Category: Sports

10.19.17, SportsLeave a comment

Degrees of Perfection 

Abigail Koerner

Rowing on the Charles.   By ABIGAIL KOERNER  I want to remember this moment forever: the sun setting over water like melting icecream dripping down the side of the perfect cone. It is so sweet to be here as the wind blows through the tiny hairs abandoned by my ponytail holder and left to dangle there at the nape of my neck. My legs take off underneath me to this rhythm that takes us further. Our bodies fold up, wind up, and boom — extend out again. Like this, we row along. Bridge to bridge, wall to wall, and around each bend… I would do anything to go a …

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09.28.17: When September Ends, SportsLeave a comment

Why We Play

Tushar Dwivedi

Intramurals and interested students. By TUSHAR DWIVEDI “Can’t, busy,” I heard, over and over again, to the same question I’d been asking around my house for the past few hours: “want to play IM ___ tonight?” The blank could have been soccer, volleyball, or any number of intramural that Harvard offers, but regardless of the sport, the answer stayed the same. Of course, I wasn’t planning on playing either – I, too, was busy. With just a single friend heading across the river to the stadiums that Thursday night, it became clear that intramurals, the supposed casual way to continue …

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04.13.17, Sports, UncategorizedLeave a comment

A Season to Remember

Tushar Dwivedi

Crimson Hockey reinvigorated despite final loss. By TUSHAR DWIVEDI   Recently, my hometown of Chicago has been abuzz in the world of hockey. With the rise and prominence of the Blackhawks, a new pride has enveloped the city that not just complements, but often overrides the typical baseball, basketball, and football interests. However, while I have not been to United Center, Chicago’s prime hockey and basketball stadium, in almost a year, the Harvard’s men’s ice hockey team just returned from their visit. This visit, however, was far beyond the ordinary. The team was representing Harvard in the Frozen Four for …

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SportsLeave a comment

Competition and Balance

Tushar Dwivedi

Mental health in athletics. By TUSHAR DWIVEDI   The buzzwords of “mental health” and “athletics” typically evoke thoughts of concussions, CTE, and other such forms of physical injury to the brain; examples in professional sports abound, and recent attention has highlighted the impact of new research in football specifically. When watching sports on TV, reading about them in the news, or hearing of injury on ESPN, it is simple to limit the definition of mental health, especially when considered in the context of athletics. However, playing the sport, or even watching it in person, conjures a new realization.   The …

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03.09.17: The Housing Day Issue, SportsLeave a comment

The Final Review?

Hailey Novis

Khurana, the USGSO, and student-athletes. By HAILEY NOVIS and CAROLINE CRONIN The week before Spring Break, the College and all its constituents operate on a last-leg mentality amidst a flurry of midterms, theses, meets and matches, and the panic-induced hysteria of finalizing summer internships and next term plans. Students of all years do their best to have fun with Housing Day and spring break trips while succeeding in all that is expected of them. It is in the middle of this chaotic rush that Dean Rakesh Khurana, of Cabot House, has dropped the “USGSO Implementation Committee Final Report” through a …

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03.02.17: It Matters, SportsLeave a comment

Smoke on the Water

Tushar Dwivedi

Swimmers, divers, and champions.   Scrolling through the Men’s Varsity Swim and Dive team’s results this season provides variety in many ways, from meets held all over the country – from Salt Lake City, Utah to Austin Texas – to tight scores and dominant blowouts. The common thread, however, is constant W. The Crimson entered this weekend undefeated thus far, with huge, consecutive victories over Penn (206-88) and Brown (226-74) in the same weekend; their closest match was a 59-point victory over Utah, outside of the Ivy League Conference. Thus, expectations were optimistic and high for the Ivy League Championships …

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02.23.17: The Junior Parents Issue, SportsLeave a comment

Streaks and Losses

Tushar Dwivedi

Harvard Squash at National Championship.   Before attending Harvard, I knew very little about the sport of squash. I’d heard the name, knew that some people, somewhere played it, but had never really spent much thought on it; that was before I met Saad. We connected over a common dorm, Holworthy, and right in the middle of sharing more about his background from Egypt, he casually mentioned squash. Little did I know that Saadeldin Aish was one of the top squash players in the entire world and was soon to be Harvard’s #1 court player.  And thus, in my first …

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02.09.17: Practically Speaking, SportsLeave a comment

You’ve Got to Believe

Tushar Dwivedi

Super Bowl LI at Harvard. By TUSHAR DWIVEDI The heroic stories that filled the daydreams of our childhood and motivated our aspirations growing up are not as often found today among Harvard College students separated by concentrations and houses and burdened by ambitions and grade point averages. Even so, we lived one again Sunday night with the Super Bowl LI victory the New England Patriots. I’ll be honest, the mellow atmosphere seemed to disappoint me at first. We were at Harvard, in New England, during probably the biggest sporting event of the year, and yet ten minutes into the game, …

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02.02.17: All Things New, SportsLeave a comment

Winter Games

Tushar Dwivedi

Harvard Varsity teams continue play over break and into spring. By TUSHAR DWIVEDI While many of us visited family and home, traveled, worked, or learned, it is easy to forget the number of students who represented Harvard in winter athletics over break. These athletes, such as Holworthy resident Zeth Dean, stayed in what effectively became oversized singles, while continuing practice and competition for their respective sports. For Zeth, that meant wrestling. According to Zeth, “One thing I realized was that staying over break really helped me focus all of my time on wrestling and allowed me to improve. I also …

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11.17.16: The Harvard-Yale Issue, SportsLeave a comment

For the Love of The Game

Jess Clay

And a remembrance of it. “Gentlemen, you are now going out to play football against Harvard. Never again in your whole life will you do anything so important.” — T.A.D. Jones, Yale football coach, 1916 When the Crimson take to the gridiron come Saturday afternoon, they will do so with a pair of opportunities in play. The first is the chance to win at least a share of the Ivy League title. Should Harvard win The Game, and Princeton and Penn win their respective games against Cornell and Dartmouth, there will be a three-way tie for the league championship. I …

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11.17.16: The Harvard-Yale Issue, SportsLeave a comment

Gaming The Game

Devon Higham

Match-ups beyond the field. This upcoming Saturday, thousands of students and alumni of Harvard and Yale will flock to Harvard Stadium in Allston to watch the teams collide for the 133rd time. Though “The Game” refers only to the match-up set to take place on the gridiron, the competition between the two schools extends far beyond the playing field. With that in mind, the Harvard Independent takes a look at the extracurricular activities available to students the night before and the day of The Game, and decides once and for all which school truly has the upper hand. Friday Night …

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11.03.16: November Time, SportsLeave a comment

Hockey in the Heat

Merrick Madsen

Varsity Hockey takes Arizona. As we stepped off our plane in Phoenix, AZ, all of us on the hockey team wondered exactly how we would meet the expectations surrounding us. We had traveled thousands of miles away from the hockey hotbed of New England to play against a new Division 1 program at Arizona State, and tackle our first two games of the regular season. How the outside world thought we would fare this year was surrounded by a host of questions throughout our pre-season. Most pointed to the fact that we had lost several key players to graduation – …

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