15F PEAK by Dartmouth Peak Performance

FALL 2015

QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF DARTMOUTH PEAK PERFORMANCE & DARTMOUTH ATHLETIC SPONSORS

MODERN MEMORIAL PAGE 8

VIRTUAL REPS PAGE 14

MORE THAN ANKLE TAPE PAGE 20

PAY IT FORWARD PAGE 24

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GREEN JUBILEE Menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Lacrosse celebrated an exciting double OT win over Harvard 12-11 last spring. Head Coach Brendan Callahan has added 12 new members to his squad for the 2015-2016 season.

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EQUINE FINESSE AND ATHLETIC POISE The Dartmouth Equestrian team trains at their Etna, NH facility.

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QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF DARTMOUTH PEAK PERFORMANCE & DARTMOUTH ATHLETIC SPONSORS FALL 2015

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8 MODERN MEMORIAL Memorial Stadium received a muchneeded face-lift with the renovation of the West Stands. Demolition began Monday after the last 2014 football game, and construction was complete in time for the first home game of the 2015 season versus Sacred Heart. 14 VIRTUAL REPS STRIVR virtual reality technology made its debut for the Big Green this fall. The technology redefines the practice field, and the capacity for student-athlete training.

ACADEMIC NOTES

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PEAK Dartmouth Peak Performance 6083 Alumni Gym Hanover, NH 03755 EDITOR Drew Galbraith SENIOR WRITER Bruce Wood

20 MORE THAN ANKLE TAPE Jeff Frechette and the rest of the athletic training staff remain vital to the health, wellness, and speedy recovery of every athlete who finds him or herself in the training room. 24 PAY IT FORWARD Dartmouth Career Connections prepares students for their lives after graduation. Donnie Brooks works tirelessly to provide as many networking opportunities to motivated and ambitious student-athletes.

ABOVE: Head Volleyball Coach Erin Linsdey uses a time-out to strategize and fire up her team. The Big Green has started the 2015 season 6-1 in Ivy League, and will take that momentum into the last half of the season. ON THE COVER: Co-Captain Jackie Friedman ’16 remains a playmaker for the Women’s Soccer Team.

ADVERTISING Sam Hopkins ASSISTANT EDITOR Ali Hart CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Bob Miller, Donnie Brooks, Claudette Peck, Steven Spaulding Katelyn McPhearson PHOTOGRAPHY Rob Bossi, Mark Washburn, Gil Talbot, John Risley, Mike Scott, Steph Bambury Problems or Accessibility Issues? dp2@dartmouth.edu © 2015 Trustees of Dartmouth College

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Modern Memorial 8

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ACADEMIC NOTES

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s a two-sport star at football powerhouse Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, Jackson Perry had enviable options when it came time to pick a college. The 6-foot-2, 290-pound defensive tackle had the chance to play at traditional football powerhouses like Nebraska and UCLA. Vanderbilt liked him for what he would bring both to the football field as well as the classroom. While he was tempted by what Vandy had to offer, Perry is today a freshman at Dartmouth where the academic piece speaks for itself. What he has seen rise on Crosby Street since his visit last January speaks for the Big Green football program, the College’s entire athletic program, and the Ivy League itself. The spanking new West Stands at Memorial Field, he stressed after a preseason practice, are about more than bricks and mortar. “It shows we are building a better program here,” he said. “So many people look at Dartmouth and wonder what it brings to the table besides academics. Well, this beautiful new side of the stadium with its big, modern press box will help change what people think about us. “Dartmouth isn’t just an academic school in an academic league. It is an athletic school also. I think it takes us to a whole different level.” Big Green head coach Buddy Teevens certainly hopes so and that’s part of the pitch he and his assistant coaches will continue to make with recruits when they come to campus and see the facility. The project preserved the arched brick facade that was dedicated in 1923, but marries it to an interior featuring all of the amenities today’s sports fans have come to expect. “You walk in and it’s clean and bright and new,” Teevens said. “Tim Murphy from Harvard was here for our scrimmage and said, ‘Wow, that’s impressive.’ He’s right. This is far better. It’s far better for the players and nicer for the fans. “The subtle message is, the institution is supporting the football program.” That message resonates with recruits according to assistant Chris Rorke who played on the old field as a Big Green quarterback. “The stadium makes a big impression when they come here on official visits,” the quarterbacks coach said in the Floren Varsity House football offices overlooking the new facility. “It was nice having recruits and their families up here at night to look out with the lights on before, but with the upgraded seating and new press box there is a huge difference.” All-Ivy League standout Ryan McManus believes the new facility sends another important message when Rorke and Teevens and the rest of the staff bring potential recruits through Memorial Field. “It says there are a lot of alumni who are very committed and generous to the college, and the football program,” he

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Updated seating provides fans with chair-back options. (Above) The project’s goal was to renovate the stands while preserving the tradition of the brick façade facing Crosby Street. (Below)

said. McManus saw his first Dartmouth game from the old stands when he was in eighth grade and his brother Timmy was starring for the Big Green. While McManus has a relatively long history at Memorial Field a few of his teammates’ memories go back further. Punter John Katzman’s father Jim ’89, was a kicker for Teevens and the younger Katzman saw his first games in Hanover as a young boy. He remembers being impressed by the brick facade that has been lovingly preserved. “The outside always kind of struck me,”

of the stadium that creates a better flow in and out of the facility. There are 250-or-so premium green chair-back seats high above midfield, five accessible handicap seating areas in different areas of the field and an elevator servicing those areas as well as the press box. Abundant handrails on stairways, featuring steps that are identical in height top to bottom, help bring the stadium up to code, a much-needed improvement over the old steps that had a couple uneven steps that seemingly every game sent someone sprawling. And it wasn’t just older people who were at risk. “The first time I came to a game I was probably 6- or 7-years-old,” said wide receiver Daniel Gorman, who starred across the street at Hanover High School and whose best friend growing up tumbled down a half dozen steps as a toddler. “We would sit at the top and you wouldn’t come down because it was the scariest thing walking down those steep steps. “The stadium seemed awesome at that age, but as I got older I started to realize how dangerous and old looking it was. You compare it to what it is now and it’s not even comparable. I wouldn’t trade this for anything now. It looks spectacular.” Bob Ceplikas, who has helped oversee the project from its infancy – plans were being drawn up starting in 2006 – through its original start date in 2008 and until now would

he said. “I knew it had a lot of meaning, but I don’t think I understood how important it was until I was older. But I thought it was pretty cool. “Keeping it up gives the stadium the perfect blend between the traditional and the new. You’ve got the outside, which really means a lot to the college and has an awesome meaning. And you have the inside, which is updated and looks like a state-of-the-art facility.” A history major at Dartmouth and a self-described history buff, Teevens appreciates the motivation and imagination that went into saving the outer wall. “It is the history of the institution,” he said. “You see the plaque they put up when it opened and it commemorates Civil War vets that were actually here. It honors the history of service to the country by Dartmouth people, and a lot of Dartmouth football players. “The inside was obviously historic but it’s time had come. It’s wonderful that they found a way to still retain the history and tradition of the place but modified the stuff that is going to be good for our fans and benefit our players. While the brick-faced press box that will make life easier for the media and will facilitate the production and distribution of digital programming of events at the stadium is arguably the most visible improvement, Teevens is right. The fan experience has been enhanced just as markedly. The new grandstand features four modern bathrooms. There is a wide concourse at the mid-level

(Above) Newly laid cement and handrails make the seating safer and more accessible to fans of all ages. (Below) The stands held over 20,000 in the 1970s & 1980s.

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It brings us into the modern era of football.”

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(Left & above) Historical photos of Memorial Field show the Hanover landmark retains its same integrity and prestige.

(Below) The stands near capacity at the re-opening vs. Sacred Heart

agree. “I’m very excited that our fans will experience a significant upgrade in terms of comfort, convenience, and the whole game day atmosphere,” he said. “For some folks, the handrails and elevator alone will make a tremendous difference. “Now that we have essentially transformed the entire stadium in the last 10 years, we have a venue that will truly be impressive to recruits as well as a great source of pride to our players, alumni and staff. When you add together Floren Varsity House, the new East Stands, the FieldTurf playing surface, the lights, the new sound system, the video scoreboard, and now the new West Stands, we’ve got a firstrate 21st century stadium.” John Owens was a three-year letterwinner at Dartmouth before graduating in 1991. As a sports agent, the Florida lawyer has seen his share of football stadiums and kept up with the construction of the new West Stands through pictures posted on the Internet. But stopping by practice one day shortly before the season when he was in town for a wedding he found himself surprised and pleased by what he discovered. “When you are actually here you can see how the whole thing all fits together with the stands and the press box and the field. It is just beautiful. This is the cherry on top of the football program. “It brings us into the modern era of football.”

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“

“It’s wonderful that they found a way to still retain the history and tradition of the place, but modified the stuff that is going to be good for our fans and benefit our players.”

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EDITORIAL

Dartmouth quarterback Jack Heneghan could hardly believe it. You might think that being a college quarterback with an interest in technology and with parents living about 10 minutes from the Stanford campus the sophomore would have heard about the pioneering work being done in Palo Alto over the last year integrating virtual reality into football coaching. As it turned out, Heneghan knew nothing about the STRIVR system until learning about it where so many others did, surfing the Internet. He’d learn a lot more about it soon after. Way soon, as they say. “I was surprised two or three weeks after I first read about it when we brought it here,” he said. “After what I’d heard, I was really excited.” So was Bruce Dixon IV, a freshman quarterback for the Big Green, and he wasn’t the only one. “When my mom found out we got it she was really excited,” he said after a practice this fall. “She told me whenever I get a chance, be on STRIVR.” Smart woman. STRIVR is the virtual reality system developed through Stanford by Derek Belch, recruited as a placekicker for the California school when Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens was the Cardinal coach. It is referred to as an “immersive virtual reality system,” meaning that, through use of special goggles and headphones, what the wearer sees and hears makes him feel as if he is standing in the middle of the video he is watching. “The first time I put it on I wanted to catch the ball,” said Dartmouth quarterbacks coach Chris Rorke. “It felt like I was back playing. It really does put you in the play.” If a quarterback wearing the goggles looks to his right he may see a couple of receivers appearing to be just a few yards from him. To his left perhaps his tight end. If he turns his head around he’ll see his tailback seemingly close enough to touch. Most importantly, when he looks in front of him he sees the defense he has to solve. With the touch of a computer key the video starts up and everyone begins moving at full speed, giving the quarterback a chance to decipher what the defense is doing, and to make decisions based on what he sees developing in front of him. “It’s a great tool for making sure your eyes are focused on where they need to be,” said Dixon. “That is really key at quarterback – eye

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discipline, knowing immediately where you need to take your eyes, and making reads. “It helped me improve a whole lot, just in the preseason.” Teevens has noticed, and it hasn’t surprised him. “The big thing is guys like Jack Heneghan and Bruce Dixon having a chance to get in and use it frequently,” he said. “It’s great to be able to have a backup who doesn’t get a whole lot of snaps in practice get the snaps with STRIVR.” Dartmouth entered this season without a seasoned backup, and in Rorke’s opinion the new system has made that less of a concern. “Our young guys were able to come in during preseason and spend a lot of time, particularly in the passing game, using the STRIVR system,” he said. “I think there’s no question they are further along mentally than they would have been as a result of that.”

Joey McIntrye takes Receiver Victor Williams ’16 through his paces with the STRIVR system. The technology allows the athlete to fully engage in the play while his coach observes tendencies and instincts.

Starting quarterback Dalyn Williams had the chance to try out the STRIVR system for the first time last spring when Belch and partner Trent Edwards – a former Stanford and NFL quarterback – flew across country to give their old coach a look at an innovative application for the emerging technology. “I was absolutely amazed when I put the headset on,” said Williams. “Not only was the picture extremely clear, but I was interacting mentally in a virtual world. “I was able to take mental reps by reading coverages without being on the field – invaluable to a quarterback.” As it did with Williams, STRIVR made believers out of the Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers and Minnesota Vikings, who signed on with STRIVR from the pro ranks, and college football teams representing Stanford, Auburn, Clemson, Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Rice as well as Dartmouth. The Washington Wizards are bringing the technology to

basketball and the Washington Capitals to the NHL. Through resources provided by the Friends of Dartmouth Football, the Big Green is not only in an elite club of early adoptees, but it has a contract with STRIVR that gives the school exclusive rights to the cutting-edge technology for two years. Williams thinks the investment was wise. “(STRIVR) will prove to be worth every penny,” he said. “This tool will speed up the development of players and in my belief, in conjunction with a great training program, could change an ordinary player into an outstanding one. … “I believe that with the addition of STRIVR, practices will be more efficient. Coaches will have the ability to limit or expand practice reps for whomever they deem necessary and the lost reps can be made up via STRIVR.” Added Williams, a strong candidate for Ivy League offensive player of the year this fall and an NFL hopeful: “For quarterbacks

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this tool has no limit. It will teach the correct places to look presnap as well as post, how coverages take shape and ultimately where to go with the football. It simply provides players and coaches another avenue to be great. “Who wants to be average?”

“It’s very realistic,” said Heneghan. “It’s especially good because you have the experience of doing it on the field and can come back in and reassess where you went wrong if you made a mistake. Or if you got it right it can reinforce the good habits with your eyes.” In addition to offseason and preseason sessions on the he 3-D STRIVR video is created using a Rubik’s system, STRIVR allows the quarterbacks to get a jump on Cube-sized box with small, synchronized preparing for their next opponent well before the first practice cameras on the different surfaces. When used for of game week on Tuesday. quarterback prep it is perched on a tripod set up “We have video of different ‘looks’ that we will see from near the QB to record 7-on-7 plays (those without teams that we will be playing,” explained Teevens. “So our QBs linemen), usually against a a defense running an on Sunday night, or if it’s a home game even on Saturday night, opponent’s scheme. can already start taking a look at the next opponent’s pressure There are competing systems that rely on animation rather than package. video of actual players, but according to Belch research has shown “That way, as we start to prepare they will better understand that the brain assimilates information better with live action. what we are trying to do.” The file containing the individual videos is sent electronically

“For quarterbacks,

this tool has no limit.”

to the STRIVR offices and returned as a 3-D file. The next day Heneghan or Dixon or Williams might pull on the headset and without leaving Floren Varsity House be dropped “inside” the picture for a few minutes of virtual practice. As an added bonus, while the quarterback wearing the goggles looks over the defense, Rorke and the other quarterbacks can observe what he’s looking at via a monitor or overhead screen. “We use it in meetings and everybody in the room knows whether or not the person has their eyes in the right place,” said Rorke. “Watching regular video the way we always have, you can’t tell 100 percent whether they know where to put their eyes. They may answer a question correctly because they are book smart because they learn by rote, but now it’s a reaction thing. “If their eyes don’t go to the right place you know immediately because you are looking where they are looking. It’s, ‘You took your eyes off the free safety. You went the wrong direction.’ There’s no way around that. That’s a reaction thing as opposed to a learned response, so from a training standpoint and a teaching standpoint it really is a whole other level.” In meetings or on their own the quarterbacks can work their way through reps until they get it right.

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But the STRIVR system isn’t limited to preparing quarterbacks. Teevens and his assistants continue to think about and try new ways to use it. They have set the camera up near the center to explore “line” calls. They’ve tried it at linebacker. They’ve used it in the kicking game. Joey McIntyre, who was the moving force in bringing the system to Teevens’ attention, is excited about the possibilities of employing STRIVR’s capabilities off the field in his role as director of external relations and recruiting/operations. The camera has been used to create a 3-D look at Dartmouth’s spacious weight room in Floren Varsity House and to record the wondrous view at Holt’s Ledge when the freshmen football players went there on a hike. With the STRIVR footage the family of a potential recruit in the Pacific Northwest or the Texas Panhandle can see what a quarterback sees on Memorial Field, but also stand in the middle of the Green and marvel at Dartmouth Hall in front of them, then turn to see Baker Tower to their left, and the Hopkins Center when they look right. “We are thrilled to have STRIVR,” said Teevens. “This is cuttingedge stuff. It will make us a better football team and puts us ahead of the curve.”

DARTMOUTH ATHLETIC

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 nearly 300 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 kept up-to-date on Dartmouth sports through our official newsletter, the award-winning Big Green Sports News, and your name will be listed in the next season’s home football programs. If you choose certain membership levels (see next page) 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

To contact the Athletic Sponsor Program office, please call 603-646-2463 or email Sponsors@Dartmouth.edu P E A K | FA LL 201 5

EDITORIAL

MORE THAN ANKLE TAPE “A lot of people think of trainers as funny little men in white pants who run around taping ankles, carrying water buckets and (doing) a little bit of everything.” Jeff Frechette Jan. 22, 1983 Valley News

IF THE AVERAGE SPORTS FANS didn’t quite understand the role of athletic trainers when 24-year-old Jeff Frechette was just getting started at Dartmouth, what would they make of their dramatically different role more than three decades later? The stereotype of the old-time trainer grew out of a time when the training staff was populated largely by local high school graduates who learned their craft at the knee of older trainers. That began to change after forward-thinking Fred Kelley came to Dartmouth as head trainer in 1967. Kelley had earned a degree in exercise physiology in the legendary Springfield College physical education program, served as a trainer for the 10th Marine Regiment, and had gone on to earn a masters degree in education. While respecting the acquired knowledge of veteran trainers like Irv Fountain and Bob Dagenais, Kelley set about reshaping the staff by bringing in a new breed of trainer like Linda Zoller, Terry Cioffredi and Frechette, each of whom had or would have advanced degrees. Today every last one of Dartmouth’s 11 trainers not only studied in an affiliated field in college but holds a masters degree. Frechette – who succeeded Kelley as head of the Dartmouth training staff in 1994 and in March was named associate director of sports medicine – estimates when he posts an opening these days he may receive 150 or more resumes from highly educated and accomplished applicants from around the country. Today there are more than 200 schools offering bachelors degrees in athletic training. The educational component is critical given what we are learning about concussions and other injury assessment and care, according to Dr. Jack Turco, who in his role as the

From his start in 1967 to his retirement in 1994, Fred Kelley defined the role of athletic trainers in Dartmouth Athletics.

EDITORIAL longtime Director of Dartmouth’s Health Services, oversaw the training staff. “The actual medical role of the trainer back when I was in high school and college was very minimal,” said Turco, who starred in ice hockey and baseball at Harvard. “Quite frankly, medicine for the athletes was different then. You only got seen by the doctor when you were injured. “Aches and pains and pulled muscles pretty much went undiagnosed. You’d pull muscles and it would be, `Can you go today?’ The coach would say that. The trainer probably had a say, but they didn’t have the credibility of a background. I think coaches, whether they would admit it or not, thought of the trainers as guys who just went through high school, and some of them not even high school. That has all changed.” For all the changes in the role of the trainer and the profession, however, there has been one constant over the years. The trainers then, as now, did everything they could to help the athletes. “That’s true,” said Frechette. “Even though the old trainers didn’t necessarily have all the tools and education that we have now, it was about developing relationships with the kids. Gaining their trust and their respect. They really did care about them. “Those guys knew when something was off, and while they may not have always been able to articulate it in the way that we do now, they knew where to send them or how to get them help. They worked hard and did the best they knew how.” Drop by the Dartmouth training rooms in Davis Varsity House, in Floren Varsity House or Thompson Arena and you’ll see a lot of the same things you would have seen when Kelly arrived from VMI in 1967. There are ice machines and whirlpools and treatment tables just as there were back then. But there are also things you would never have seen before. Things like Game Ready units, space-age cold-compression therapy machines that use technology pioneered by NASA. Ultrasound and electrical muscle stimulation units were just coming in when Frechette joined the staff but the old-time trainers’ jaws would drop if they stopped by on a football Saturday in the fall. In the training room they now find a mini C-arm X-ray machine. Where once a 22

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2014-2015

SPORTS MEDICINE

15,586 Athletic Training Room Visits

751

Physician Clinic Visits

366 ImPACT Baseline Tests

306 Cardiac Screenings

hand smashed on a helmet would mean the rest of the game on the sidelines or a trip to the hospital, the portable device can not only determine on-site if the extremity is broken, but it can provide moving images that can clear the player to return to action before the game is over. “You can’t look at backs or hips with it,” Frechette said, “but if you have questions about somebody with an ankle or a finger, you can look at it and 30 seconds later know if it’s broken or not.” While the ultimate call on that will fall to Dr. Charlie Carr – who succeeded Turco as the college’s director of sports medicine – or one of the orthopedic sports medicine doctors from Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center who patrol the football sidelines, the trainers play a critical role in every aspect of diagnosis, treatment and rehab. “What has evolved is that it really is a medical team now,” explained Turco. “The team consists of the orthopedic doctor, the sports medicine doctor, the rehab help. In the middle of all that is the athletic trainer.” Turco has tremendous respect for the Dartmouth trainers, who works long hours with frequent nights and weekends away from their families. “In addition to their medical background they know the players much better than the doctors or anyone else,” he said. “The whole purpose of sports medicine is to evaluate, diagnose and then rehab to get people back to performing. Once they are starting on the trajectory back to performing it’s the trainer that is evaluating them. They are the ones that see them getting better, or not getting better. “I don’t think we can overestimate the team approach and the key position that the trainer plays.” Nor can the importance be overestimated of the fact that the Dartmouth sports medicine staff reports to the college health service. “We’ve been pretty unique in that,” said Turco. “At most schools the athletic department hires the doctors and trainers. The good thing about that is you are all in the same department and you have access

ACADEMIC NOTES

to the athletic budget. But from a reporting standpoint it makes so much more sense to have the trainers report to the medical people.” The advent of electronic medical record keeping has made a difference in the allimportant communication between the training staff and the college health services. That, like the educational and other technological advances Frechette has seen since coming to Dartmouth, has improved his department’s quality of care. “It’s night and day from what it used to be,” he said. “When I first started here there weren’t any records. Nobody wrote anything down and only if somebody went to a hospital was there a written record there. “Now, because we’re considered providers through the health service, we have the same access to the records they have. We put our injury notes in there on kids and we can look it up if somebody goes to the health service for

“I don’t think we can overestimate the team approach and the key position that the trainer plays.”

something. If they come back and say, ‘They told me I have this, that and the other thing.’ We might ask, ‘Who did you see?’ and they don’t know. We can look it up, find out who they saw, and if there’s questions we can call that person up and ask what they think.” The relationship not just with the college health services but with the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine department only serves to help deliver excellent care for the college’s athletes. “Charlie Carr has spent a lot of time here with us,” said Frechette. “He’s great. With the relationship that we have, know I can call him up and I’m not going to hear, ‘Who is this?’ We can get things done.”

Add it up and by any measure Dartmouth athletes are getting the best care they’ve ever received. There will always be some give-and-take between the training staff and coaches who want to win, but with the increased education and professionalism of the training room staff that is diminishing over time. “It’s much better,” said Turco. “With rehab, in particular, you need to have almost a daily view of that kid in the training room to see how they are doing. The only people who have that are the trainers who are extremely dedicated professionals, an evolution that has happened right in front of our eyes.” Turco’s successor as Dartmouth’s director of sports medicine has welcomed the change. “I only go back to the mid-to-late 1980s and back then the trainers were a different group that didn’t have the same level of education they have now,” he said. “Fortunately the way trainers were perceived then, compared to now, is totally different. “Now it’s more of a medical position where they are making diagnoses and treatments. The profession has become much more of a science than it was when trainers were mostly taping ankles and things like that.” Which is something Jeff Frechette would be only to glad to stress to the local paper the next time he’s quoted in a story.

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Pay It + Forward The Magic of Dartmouth Career Connections

In the winter of her junior year at Dartmouth golfer Sarah Knapp ’14 was doing her second internship with the PGA Tour. Knapp wasn’t a regular PGA staff member, but neither was she simply a go-fer making photocopies and fetching coffee. “I wasn’t ‘Sarah the intern,’ ” she said. “I did a lot of interesting things, and had a lot of responsibility.” Pleased with the contribution Knapp was making, the head of her department asked her a question one day that brought a smile to her face: “How do I get seven like you?” “I had to laugh,” Knapp said recently. “I said to contact Dartmouth career services and they would go through the whole recruiting process.” These days Knapp is a full-time coordinator in Sales Support at the PGA Tour’s Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., headquarters. And when her turn came around to line up interns she didn’t have to ask anyone where to go. She went directly to Donnie Brooks, the Dartmouth assistant athletic director who serves as a matchmaker of sorts between companies looking for help and Dartmouth athletes in the DP2

““When potential students and

needed one but it can be hard to find people then. That’s when the ‘D Plan” is helpful.” Just as Williams looks to Brooks for help, he turns to her when he sees a potential fit. “If a student says they are interested in something like event planning she is the go-to person,” he said. “When a young woman told me that, I called Kyleigh on the phone and connected them in the moment. Kyleigh said to connect through LinkedIn and that she would love to talk to her some more.” Creating a network that would have former Dartmouth athletes like Williams and Knapp helping current Dartmouth athletes was one of Brooks’ prime goals when the Career Connections program started to take hold. “That’s the message going out the door,” he said. “When you respond to me, ‘Donnie it worked out,’ my message is to pay it forward. Keep the connection going.” That’s exactly what Maya Herm is doing. A former Dartmouth field hockey captain who played the game semiprofessionally in Amsterdam after graduation, she landed her position as a recruitment analyst at Huxley Banking & Financial Services after learning of the job from a Facebook posting by former Dartmouth lacrosse player Kara Lehman. “I contacted her, sent my resume and things moved pretty quickly,” she said. “The fact that Kara played sports and I knew who she was helped with the networking. The whole process took maybe 2-3 weeks.” Herm was just the latest in a series of former college athletes hired by her firm. “Three quarters of our current office were athletes at some point in their life,” she said. “My manager was a DI baseball player at Holy Cross. There is a Holy Cross football player. Kara played lacrosse and I played field hockey at Dartmouth. There is a St. Lawrence swimmer. There’s a football player from a DII college. “It is an industry where being resilient and having that consistent fighting mentality really pays off. And teamwork is huge. That’s absolutely a big component. We have such a team in our office. Everyone backs each other up and fills in where other people leave off. It is a big thing that they look for.” Which is why Herm has already started paying it forward with a three-person recruiting visit to Hanover, where she spoke with Big Green athletes about career possibilities in Floren Varsity House. “One of the first calls I got this fall was from her organization saying they would like to come up because they’ve had success with Dartmouth athletes,” said Brooks. “When potential students and their parents visit us we tell them they will benefit from the connections here, and it is true. “We have graduated four years of Dartmouth Peak Performance and this is the first time I have had multiple recent graduates come back and say, ‘My organization can benefit from having more Dartmouth athletes. How can we help?’ That’s the magic we talk about. “That’s the magic of Dartmouth.”

their parents visit us, we tell them they will benefit from the connections here, and it is true.” Career Connections program that partners with the college’s Career Services office. “Every time Sarah has an announcement she sends it this way,” said an appreciative Brooks. “She’s posted for two departments within the PGA. “I know she hired one intern and has offered another one. She even helped prep him for his interview.” While Knapp didn’t land her position through the program Brooks coordinates – contacts she made growing up in Ponte Vedra Beach and in golf helped – other Dartmouth athletes have, including former lacrosse player Kyleigh Williams ’14. “She came to my office as an undergraduate trying to figure out what she wanted to do,” Brooks recalled. “I remember her telling me that she thought she wanted to be a wedding planner, or to do something in event planning. I started by connecting her to our LinkedIn networks, not just for Dartmouth alumni, but for organizations in the Boston area, where she wanted to be.” Shortly after graduation Williams accepted a position as a marketing assistant at Celebrity Marketing, Inc., where among other things she helps coordinate corporate and charity appearances by Boston sports figures. “A lot of Dartmouth kids go into finance and things like that,” Williams said. “I kind of knew what I wanted to do but Donnie helped me get a better idea. He would call event planners and used alumni networking. He helped me with my resume and my LinkedIn. What he does for student-athletes is a great service.” Appreciative of Brooks’ efforts and confident of the type of candidates he would recommend, Williams turned to him when Celebrity Marketing, Inc., was looking for help. “She told me, ‘Donnie, I need interns every term. Can you send a posting out?’ ” Brooks said. Although her company gets “a lot” of resumes, the Dartmouth connection certainly helps applicants’ chances. So does the Dartmouth academic calendar according to Williams. “We can definitely use (interns) in the fall and winter, which are our busiest seasons,” she said. “Last December we really

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2014-2015

DP2 CAREER CONNECTIONS

140+ Individual student meetings

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Former Big Green student-athletes Kyleigh Williams ’14 and Maya Herm ’13 are thriving in the workplace due to relationships made through the DP2 Career Connections program and lessons learned as student-athletes at Dartmouth.

Resume Drops

Workshops/info sessions Development of Finance 101 curriculum with Tuck School of Business

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