18S PEAK by Dartmouth Peak Performance

SPRING 2018

FROM DARTMOUTH PEAK PERFORMANCE AND DARTMOUTH ATHLETIC SPONSORS

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DARTMOUTH ATHLETIC

SPONSORS

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ACADEMIC NOTES

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DOUBLE CROWN

Dartmouth women’s Nordic skier Katharine Ogden ’21, named the USCSCA Women’s Nordic Skier of the Year and EISA Women’s Nordic Rookie of the Year, did what no Big Green skier has ever done before and swept two national titles in one year. Dartmouth finished in third place at the NCAA Championships, their best finish in seven years, with help from two men’s alpine crowns. www.dartmouthsports.com

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EDITORIAL

SETTING PROGRAM RECORDS

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The Dartmouth men’s tennis team had a stellar start to their 2018 campaign with the program’s first-ever ECAC Championship title after a 4-1 victory over Harvard. Spending the first month of the season undefeated, the Big Green were ranked fourteenth in the nation, which was their highest ranking in program history. www.dartmouthsports.com

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ACADEMIC NOTES

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DARTMOUTH ATHLETIC

SPONSORS P E A K | SUM M ER 201 6

SPRING 2018

Contents

NAMED FEMALE FIELD PERFORMER OF THE MEET, SOPHOMORE CHA’MIA ROTHWELL LED THE DARTMOUTH WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELD TEAM TO A THIRD-PLACE FINISH AT THE 2018 IVY LEAGUE HEPTAGONAL CHAMPIONSHIP HOSTED IN LEVERONE FIELDHOUSE WITH HER SECOND STRAIGHT IVY LEAGUE TITLE IN THE 60M HURDLES, A FIRST-PLACE FINISH IN THE LONG JUMP, AND A SECOND-PLACE FINISH IN THE 200M DASH.

The recruiting visit of Cha’Mia Rothwell ’20 was made possible by the generosity of Preston Kelsey ’58 DP and Henry Parker ’46 through the Athletic Sponsors Program.

www.dartmouthsports.com 6

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Contents Dartmouth Peak Performance 6083 Alumni Gym Hanover, NH 03755

MAKING THE D-PLAN WORK

The D-Plan, touted as “Dartmouth’s year-round, flexible academic system,” truly gives student-athletes the opportunity to explore their passions both in school and in their sports. Read about three student-athletes who have taken advantage of Dartmouth’s unique academic schedule.

12 DANCING THROUGH THE DECADES

Continuing a tradition with the residents at Kendal at Hanover, dozens of Big Green student-athletes gather at the neighboring retirement home to dance the night away with some of Dartmouth Athletics’ biggest fans.

16 DP2’S MASSAGE THERAPISTS Certainly not something a Dartmouth student-athlete might gift as a Mother’s Day or Father’s Day gift, DP2’s massage therapy program serves a dual purpose of helping student-athletes recover from injury and maintain peak performance.

EDITOR Karen Shu SENIOR WRITER Bruce Wood ADVERTISING Sam Hopkins PHOTOGRAPHY Rob Bossi, Mark Washburn, Gil Talbot, John Risley, Mike Scott, Nate Barrett, Tom McNeill, Andy Mead, Clarkson Creative, and Karen Shu Problems or Accessibility Issues? dp2@dartmouth.edu © 2018 Trustees of Dartmouth College

ON THE COVER Senior men’s golf captain Ian Kelsey earned medalist honors this spring at the Cornell Spring Invitational and his solid play led the Big Green to tie for the team title. The recruiting visit of Ian Kelsey ’18 was made possible by the generosity of John A. Gehret ’81 DP and William M. Carpenter ’74 DP through the Athletic Sponsors Program.

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“If you are football player who is interested in engineering, I believe that the D-Plan is pretty much the best thing, and quite frankly almost the only way to be a serious engineer and a serious football player.” Ky McKinney-Crudden ’18

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MAKING THE

D-PLAN WORK

s one of the legendary pioneers of computing, John Kemeny was adept at recognizing the most efficient ways to solve mathematical problems. With coeducation at Dartmouth swelling the student population early in his tenure as the College’s 13th president, one of the the problems Kemeny faced when classes began in 1972 was this: Short of a building boom, how do you squeeze a suddenly swelled student body of 4,000 into a school that just one year earlier had 3,000 students? The solution instituted under Kemeny’s leadership was to adapt Dartmouth’s already existing quarter system to a year-round schedule. With that, the renowned Dartmouth Plan was born. In its simplest terms, the D-Plan – as it is known far and wide – results in the majority of second-year students being on campus for their eponymous Sophomore Summer and in turn taking another of their quarters off to work, do an internship, study overseas or off campus, or simply recharge their batteries at home. Perhaps the greatest advantage of the D-Plan is its flexibility, something Big Green student-athletes take full advantage of during their academic and athletic careers. Here are three stories of how three Dartmouth athletes have used the Dartmouth Plan.

Kyran McKinney-Crudden ’18 Football

A captain of the 8-2 Big Green team last fall, McKinney-Crudden missed his junior campaign due to injury and as a result will return in 2018 as a fifth-year senior. His D-plan has helped him gain practical experience, make valuable contacts and refine his career ambitions. An engineering major, McKinney-Crudden has chosen to spend all four quarters of each year either on campus or in the immediate Upper Valley, never far from Floren Varsity House and the strength program that has enabled him to become a standout in Dartmouth’s defensive secondary. After a traditional fall-winter-spring freshman year, the nickel

back from Glastonbury, Conn., spent his first summer working in the machine shop at Thayer School of Engineering. “It was a pretty simple job in terms of I didn’t need much experience beforehand, but it helped me out a lot down the line to have machine shop experience when I was looking for other internships,” he explained. “The work schedule wasn’t too intense, which was nice, because I was pretty young still. It allowed me to be on campus to work out for football. I got to enjoy summer in Hanover, which is definitely the best time to be up here.” McKinney-Crudden spent a traditional Sophomore Summer studying on campus and after his junior fall on the gridiron, sought out an off-term engineering experience that would allow him to go through winter weight training with his teammates. He was particularly intrigued by a co-op program with Simbex, a Lebanon, N.H. firm focused on medical device and consumer health product design and development. It didn’t hurt that Simbex has a strong football connection as developer of the InSite Riddell Impact Response System, a “helmet-based impact monitoring technology designed to alert when significant single or multiple impacts are sustained during a football game or practice.” Simbex generously allowed McKinney-Crudden to split the co-op into a pair of three-month stints bookending Dartmouth’s spring term, thereby allowing him to participate in offseason practice last spring. And don’t think for a second that the engineering major was doing busy work. “That’s why they call it a co-op program as opposed to an internship,” he said. “You are hands on. You are doing real work.” One of McKinney-Crudden’s main responsibilities was droptesting helmets and recording sensor readings from the impact. Another was failure mode analysis on helmet sensors worn by high school or college players that at some point stopped working. His responsibility involved determining how many sensor failures occurred and what type of failures they were, while also investigating why they were failing. McKinney-Crudden said his experience in testing and analysis at Simbex was particularly helpful in his ENGS 89/90 PEAK | SPRING 2018

senior design project over fall and winter terms this year. It also has helped him become more knowledgable and conversant in a particular area of engineering that he hopes to pursue. “It gave me insights into what a product development process is,” he said. “Beforehand, I didn’t have that real handson experience. I kind of had a general idea of what the in’s and out’s were, but this gave me a really solid foundation on the engineering side of product development. I’m trying to learn all that I can about the process, from every angle.” To that end, McKinney-Crudden can’t say enough about the doors that Dartmouth, and the academic calendar introduced during the Kemeny administration, can open. “If you are football player who is interested in engineering, I believe that the D-Plan is pretty much the best thing, and quite frankly almost the only way to be a serious engineer and a serious football player,” he said. “I think Dartmouth has more engineers than any DI football program that is not a full engineering school, and part of the reason is you can schedule your classes and D-Plan to help you as much as possible.”

THE RECRUITING VISIT OF TAYLOR WARD ’19 WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE GENEROSITY OF BRIDGET MCDONALD FAWCETT ’89 AND RICHARD K. BLODGETT ’55 DP THROUGH THE ATHLETIC SPONSORS PROGRAM.

Taylor Ward ’19 Softball

When a New Jersey newspaper did a Q&A with Big Green softball player Taylor Ward in the spring of her senior year at Toms River North High School, one of the prompts was, “In three years I hope to be ….” Ward responded this way: “In three years I hope to be finishing up my junior year at Dartmouth College, where I will also be playing softball. I hope that I will have some internship opportunities. I hope that approaching my senior year, I will be confident in what I want to do after college, and I want to graduate with a degree in either math or the field of science.” Check, check and check. A junior outfielder for the Big Green, Ward did indeed 10 PEAK | SPRING 2018

land that internship, working last fall for Zodiac Aerospace, which bills itself as “a world leader in aerospace equipment and systems for commercial, regional, and business aircraft, as well as helicopters and space applications.” Ward was well-aware of the value of the D-Plan when she decided on Dartmouth, even if she hadn’t yet decided how to use it. “Coming in as a freshman, I wasn’t sure what it would look like, whether I would do an internship or study abroad,” she said. “I was attracted to the thought that I could do the things I wanted to do in a term that Dartmouth allowed me to take off. I liked the idea of the leniency of what I could do.” Ward began her college career thinking she might study physics, but early on discovered something about herself that ultimately led to her internship. “I realized I didn’t want to be in a lab alone,” she said. “I went into engineering my freshman winter and fell in love with it. It’s very hands-on and most of the projects involve three or four people and a team leader people have to follow, and that’s something I really like.” She discovered the same team approach in her internship at Zodiac, a French entity with a branch that was an easy commuting distance from her home near the Jersey Shore and presented her with a schedule that allowed her time to work out for softball at the end of the day. “They focus on evacuation slides for big airliners,” she said. “They put me with a team of five people. They have a ranking system of authority similar to a team with a captain, who designates what I have to do, and what others have to do. It helps the organization work as a coherent system. “My role was to communicate between all of the team members on our project. I would work with the people who were running tests and relay information back to the head of our project. He would give me orders, and I would schedule tests and also make changes to our models based on the test results. It was good hands-on experience, and good because they valued my opinion.” Ward credits the D-Plan with helping her score a prized internship that she might not have otherwise landed, and for giving her engineering studies a specific focus. “The D-Plan definitely worked to my advantage,” she said. “With other schools where you are on campus the normal fall, winter, and spring, everyone goes home for the summer and there is a lot more competition for internships. I felt like there were a lot more opportunities in the fall. In the summer, (Zodiac) has two or three interns, but in the fall I was the only one who was there for a period of less than six months, so I got a lot of individualized attention from the people I was working with. “I learned a lot of things that apply to what I’m doing at school. It made me realize what I really want to study. Mechanical engineering is so diverse in what you can do, and it applies to so many things. I can work on airplanes. I can work on compressor systems. I can work on pretty much anything that has a mechanical component to it.” In addition to a better grasp of what she wants to do after graduation, she also got something else out of her internship. “They asked me to come back, and I took the internship for the upcoming summer,” she said. “It will be a similar threemonth experience. I’m excited about it.”

Lloyd May ’18 Track

While the majority of Dartmouth undergraduates seek out internships or work opportunities during the school year, South African sprinter Lloyd May has demonstrated the flexibility of the D-Plan by doing things the old-fashioned way. Rather than deal with the headaches he would have faced as an international student taking a quarter off during the traditional school year, the short sprinter has married research in class with practical experience gained each summer back home in Carletonville and Johannesburg, South Africa. “I knew the D-Plan was going to work a little differently for me,” the senior engineering major said. “Taking summers off was the easiest way to handle the visa situation. I spent a month-anda-half of my Sophomore Summer here and a month-and-a-half back home.” May did not take classes for credit as he would have in a traditional Sophomore Summer but instead was part of a research project. It was the opportunity to do research as an undergraduate that was a huge draw for May, who considered Harvard, Yale and Princeton among others before deciding to come to Hanover sight unseen. “One of the main reasons I chose Dartmouth was because you could do research as an undergrad,” he said. “I thought that was really, really cool. It is something I’ve been interested in for a long time. I was able to join a research lab my freshman fall and I was really into it. I find research the most fulfilling part of my academic experience.”

May shared that sentiment with an Athletes in Research Panel held this winter at Floren Varsity House. “It was chance for some of us to speak about our experience juggling research and athletics,” he explained. “Most people were thinking about stuff in their off-term like a (Foreign Study Program). I was a big advocate of the idea that you can do research right here. “It is one of the more flexible jobs on campus, and in my opinion, one of the more interesting and rewarding. You can come out with one or two publications, which I think on your résumé looks pretty good and is really fulfilling.” A songwriter and performer in addition to being an athlete, May has worked on a number of research projects at Dartmouth in the machine learning and music lab, in the computer science department and elsewhere. His main focus since his sophomore year, however, has been with Dartmouth’s Hill Lab, which seeks “to push the technological boundaries of what can be achieved diagnostically using human breath.” Specifically, May is helping develop what researchers hope is a means of swiftly, effectively, and inexpensively diagnosing active tuberculosis. Fortunately for May, the study has been active in South Africa, allowing him to have his boots – or running shoes as it were – on the ground in his homeland during the summer term. “There’s a sheer volume of people to screen at clinics, especially in a low-resource setting,” he explained of what he’s seen in South Africa. “There are machines that take something like eight hours and give really accurate results, but they are huge and require liquid nitrogen. “What our research focuses on is trying to build a diagnostic TB screen that kind of works the way a breathalyzer does. A person would just step up, blow in, and it would say TB positive or negative.” May has helped collect pediatric breath samples in South Africa using vacuum pumps he adapted from an earlier Thayer School design. For May, the combination of intense research with training and running on the track team has been a plus. “Track has been such an important part of my Dartmouth experience,” he said. “It is so great to have that forced break. At 3:30 I know I’m going to be at the track. I think that’s really important just from a self-care perspective. It really, really does help to get my mind off of things. “But there are also so many times it has happened at practice that I will finish my last rep and it will be like, ‘Oh, that’s how I do that.’ Just getting my mind completely not thinking about it has helped me discover the piece that I’ve been missing.” As his final winter term wound down, May was trying to decide between graduate school and a job offer. “If I decide on grad school, it will definitely be in Hanover,” he said. “I’ve got a really strong sense of community here.”

For more visit www.dartmouthsports.com

Dancing Through

the Decades

THE RECRUITING VISIT OF SAMANTHA BOZOIAN ’19 WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE GENEROSITY OF ALLEN R. LARSON ’71 AND CHARLES M. LIDDLE III ’52 DP THROUGH THE ATHLETIC SPONSORS PROGRAM. 12 PEAK | SPRING 2018

It is shortly after 7 p.m. on a Thursday in the middle of February and Kendal at Hanover residents are just finishing their evening meal at the retirement community’s elegant dining room. While some of the senior citizens head back to their apartments to watch the Winter Olympics on TV, others filter into a nearby all-purpose room. Already seated around the perimeter of the large and airy room featuring a stage at the far end are a handful of Dartmouth student-athletes making small talk with a dozen or so of the 400 residents of Kendal, located between Route 10 and the Connecticut River just five minutes north of the College. They are early arrivals for Dancing Through the Decades, an annual event that brings Big Green studentathletes to the expansive Kendal campus for an informal mixer with some of their most dedicated fans.

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It is really special, a really fun event we do as athletes. I don’t think a lot of us realize how awesome it is to hang out with the residents until we do this and see how much they appreciate us coming over.” Dancing Through the Decades organizer Emily Dryden ’19 – Basketball The hum of conversation in the room picks up gradually until a little after 7:15 when the sound system is turned on and the festivities officially kick off. Featuring trivia questions rewarded with prizes such as Dartmouth team T-shirts and caps, music, dancing, and light refreshment, Dancing Through the Decades is a popular, low-key community event that Big Green athletes have been involved with for more than a half-dozen years.

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It can be a little bit awkward at first. It’s kind of the high school dance type of scenario where initially everyone is standing on the outskirts waiting for someone to ask for a dance. We kind of encourage our athletes to go on over and ask them to dance. They will love it. Or even just sit and have a conversation with residents who don’t want to dance.” organizer Katelyn McPherson – Associate ad for DP2 The first trivia question is asked. “What year did Billboard publish its first music hit parade?” Then another. “What year did they crown the first Miss America? And in what city?” If there was a little awkwardness at the start of the evening, it’s quickly evaporating. Sitting side-by-side are frail 85-year-old widows and 300-pound football players, chatting away like old friends.

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The guys on the team feel it is a wonderful time to interact with the people in Kendal and listen to their stories from years ago. It’s very cool that the event is so well attended because it adds to the enjoyment for both sides. Many of the residents follow Dartmouth athletics, so it’s fun to see them gravitate towards certain student-athletes to try and get an insight on their seasons.” Rocco Di Leo ’18 – Football

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This was my third year doing Dancing Through the Decades with the football guys and other Dartmouth athletes. It is always a fun night of dancing and chatting with some of the residents. A lot of the folks there follow Dartmouth athletics and are some of our biggest fans, so they really enjoy spending some quality time with the players. The older guys love talking football, so we try get a good representation every year.” Jimmy McHugh ’19 – Football At 7:30, Glen Miller’s “In the Mood” is playing over the sound system, but there are few dancers on the floor. While some student-athletes mingle among the residents, the majority are on one side of the room. Many of the residents, meanwhile, are gathered among themselves on the other side. That will change.

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If there was a little awkwardness at the start of the evening it’s quickly evaporating. Sitting side-by-side are frail 85-year-old widows and 300-pound football players, chatting away like old friends.” As the music and trivia goes from the ‘20s to the ‘30s and then the ‘40s – hence the “Decades” part of the name – more of the student-athletes ask residents to dance. Others simply converse with the senior citizens, some seated on scooters, some with canes or walkers nearby. By the time Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” is reverberating through the room, even residents with hearing issues are tapping their feet. One of the younger and clearly very fit residents dances with a handful of athletes at once, demonstrating her flexibility by bending over and slapping two hands on the floor in time with the music. Over the loudspeaker comes the question: “In 1955, what opened in Anaheim, California?” Quickly comes the answer, Disneyland, earning a trip to the prize table. Then another question: “What was the first toy advertised on TV?” No, it wasn’t Barbie the emcee intones. It was Mr. Potato Head. A few seniors nod their head knowingly.

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This is such a special event. It connects residents with the students, but equally important is that it helps the students have an appreciation of what our residents have to offer. For the residents, part of it is nostalgia and a chance to talk to the students and tell them, ‘I played on the 1953 team,’ or, ‘I was a class of ’60,’ and things like that. It’s just a wonderful event.” David Urso – Kendal director of residential services Three female athletes and one resident dance in a group. As Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” ushers in the ’60s, even athletes who have spent most of the evening on the sidelines gravitate toward the dance floor. More trivia. “Rock ’n roll is the new music craze. What is the new dance craze?” Engaged in conversation with the studentathletes and with each other, it takes a while before one of the residents – most of whom surely know the answer – finally says it was the Twist.

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This is really a special event for our residents. They all have a good time and the Dartmouth athletes really seem to enjoy it.” Organizer Bea Edgar – Kendal resident As the music moves to the 1970s, it is Dancing Queen that brings a resident who might stand all of 5-foot-8 onto the floor. He’s dancing with a woman volleyball player a half foot taller and perhaps 60 years his junior. They are both smiling. On it goes through the ’80s and ’90s. Gradually more of the residents move to the sidelines and more Dartmouth studentathletes, male and female, soccer and football player, women’s

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lacrosse player and volleyball player alike, move onto the floor. An older man, a tan Dartmouth hat he won by answering a question atop his head, is dancing with an athlete wearing a deely bobber, a headband with fuzzy balls on the end of antenna-like springs. Any barriers between the senior citizens and the college students have long-since broken down.

It’s a really awesome opportunity for the student-athletes to be involved in the community. I had gone to sort of a senior citizen prom at my high school and this reminds me of that. The residents really enjoy answering the trivia and showing that, these young’uns don’t know anything. Because of where we are in Hanover, I’m sure there are people at Kendal whose families can’t come up a lot and a lot of us are far away from our families. So this is a nice way to help both of us.” Emily Dryden ’19– Basketball The night draws to a close with Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” echoing through the room. Virtually every studentathlete, male and female, seems to be chanting the refrain, “Don’t stop believing” in perfect unison. If the residents aren’t as familiar with the song, that doesn’t take away from their appreciation for the joy they see as they watch athletes big and small, from different parts of the country and members of different teams, in the middle of the large room having fun. An hour has passed. Another Dancing Through the Decades is in the books. The residents filter out of the room, back to their apartments and TV coverage of the Olympics. The Dartmouth student-athletes gather their jackets and gloves and head into the night, warmed by the chance they had to spend a little time off campus with an appreciative group of new old friends.

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Starbucks has been my study spot throughout my four years at Dartmouth. Over these years I have connected with Dick and Marge — a couple from Kendal who have a morning routine of walking to Starbucks to read over a cup of coffee and connect with the Hanover community. In my opinion, they are celebrities in the Hanover Starbucks. I have been so lucky to connect with Dick and Marge through sharing tables with them and bonding over our identities as ‘Starbucks regulars.’ “When I first went to the Dancing through the Decades event, I was so excited to see Dick there. I introduced him to the rest of the volleyball team (he had also already connected with some of my other Starbucks aficionado teammates). Then he gave all of us a swing around the dance floor. It was such a magical night and an incredible event for both the residents and us athletes. The residents at Kendal are wonderful and I hope that Dartmouth continues to foster more relationships there.” Sara Lindquist ’18 – Volleyball For more visit www.dartmouthsports.com

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 PEAK | SPRING 2018

DP2 MASSAGE THERAPISTS JONES TALIAFERRO & MATT HARRINGTON

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DP2’S

MASSAGE THERAPISTS T

here’s no tranquil recording of ocean waves wafting through the air. There’s no calming miniature waterfall, no mood lighting, no luxurious heated terry cloth towels and no scented candles anywhere to be found. The small and spartan room on the top floor of Davis Varsity House where legendary hall of fame college basketball coach Al McGuire bunked when he was a young assistant at Dartmouth in the mid-1950s will never be confused with a tiny spa. And the massages given there by Jones Taliaferro and Matt Harrington certainly aren’t the kind of thing a Dartmouth athlete might buy as a Mother’s Day or Father’s Day gift. Not unless mom happens to compete in triathlons or dad has a hard time getting out of the La-Z-Boy after his Turkey Bowl touch football game. As DP2’s manual therapists, Taliaferro and Harrington offer massages that serve a dual purpose. They join with the college’s athletic trainers and sports doctors in a team effort to either help keep the school’s varsity athletes performing at peak level, or to return to action as quickly as possible after injury. Count head athletic trainer Jeff Frechette among those who appreciate having yet another valuable tool in the Peak Performance toolbox. “We all learned about massage and use it to some degree, but with 1,000 athletes, 12 athletic trainers and everything being pretty much year-round now, we have limited time for each athlete,” said Frechette. “So it’s helpful to have (dedicated massage therapists) who are good at their job. “It’s like anything else. The more you do it, the more proficient at it you become. This is what they do, day in and day out, so from that aspect, having them is a nice resource for our athletes.”

Taliaferro, a licensed massage therapist who has his own practice in nearby Lebanon, began working with Dartmouth athletes on the side in 2015. He brought on Harrington, another LMT who works in the spa at Vermont’s Woodstock Inn, to help with the athletic department’s massage program. Between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. each weekday, massages are given to athletes dealing with injuries who are trying to return to action. The dozen 20-minute slots are assigned by the athletic trainers. Slots intended to aid “recovery” from practices and contests for athletes in their championship seasons, meanwhile, are available Sunday afternoon, and Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Athletes for these massages are recommended by their coaches and trainers based on minutes played, or because the athletes are perceived to be wearing down. Women’s rugby coach Katie Dowty is a true believer in the value of the massage therapy offered through DP2. She developed a first-hand appreciation of the effectiveness of massage during her playing career in rugby. “When we were training heavily at the Olympic Training Center, we would have regular massages that allowed us to recover and work that much harder from day-to-day,” she said. “It was very helpful. Having that in a collegiate environment is impressive. It’s a feature of a high-performance program. “Here we have used massage primarily post matches because in addition to muscle soreness from heavy exertion, we are also a contact sport. We tend to have muscle tension, so it really helps when they can come in the following day and get a light massage to relax those muscles so that the blood can start flowing again and increase circulation. I really do think it helps recovery for us.” Taliaferro looks as if he could have played nose guard on the

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football field. That makes him particularly well-suited for arduous deep tissue work that, among other benefits, increases blood flow and with it, the delivery of oxygen and nutrients important for recovery. Deep work with his fingers, hands and elbows helps break down scar tissue, enhances freedom of movement and benefits muscle elasticity. “I am basically going to where the tension is and I am making it go away by pushing on it, by pressing, by stretching, by kneading,” Taliaferro explained while working on an athlete’s hips. “My size really does help. I’m a bigger person. I’ve got the strength. I’ve got the weight and I have the endurance, so I can get in there.” For as helpful as it can be when he’s finished, Taliaferro’s massage, unlike the one Aunt Bess gets at the spa, can at times be a little uncomfortable. “They know when they come here it is going to be intense,” Taliaferro said. “Sometimes it is going to hurt, but they’re going to feel better after, so it’s worth it to them. They are putting so much effort into their sport, and into their training that they are willing to go that extra mile as far as intensity goes. Yeah, I can go light, but nothing would really happen. “Every single time I see an athlete, whether I worked on them before or not, I say to them that, if at any point the pressures is too much, or they could use a little more, feel free to communicate that to me. I put it in their hands.” If it’s sometimes a little uncomfortable, Dartmouth athletes recognize the advantages that come from their 20-minutes in Taliaferro’s hands and queue up for his services according to Frechette. “I think the endurance sports – the swimmers and the runners – gravitate toward that sort of treatment maybe a little bit more than some of the other athletes, but everybody benefits,” said Frechette, who in particular works closely with the men’s hockey team. “I know when I send out a text or email with hockey’s times, it’s bing, bing, bing with guys getting back to me pretty quickly. “Unfortunately, it’s a limited resource. We have 26 guys on the hockey team and I’m sure they would all like to get a massage but the guys that are playing the most are going to get priority.” On the walls in Taliaferro’s little massage room in the Davis Varsity House eaves are body maps helping direct his hands to

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soft tissue trigger points and knots that cause pain. While he will take glances at the maps, he relies on more than just the colorful diagrams on the walls to bring relief to the athletes. “You can learn all sorts of stuff, follow the maps and everything else, but you have to have the hands for it, and you have to listen,” he said, mid-massage on an athlete. “As I am loosening up this hip muscle it loosens up the IT band that hooks into the knee. I am literally listening for a sound in the knee. I am listening to the athlete breathing. “You have to listen to what the trainer tells you that you need to work on, and of course you have to listen to the athletes. If the athlete says, ‘Hey, I am also feeling this or that,’ then that tells me something and maybe there’s something else we need to address. I am basically going to where the tension is, and I am making it go away by pushing on it. I am pressing. I am stretching. I am kneading.” A onetime bartender who has the helpful rapport that comes from dealing with the public, Taliaferro points out that he and Harrington work on athletes from all of Dartmouth’s varsity teams, athletes with widely different body types and sizes. “People ask me all the time, ‘Who is the hardest athlete to work on? It must be football, right?’” he said with a laugh. “Football is tough. There’s a lot of muscle there. But I am designed to work on that. What can be harder to work on is the little, wispy runners who have tiny muscles that get supertight, and I’ve got to get my thumbs in there.” Deep tissue massage is not easy work for Taliaferro at his regular practice or at Dartmouth, where he’s shuttling athletes through 20-minute sessions. But he finds it very satisfying. “If I’ve worked on an athlete before I’ll ask how they are doing, and I am hearing about big gains at least a couple of times a week,” he said. “I enjoy working with them because they put so much effort into their bodies and their craft. “I was a non-athletic asthma kid from a small, Upper Valley town and when I can help a Dartmouth athlete, I feel like I’m part of a big Ivy League team. That’s very rewarding and what keeps me working in this arena.”

As DP2’s manual therapists, Taliaferro and Harrington offer massages that serve a dual purpose. They join with the college’s athletic trainers and sports doctors in a team effort to either help keep the school’s varsity athletes performing at peak level, or to return to action as quickly as possible after injury.”

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For more visit www.dartmouthsports.com

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