Committee 

May 19–21, 2011

Harry Sheehy ’55a started off the meeting with a brisk resume of the athletic department’s major current objectives and initiatives.

The “Peak Performance” initiative intends to bring together in a meaningful manner all factors that teach and foster not only athletic skills and prowess but also prepare student-athletes for life after Dartmouth. Appropriate coaching is the basis of this process, but help and advice from faculty advisors, nutritionists, sports psychologists, career advisors, to name only a few, must also be integral parts of the “Peak Performance” mix.

A $20 million fund-raising drive is under way to endow coaching positions. Dartmouth at this time has the fewest endowed coaching positions in the Ivy League.

Our competitive profile must be improved, Sheehy insisted, and it will be one of his major concerns. In the 2010–11 season, Dartmouth won a mere two Ivy League championships, for example, compared to Princeton’s 15 and Yale’s seven. Penn, Harvard, and Cornell each had four; Columbia and Brown, none. There is an indication, though, that we may have turned the corner. In 2010–11, Dartmouth finished in the top three in the Ivy League 12 times. The results in previous years were considerably worse: 2009–10, three times; 2008–09, eight times; 2007–08, four times; and 2006–07, six times.

And Sheehy wants to improve sportsmanship—not of the Dartmouth athletes, though; they are doing just fine—but rather of the fans.

In response to a question, Harry also commented on the state of “amateur” Division I sports. He believes that too much money has caused much of college athletics to spin out of control. To pay a basketball coach in excess of $30 million during five or six years is simply incompatible with the concept of amateur sports. And now the Big Ten is even discussing officially paying its student-athletes.

Brian Austin, executive associate AD, gave a thorough and detailed rundown of varsity athletics of the late winter and spring. The highlights in the winter were men’s hockey, ECAC Final Four; women’s hockey, ECAC finalists, NCAA tournament; and men’s and women’s skiing, third place at NCAA Championships. In the spring the following were standouts: women’s acrosse, Ivy champs and NCAA bid; women’s tennis, Ivy champs; baseball, fourth straight division title; women’s crew, NCAA participation; and men’s lightweight crew, second at Eastern Sprints.

Roger Demment, senior associate AD, reviewed club sports and added a few comments about intramural and other athletic activities. Highlights for the winter were: figure skating, second at nationals; women’s water polo, New England champs and 10th at Nationals; and fencing (foil), 16th nationally. In the spring, the noteworthy teams were cycling, second at Easterns; endurance racing team, third (of 217) in Cape Relay; men’s rugby, only invited Ivy to USA 7s on NBC; women’s rugby, qualified for Division I Nationals.

The full stats for fall, winter, and spring varsity sports as well as the highlights for club sports can be accessed atwww.dartmouthsports.com. Particularly noteworthy here are the many student-athletes named to All-Ivy or All-Conference teams, among them committee member David Dowd’s daughter Grace ’11 in women’s rugby.

Chris Wielgus ’79a, head coach of women’s basketball since the inception of the program, provided a glimpse of why she is Dartmouth’s winningest coach. She and her teams have produced 12 Ivy League championships, participated in seven NCAA tournaments, and claimed 381 victories and 80 All-Ivy players. Her approach sounds simple and probably is, as long as one doesn’t mind constant and minute attention to the basics and details and to the immense work load that that implies. She creates a culture that revolves around winning (but on herthoroughly ethical and fair terms), an overwhelmingly strong work ethic, strenuous yet fastidious recruiting, and motivating the players by permitting them to learn both on and off the court. This culture, moreover, needs to be reinforced at a minimum every year and totally recreated in many years as the seniors leave and the first-year students arrive. Wielgus is constantly on the lookout for new and better ideas to help her players in many different ways. To reduce the stress on their bodies, for example, particularly when injured, the women do a portion of their workouts in the pool. And not at all a new idea: No drinking during the playing season!

John Kemp Lee ’78, adjunct assistant professor in the studio art department and accomplished sculptor, and Jeffrey Taube, professor of psychological and brain sciences, discussed and answered questions about the concept and practice of faculty advisor to athletic teams. Both (as well as 40-plus other faculty members) are informally available to student-athletes to advise on a wide array of topics. They concentrate, though, on time management and appropriate intercourse with professors. For obvious reasons there is an emphasis on working with freshmen. For specific academic matters, the faculty advisors heavily utilize the outstanding Academic Skills Center (which is available to all students, not only athletes). It is interesting to note, Taube commented, that the heaviest users of the center are not the students in need of remedial help, but rather the students that already perform well academically.

Finally, the committee elected a vice chair for this coming year: Paul Elmlinger ’80. Norm Sylvester ’58 will take over as chair of the Athletics Committee for 2011–12.