14X Sophomore Summer

Sophomore summer, one of the most anticipated terms at Dartmouth, has not failed to disappoint for the 16s. Now, the term is coming to an end with the excitement of preseason looming. However, we have definitely had our fair share of 14X excitement.

One of the great things about spending the summer in Hanover is the fact that New Hampshire has so many outdoors activities to offer. We’ve spent many days down at the river, laying on the dock or taking out canoes and paddleboards from Ledyard Canoe Club. 

Skeet Shooting

14X has also offered us the most opportunities in our Dartmouth careers for us to travel around New England. Normally, our schedules are swamped with volleyball and other things going on around campus, but we have had more free time than usual over the summer. We were able to take a trip with Programming Board to York Beach in Maine. Having a day on the beach and getting to go to cute candy shops and a soda fountain for lunch was a great break from our typical Hanover schedules.

York, Maine

We also traveled down to Boston twice for two different occasions. We were lucky enough to get to see Beyoncé and Jay Z at Gillette Stadium, which was probably one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen!  I think my favorite trip this summer was getting to go down to Fenway for a Boston Red Sox game.  As a huge baseball fan, this was a very special treat for me since I’ve missed my summer tradition at home of going to Cleveland Indians games with my friends and family.

Fenway Park

Training is a little different for us over the summer than when the whole team is on campus. One main difference is that twice a week, we attend athlete runs on Tuesday and Friday mornings. These are conditioning sessions with athletes from several other teams. It has been really fun to workout with so many other athletes from various sports, whether it’s running together or in the weight room.

Everyone says sophomore summer is the time that your class really becomes close, but this summer has also really been a great time for all athletes to come together. Aside from joint workouts, athletes have been taking part in Steven Spaulding’s DRIVE Leadership Program through DP2. This program consists of a classroom session every Monday afternoon where Spauldo and a guest speaker each week teach us about different principles of, as well as four experiential team activities. So far, we have all really enjoyed this program and the activities have been challenging but great outdoor experiences with teams of athletes from all different sports.

Now that preseason is right around the corner, we can’t wait to get back in the gym with the whole team and cannot wait for what lies ahead for us this season. We are all very sad to see Coach Jose leave us for his new job at Grand Canyon, but we are so proud of him and wish him the best in the next chapter of his life Best of luck Jose! We’ll miss you!

Katie Jarrett '16