Practice Report April 12

Just got back from a practice on a local field. Good stuff from our leadership, getting creative in order to get us some touches on the grass. We were missing a ton of folks today - Watson's becoming an engineeeeeer, Mackey and Bullocks had business in the NY State capital, Nick Brown is out melting hearts somewhere, Kell is out crushing skulls somewhere, etc. etc. Still, we showed up with 14 plus an injured Robin and then we scrimmaged O line vs. D, ran a drill meant to improve our big puts out of power position and ended with some 7 offense against 6 defenders, a drill meant to improve our on-field communication. D-line, I'm proud to say, got 3 Ds before our buddies on the O could even get 3 goals, but alas when we were on O we only managed 4 goals before they won with 3 turns. It was good stuff all around - a full field, a lot of us in cleats, shorts, t-shirts. Working towards Regionals.


Also, a cool thing happened yesterday on the Green. Miserable day - cold, rainy, windy. Great for working on throws and catches in adverse conditions. So a bunch of us were out on Baker Beach, about to start going over D bids, when this guy shows up, asks to talk to us. He lets us know that in general, we should be going through Club Sports, but then says "You guys are pretty good in general..." He notes we're not wearing any cleats, and based on our reputation for being careful, he lets the few of us out there play on the Green, as long as we promise to keep moving around, going to different spots so as to not hurt any grass.
It was a really nice moment in what often seems to be a contentious, difficult relationship with the College administration. It is great to hear that the work we put in at being good Dartmouth citizens can come back to us, and it absolutely made me more likely to take good care of public spaces than I was before.

Practice again tomorrow and Monday, we'll be spending this week getting our own individual games ready for the Series (Sectionals is next weekend) and then spending the following two weeks really getting ourselves together as a team.

Rock.

-lamar