success and you start losing, you can usually recover. But if you have new coaches and you’re having to develop trust, not just between teammates but also between the coaching staff and players, it’s hard.” And make no mistake. The 2012 season was hard. One year after going 16-9 overall and 8-6 in the Ivy League Dartmouth struggled to a 2-22 overall record and 1-13 in the conference. In the aftermath of such a difficult campaign, Lindsey took a critical look both at the program and in the mirror, and then sat down with her team. “We had a long talk after the season about what needs to happen for us to go from the
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bottom to the top, which is where we are going,” she said in no uncertain terms. “There are all kinds of pieces that have to come together. The recruiting is important. We need to make improvements from a strength and conditioning standpoint. The way we train in the gym has to be adjusted. The way we prepare for matches and the way we go about representing our program needs to change. “There was a chemistry issue last year,” Lindsey went on, “and I just didn’t do a good enough job in the management of it.” Central to improving all of it and most importantly that critical last piece, Lindsey felt, would be clearly defining the role that leaders play, identifying the players who their teammates would trust in that role, and then facilitating their development as leaders.
THE IMPORTANCE OF LEADERSHIP
Leadership is not something Lindsey takes lightly. The Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year for North Carolina in 1998, she returned to Chapel Hill in 2005 to do graduate work in Exercise and Sports Science just as Jeff Janssen’s pioneering Carolina Leadership Academy was getting off the ground. “(UNC Athletic Director Dick Baddour) had realized that every time he talked to his coaches about what was different about a national
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Dartmouth would go into the season with eight freshmen and with just two seniors.
DEFINING LEADERSHIP
championship team or an ACC championship team versus any other team in any other given year, the coaches would always say, ‘Well, we had great leadership,’ ” Lindsey recalled. “It was never that we were just that much more talented than everyone else.” Rather than simply hope a talented group of athletes would have the leadership within its ranks, Baddour sought to ensure that it did. “So he started working with Jeff,” Lindsey said. “Jeff’s position was that you can teach leadership. Some of it is natural but there are a lot of skills in leadership that can be learned. If we begin teaching that to our student-athletes, and we start the program right when they arrive as freshmen – setting up building blocks to what makes a great leader by their junior or senior year – then we are going to be in a great position.” Lindsey, who had left a job in marketing and advertising when she returned to Carolina in anticipation of a return to coaching, soaked up what she could from Janssen, author of Championship Team Building, The Seven Secrets of Successful Coaches and The Team Captain’s Leadership Manual. “I worked with Jeff while I was doing my master’s degree, helping him with administrative stuff like data entry from the ‘360-feedback’ he did,” she said. “I got an inside look at his business, his planning and how he went about his program. I got to see how the coaches and student-athletes were reacting to the leadership programming and curriculum. That was really interesting and helpful.” A huge believer in the importance of having effective leaders long before she arrived in Hanover, Lindsey felt it would be even more critical for the Big Green this year, both because of the struggles of last fall, and because the 2013 squad would be so young.
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While Lindsey is quick to point out that you don’t have to be a captain to be a leader, the selection of captains is a good starting point. She knew the easy way out would simply be for the team to cast votes, but what happens all too often is that the most accomplished and popular seniors on the team are chosen, frequently without regard for their actual leadership skills. With so much at stake this fall, Lindsey felt it critical that her players better understand what is required to be a good leader before the selection of captains took place. “I truly believe you cannot have a leader that the team does not trust,” Lindsey explained. “Even if they are your best player. Even if they appear to be doing leadership things on the court, whether it is vocalizing, encouraging others or holding other people accountable. If the team doesn’t trust that person, they are not going to follow her. “I had to explain that to my players a lot because they tend to want to skip over that piece of developing as a leader. I needed them to understand that leadership is not about authority. It’s not about telling someone what to do. It’s about getting someone to move in the right direction, but not by shoving a square peg in a round hole. The easiest way for anyone to do that, frankly, is if someone trusts you. Because then you don’t have to yell or scream. It’s just a matter of asking.”
IDENTIFYING LEADERS
As important as it is for leaders to develop trust among their teammates, it isn’t all that easy. In fact, Lindsay said, “That may be the hardest piece here. To be honest, and this may just be my bias coming from a nonIvy environment, but it is a little bit more difficult here because we don’t train the same way. We are not with each other quite as much. At North Carolina we didn’t have quite as many discussions about needing to do that because they were around each other so much. “The reason I am here in the Ivy League is because I think that this is the student-athlete experience. Our students have so many opportunities to pursue, doing all things that other students get to do. Volleyball is not their job and it shouldn’t be. But I do think from a leadership perspective with the team, it does make it a little bit more challenging in the development of a leader and establishing those roles.” To that end, Lindsey tapped Steven Spaulding, the DP2 assistant athletic director for leadership, to run several challenging exercises – including one in the woods a few miles from campus – that both taught and revealed fortitude and attitude. In addition, using a preview copy of Janssen’s new “Commitment Continuum,” program during the spring, Lindsey had players rate their commitment on a scale from “compelled” down to “resistant.” “We kept it anonymous so they didn’t know who was rating them,” she said. “We showed them how their teammates rated them and how that compared to where they rated themselves. That is usually one of the biggest ‘aha’ moments. You may think
you are doing one way, but you are not being perceived that way, and perception means a lot when it comes to working with other people.” As part of the process of identifying potential leaders, Lindsey asked some members of the team to meet with Spaulding individually. When it came time for nominations for captain she asked for more than names, wanting to know why the nominees deserved consideration. “I told them I can’t just have you give me a name because I don’t know how much you thought about it,” she explained. “And if you don’t care, if you haven’t thought about it very much, then frankly I am going to put less weight on your nomination.” After reviewing the nominations and all the other research she had done, she chose senior Elisa Scudder and junior Lucia Pohlman as captains. “If we had just straight up voted the captains would have been the same,” Lindsey said. “I wasn’t going to pick just for my own sake. I know that the team needs to be invested in order to trust and follow their leaders. I expressed that to the team. I told them it wasn’t a matter of who you want versus who I want, it’s how are we going to get where we all need to be? “The captains are very different people but together they make a very good pair. They complement each other very well and will be good leaders for us.”
DEVELOPING FUTURE LEADERS
It was at a DP2 breakfast with deans of the college when the final piece of the leadership puzzle came into place for Lindsey. “Justin (Assad) from the sailing team was explaining that in sailing not only do they have a men’s and women’s captain, but they have commodores and vice-commodores,” she recalled. “I asked, ‘What’s that?’ He explained that they are kind of captains in training, although not necessarily. They take care of the logistics.” With that a light went on for the volleyball coach. “One of the things I had struggled with was getting my captains to play the more important captain roles like holding a player accountable in practice, or making sure the team has the right focus and energy. I felt like they thought their job was telling people where to be. Making sure they were wearing the right thing. Making sure everyone was on time. “So I decided to create two additional leadership positions on the team, a director of operations and a peer advisor, to take over the logistics and free the captains up to be real leaders.” Selected Director of Operations was sophomore Katie Jarrett. Classmate Paige Caridi is the peer advisor. “Those two and our captains make up our leadership council that meets regularly,” said Lindsey. “I believe we now have the structure and accountability that will allow us to function as a group more efficiently. “The players we have now Sponsor’s Impact are very bought into the LUCIA POHLMAN’S visit to Dartidea that it is going to be mouth was made possible by Dick hard, and that it’s going to Donahue ‘48 and the Class of 1956 take a lot, but I strongly ELISA SCUDDER’S visit to believe we have a plan in Dartmouth was made possible place that will lead to an Ivy by Joseph Wattleworth ‘59 and League championship.” Andrew Kerr ‘66 PAIGE CARIDI’S visit to Dartmouth was made possible by Don Voss ‘58 and Ken Witte ‘77
IN THEIR OWN WORDS VOLLEYBALL CAPTAINS ON LEADERSHIP
LUCIA POHLMAN Good leadership is going to be extremely important this season, but not simply from the captains. I think in the past, our program has had a very hierarchal type structure seniors wielding the most experience and therefore “legitimacy” and each class going down from there. That is not the way our program is now, especially in light of the fact that we’ve got 12 freshman and sophomores and only two seniors. It’s going to be important for every player to be a leader in the way she can best help the team. Being a younger player on the team I’ve always been concerned with what I’m doing and how I can do better. Now my focus is how are we doing and how I can behave to inspire the best play from my teammates. I believe that this season’s challenges will be to actualize the theory that we have all talked about, and translate that into every practice and every game. We have talked so much about commitment, and what true commitment really looks like. I’m excited to push myself and the team towards that vision. I’ve learned from Erin that leadership doesn’t always look the same. True powerful leadership is contextual, adaptive, and collective among teammates. It isn’t stagnant. It goes a lot farther than setting a good example. It is selfless. I’ve also learned from Erin that a leader doesn’t push the team around, a leader motivates, almost indirectly inspires teammates to be their best selves on and off the court, making volleyball more than a sport, but an arena to push ourselves to be our best no matter the situation.
ELISA SCUDDER Lucia and I have spent a lot of time discussing what types of leaders we want to be and what we want that to look like and feel like and how that translates over to the team. I think this preparation and our open line of dialogue with the coaches and players will help us confront and solve whatever challenges we face. No season ever goes perfectly, but I feel like we’re in a really good position to be the types of leaders that can solve whatever comes up. As captains, we have a great opportunity to help develop the younger players and show them what we want leadership on our team to look like - on the court and off. Our greatest success as captains will come from creating and enforcing the winning environment that we’ve been trying to build for a few years now. That will set us up to earn the wins we did not see in 2012.
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ACADEMIC NOTES
RISK REWARDED HOW A RISING STAR IN THE COACHING PROFESSION ENDED UP ON THE BIG GREEN SIDELINES
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BUDDY TEEVENS WAS INTRIGUED.
Wide receivers coach Jarrail Jackson had picked up and moved on to Washington State in the spring of 2012, leaving Teevens with an opening on his staff. Jackson been something of a coaching neophyte before coming to Hanover, but the record-setting receiver and punt returner at Oklahoma certainly knew the game and his widespread name recognition as a Sooner standout had helped him become a very effective recruiter in the region. It wasn’t long after Jackson departed that Teevens received an inquiry about the opening from another former wide receiver who had played college ball in the southwest region – before going on to the NFL – but again one with precious little experience as a coach. Could lightning really strike twice? Cortez Hankton had learned of the Dartmouth opening from fellow Texas Southern alum James Jones, himself a former Big Green assistant under Teevens. Hankton, who had been working as a volunteer assistant director of player personnel for the University of Central Florida at the time, was interested in getting into coaching after spending four years with the Jacksonville Jaguars and having stints on the roster of the Minnesota Vikings and Tampa Bay Buccaneers as well as several UFL teams. While his playing credentials did not go unnoticed, what really caught Teevens’ eye wasn’t his pro career so much as Hankton’s high school career. The son and brother of New Orleans police officers had honed his skills at St. Augustine High School, a recruiting hotbed Teevens knew well from his days as head coach at Tulane. “That piqued my curiosity,” recalled Teevens. “We spoke on the phone and I was impressed. The way he came across really struck me as very humble and thoughtful. He was well-prepared and very measured with his comments and questions.” With that Teevens tapped into his trusted connections in the Big Easy, phoning up Burton Burns, associate head coach at Alabama and a man Teevens had brought to Tulane from St. Augustine. “I said, ‘What can you tell me about Cortez Hankton,’ and he couldn’t stop,” Teevens said. “Burton’s dad is another good friend and when I P E A K | FA L L 2 01 3
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called him it was the same thing. They talked about the human qualities, the personal character and so forth.” The glowing recommendations won Hankton a trip to Hanover. His presentation won him a job. “We had him come up and he was as impressive an individual as I have recruited anywhere,” glowed Teevens. “The way that he carried himself, his appearance, his thoughtfulness, the eye contact, his interaction with our administrative group and different coaches. The questions that he asked. “There was nobody really to call to ask what is he like on the field because he really hadn’t coached. But after talking X’s and O’s a little bit I thought he would be a good teacher, and I thought his interpersonal skills from a recruiting standpoint would be wonderful. He could walk into any home in the country and would impress everybody.” For his part, Hankton’s only reservations about coming to Hanover had nothing to do with football. Just the weather and living for the first time outside of a metropolitan area. A year later the New Orleans native said he adjusted to the first by “layering up,” and has come to appreciate the second. He had no concerns about the kind of football being played
“And,” McManus added with a laugh, “we didn’t have to tell him much at all, I would have to say.” Anyone who watched Dartmouth practice last fall could see the strong rapport the players had with the NFL veteran while he made drills that can be drudgery actually fun. “We usually have competitions with something at stake like who is bringing in snacks for our next meeting,” said McManus. He gave everyone nicknames and was always upbeat and encouraging, which the players appreciate. “He stressed that everyone would have an opportunity to show what they could do. We had 19 (wide receivers) and he knew he could only play about eight or so, but he wanted to see what everyone could do. I thought that was pretty special.” What happens on the practice field and on Saturday afternoons, of course, is just a piece of the job for an Ivy League coach. Recruiting is a huge part of the position and given Jackson’s successes the pressure was on Hankton to get up to speed in a hurry. Teevens labeled the transition seamless. “(Former recruiting coordinator) Chris Wilkerson did a nice job helping him learn what he needed to know,” the head coach said. “He’s a very intelligent guy, a quick study with a great work ethic. He is meticulous and
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Ask Hankton today about the challenges of recruiting in the Ivy League and he sounds like someone who has been doing it for a decade, not a year.
in the Ivy League or the misconception that the conference is populated by a bunch of brainiacs more interested in the physics lab than the football field and his first year proved that football is football wherever it is played. “I went into the position open-minded. I didn’t have any preconceived notions about the Ivy League,” said Hankton. “Coming from an FCS school myself I know the talent at this level and knew the players were serious about the game. “I was really surprised by how diverse the kids were and it was great to see how they get along. It made my job a lot easier. It made it fun. The players really welcomed me with open arms.” One reason why they did is that the former NFL receiver didn’t put on any airs about his own playing career. Nor did he gloss over his limited coaching experience. “He came in the first day and said, ‘Listen guys, this is my first real coaching opportunity,’ ” recalled All-Ivy receiver Ryan McManus. “He made it a two-way street. He said, ‘If I am doing something wrong and you don’t like it, just let me know. Everything is out in the open for us this year. I can learn from you guys as much as you can learn from me.’ He was very open and responsive to us throughout the season.
organized, which is important because there’s a lot of paperwork that comes with being an Ivy League recruiter. “He was very willing to ask questions and wasn’t afraid to say, ‘Hey, I don’t know enough about that. Let me get back to you.’ ” Ask Hankton today about the challenges of recruiting in the Ivy League and he sounds like someone who has been doing it for a decade, not a year. “It’s almost like a gift and a curse to a certain extent,” he said. “What I mean by that is it makes your job easier or harder. It is easier because you know what type of kids you’re going to look for. You know they have to have this SAT or ACT. You know they have to have a specific GPA. But the pool of those student athletes is a lot smaller, so from that aspect it is difficult because now you are competing against the other Ivies. And if they are a pretty good student-athlete, now you are probably competing against Stanford, Northwestern, Rice and schools of that nature. “I approach recruiting just like anything else, with competitive fire. I am going out after that kid. I am going to let him know that Dartmouth College is the best situation and environment for him and here are the reasons why. It’s not about the next four years of your life, or just football, but the next 40 years and setting yourself
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up to transition to any career that you may want to after football.” Three freshmen from Texas and two more from Oklahoma on the 2013 roster are a testament to Hankton hitting the ground running in the recruiting game. If Dartmouth won the lottery with its new coach, he feels pretty good about his part of the deal as well. “I probably learned 10 times more football in this one year than I learned in my whole life from the viewpoint of the entire offense and how everyone works together, not just one individual position,” he said. “It was also the first time working with a staff, and I learned a lot about the structure. Staff meetings, offense meetings, how we install and gameplan.” Hankton spent part of the summer working and learning at the Denver Broncos preseason camp as part of the Bill Walsh NFL Minority Coaching Fellowship program thanks to Denver defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio, his head coach when he was with the Jaguars. He’s confident that he’ll be an even better coach at Dartmouth this fall, although being with the Broncos is just part of the reason. “It is night and day different, and here is the reason why,” he said. “One, after last season I evaluated myself just like I evaluated my players. What are the things that I did a good job at? What are the things that I need to work on and improve? “What happened is this time I had a spring to work on those things. Now the kids are accustomed to the way that I coach and I am accustomed to their personalities. I just know more about not only the individual but also the football player. “Going into my second year I feel like I am more actively involved and accomplished as a coach not just with the receiver position but in other ways because I feel more chemistry with the players, more chemistry with the staff, and within the
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athletic department. There’s not as much of a learning curve as there was last year, although in this professional learning is continuous.” Teevens knows full well the day will come when a big-time college program, or even an NFL team, will mine the gold that he uncovered and hire Hankton away. “He is a guy that a lot of people would like to have on their staff,” he said. “He could be an Ivy coach for a long period of time and be very, very happy. He could be a major college coach and he could be an NFL coach. “But I think he has the patience to make a well-rounded decision about professional aspirations that takes into account personal life, family life and so forth. I think what he has found is a pretty special situation here at Dartmouth.” McManus certainly hopes so. “He’s a great guy and someone I definitely look up to,” he said. “I’m just hoping he will stay a few more years, or at least until I am done.” For his part, Hankton doesn’t sound as if he has any great need to move on in the near future. “I told my receiving corps they are special to me because they are the first group that I was able to coach, and I will never forget that,” he said. “That’s how I feel about Dartmouth. Everyone has been very good to me. Coach Teevens has been great. It has been a good institution to work for. Sponsor’s Impact “My long-term goal is to be a Ryan McManus’ visit to head coach. Whether that will be Dartmouth was made an NFL team or a college team I possible by Chris don’t know. It is too early in my Jenny ‘77 and the career to say, but I am having a good Class of 1950 time coaching college football at Dartmouth College.”
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THE BODY WHISPERER ANNA TERRY HAS TRANSITIONED FROM WORLD-CLASS ATHLETE TO AN INVALUABLE RESOURCE IN KEEPING BIG GREEN ATHLETES HEALTHY
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ermany, 2003. The Augsburg Eiskanal, the concrete whitewater river that had been a venue for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. American kayaker Anna Jorgensen, 23-yearold daughter of Dartmouth alum Robert Jorgensen ’70, is in Germany to compete in the Whitewater Slalom World Championships. Standing on the side of the manmade course, Jorgensen bends at a 90-degree angle to retrieve her kayak from the water when, out of nowhere, her back suddenly locks up. In pain and at first virtually unable to move, she eventually manages to get herself vertical but nothing more. “I was a heathy, really fit athlete,” recalls Anna JorgensenTerry, who learned to love paddling while growing up in Canaan, N.H., a half hour from the Dartmouth campus. “I reached down and when I came up I couldn’t move. They had to carry me back to the car.” Although massage sessions with a trainer and stretching freed up her back and allowed her to compete in the championships, the episode was an eye-opener, and it wasn’t the only one she experienced during Worlds. “One of the British girls was a yoga instructor,” Terry says. “She said, ‘Anna, it’s your hips. They are so tight. Let’s see if you can do this pose.’ “I couldn’t. That started to clue me in to how my mobility was lacking, and how it was affecting me.” Terry’s experience in Germany was scary, but educational, and it has proven invaluable in her role as the DP2 Integrative Health specialist. “Some of the Dartmouth athletes I work with don’t notice that they are really tight until they are on the (massage) table with me poking around,” Terry says. “One of the things I am focusing on is making them more aware. I want to help them learn what I learned, but without having the same kind of experience I had.” Anna Terry joined the DP2 effort in the fall of 2011 in the dual role of massage therapist and yoga instructor. That she
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benefited one summer a decade ago in Europe from the kind of services she now provides gives her instant credibility with those who know her story. Admittedly loquacious talking about what she does, Terry cut right to the chase disabusing those who might be tempted to poohpooh her contributions to the Big Green athletic program as a newage fad. Yes, she does massage, but listen to her and it is clear that you shouldn’t be thinking hot stones on the back, candles and luxurious white towels. Pampering is not her style. “I don’t do well with spa massage,” she says flatly. “That’s great, but if you want it, you can go somewhere else. “If you have a problem and want to feel better it’s, ‘OK, let’s fix this.’ ” And yes she does yoga, but don’t think of a guru, a big fluffy pillow, or a chorus of “ommmms.” In fact, you might want to avoid even using the word yoga. “Some athletes think of yoga as chanting and this and that,” Terry says. “There are a lot of wonderful benefits from practicing yoga, but to scale it, to get it across to all sports and athletes, I think mobility is a better term.”
ACADEMIC Terry, who has added certified personal trainer to her CV, likes to The goal of the mobility piece, a.k.a yoga, is essentially toNOTES put the think of herself as a “fixer.” massage piece out of work. Where massage is one-on-one, Terry’s “That’s kind of my thing,” she says. “When I see a problem, a mobility instruction is offered in group sessions. physical issue, I want to understand what caused it, fix it and try to “I’m teaching a mobility class now,” she says, “and I do keep it from happening again. workshops with teams. I put the ball in their court and say, ‘Hey, “That’s why I have moved from massage to yoga, and why I have where do you feel tight?’ added personal training.” “There are basic areas of tension for all athletes. Like hips Terry’s journey from athlete to “fixer” began to take hold after she mobility, shoulder mobility, ankle mobility. There are things that enrolled at Southwest School of Massage in Durango, Colo., where everybody can benefit from no matter the sport. Then I tailor it, her first client was onetime pro bicycle racer-turned Tour de France tweak it a little based on the sport or the athlete. The whole point commentator Bob Roll. of this is so they can play and to keep them from ending up in the “Most of the massage instructors and the lady that started the training room.” school had been massage therapists for pro bike teams,” she said. Field hockey coach Amy Fowler and men’s ice hockey coach Bob “A lot of my friends in Durango and the people I practiced on were Gaudet are true believers. adventure racers and bike racers. Given my upbringing, given my Taking yoga from someone who wouldn’t know if a field hockey interests, given the fact that I was an athlete, it was natural that I goal was worth one point or three would still be of value, according would go in that direction. to Fowler, but instruction from Terry, an all-around athlete before “I very quickly became aware that I was good at working on deep specializing in kayak, makes it even better. tissue, sports specific, functional movement. I realized I wanted to “Yoga outside of DP2 would be a benefit to our kids,” she says. know, ‘How do we make this body better so you can do what you do “But to do it with sport in mind and all the benefits that means in better?’ ” terms of flexibility? We swear by it. Since with started working with Massage could help athletes – such as it I think I can count whitewater kayakers – rebound from problems on one hand how like back spasms but as her interest in working many times we have with athletes deepened, Terry wanted to learn had significant pulls Our kids, more than a few, have more about preventing that kind of issue. or strains. bought into it to the point where That’s what led her to Yoga Vermont, the “Our kids, more Burlington-based affiliate of Yoga Alliance, than a few, have if they could go to her 365 days a where she earned her teaching certificate bought into it to year for her flexibility and mobility under the instruction of co-owner Kathy the point where if sessions they would. McNames, one of the most respected teachers they could go to in the Northeast. her 365 days a year “There’s a root cause of this tightness for her flexibility disfunction and that’s where mobility comes and mobility in. I take them through yoga-based postures and stretches to help sessions they would. Some are really grueling and others have more them.” of a stretching, relaxation aspect. They all benefit us, pregame, Terry added her personal training certification through the postgame, practice or hard workout.” National Academy of Sports Medicine, she says, because of the Like Fowler, Gaudet has seen his players benefit from both insights it provides into her yoga and massage work. aspects of Terry’s DP2 responsibilities. “It gives me a knowledge base,” she says. “It helps me relate both “She’s helped guys who had specific tightness, injuries or to the strength coaches and the training room. That’s important surgeries be able to loosen up,” he says. “She zeroed in on some because I am trying to create a layer between them.” of those guys with (head trainer) Jeff Frechette’s help. That’s the Terry’s simple explanation of her dual role with DP2 is “recovery massage piece. and mobility.” “The mobility piece helps avoid the muscle injuries that affect Recovery, in her case, begins on the massage table. hockey players. And working with (hockey strength coach) Bob “Generally we tackle soft tissue issues,” she says. “Shoulders, tight Miller she can help them get a deeper knee bend in their skating hips, IT (Iliotibial) band friction syndrome, which is a common stride that hopefully gives them that extra half step that comes with cause of knee and hip pain in athletes that may also result in being more flexible.” nagging or acute pain on the outside of the hip, plantar fasciitis and Just as the coaches are sold on what Terry has to offer, she’s other things that need physical addressing.” sold on how her piece fits in the big picture of making Dartmouth Terry, who occasionally brings in an associate to help with the athletes healthier and more successful in and out of competition. workload, spends most of her time, although not all of it, with in“I’m a very idealistic person and I like the way we all work season athletes. together,” she said. “What sold me on DP2 was being part of a “The result is that they feel better,” she says. “It’s definitely one of team. I can’t solve something just with massage or yoga. It’s the those things where at first I am not sure the athletes knew what to coaches and the trainers, the strength and conditioning coaches, the think of it. But it has become part of the routine self-care for a lot nutritionist, sports psychology and leadership all working together of them.” that makes it all work.”
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PARTING SHOT
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FROM THE FRONT LINES Rhonda and Fraser Marcus ’76 participated in a three-day DP2 Boot Camp in August. Here is their first-person account of their experiences in the trenches.
It is 6:45AM on a picture-
perfect, late summer Hanover morning and I am on the field at Memorial Stadium – where I have been many times but; hey, it’s not August of 1972… it’s August of 2013! I am not surrounded by my football teammates, but I am here as an alum who is past his 35th reunion with my wife, Rhonda, and we are surrounded by members of the football team, men’s and women’s basketball, hockey, track, volleyball and lacrosse teams, and our training buddies for the week: members of the women’s softball team. It’s Tuesday morning -- sprints, pursuit races, agility cones, and, yes, dreaded stadiums are all on the agenda for the first workout session of the day as part of the Dartmouth Peak Performance (DP2) Boot Camp -- Rhonda and I have joined in for the week. The elegance of the DP2 concept is extraordinarily compelling. Tailoring strength and conditioning programs to suit each athlete’s individual sport, position and geared towards the time of year relative to their “season” makes obvious sense. Coupling that with enhanced flexibility and movement training directly improves strength and performance. Layering that with expert advice on and increased awareness of nutritional balance, composition and loading can only enhance performance and then adding focused engaging conversations and exercises on leadership, team dynamics, motivation, commitment and energy management are lessons that last a lifetime. DP2 successfully draws on the vast array of intellectual and physical assets available at Dartmouth, its academic departments, coaches, trainers, faculty, staff and alumni,
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to help athletes to be better, faster, stronger, more efficient, to perform at the peak of their potential, and above all, to be smarter about it. What an awesome time Rhonda and I had! Under the expert tutelage of Head Strength & Conditioning Coach Bob Miller, Movement, Flexibility and Massage Genius, Anna Terry, Head Nutrition Consultant Claudette Peck, Leadership and Motivation Guru Steven Spaulding, aided by the watchful eye of Assistant Athletics Director Donnie Brooks and under the overall direction of DP2’s head honcho Senior Associate Athletic Director Drew Galbraith, Rhonda and I had the amazing opportunity of plugging into the DP2 Program alongside Dartmouth’s varsity athletes. We ran, lifted, stretched, sweated, ate smarter and learned a lot about motivation, focus and managing our energy as participants in this ground-breaking program. Mid-week we went ‘into the woods’ with senior athletics department staffers and student-athletes on an orienteering course designed by DP2 leadership chief Steven Spaulding. We were divided into teams of three, handed a compass, a walkie-talkie and a map. We had two hours to locate six stations which meant reading the map, traversing heavily wooded, hilly, cliff and swamp-laden terrain and covering the ground before time ran out – it was certainly no walk in the park! While Rhonda has often remarked that the GPS has saved our marriage as map reading is her nightmare, two hours later she and her team came running back to base camp glad to have found two out of the required six map stations. However, their smiles didn’t last too long -- my team won with five stations in the bag!
Rhonda and I were challenged and pushed beyond our comfort zones and came away from the week at Dartmouth not only more fit but inspired, better motivated, focused and ready to attack our lives as working parents with greater clarity and drive. The lessons that Dartmouth varsity athletes learn throughout the year as part of Dartmouth Peak Performance extend far beyond the playing field, court, rink, track or water – they are essential lessons that form the basis for success in athletics, academics and for meeting life’s challenges head-on. And by the way, I no more love running stadiums than I did 40 years ago! Details on next summer’s DP2 Boot Camp will be announced later this fall.
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