Sports Culture Examined by PEA Athletes
Though Big Red sports teams forge friendships among team members, some Exeter athletes push themselves to the point of injury or engage in hyper-competitive behaviors with their teammates.
Informal comparison of athletes’ capabilities helps to present a team’s strongest lineup during interscholastic competition, but athletes from a variety of teams feel the burden of this constant comparison, mentally and physically. Aside from an athlete’s individual strain to fare well in the competition, a team’s dynamic suffers as rivalry trumps camaraderie among teammates.
"I wish we had a healthy attitude towards injuries where we are honest about what you can do and can't do. Some people take advantage of this and use it as an excuse to not go to practice, but other people push themselves to the point of injury or irreversible damage," [Lilac*] said.
Occasionally, the competition among teammates can prove detrimental. Upper and varsity cross country runner Maddie Machado often witnessed her fellow runners overexerting themselves. Machado herself was diagnosed with a stress fracture this past week that will sideline her for the remainder of the season. “The doctor said if I had stopped training when I had first felt pain and taken some time to heal, then I probably would not have the problem I have right now,” she said.
Machado added, “I feel like this is a recurring problem in the cross country team and most people overtrain to the point of injury. Sixteen out of the 32 members on our team so far have had a major injury that caused them to miss one or more races.”
Anonymous cross country runner Lilac* believed that some of this pressure is due to the coach wanting the players to succeed. “I think [our coach] is really competitive, and so that means oftentimes running through the pain. She wants us to do well so passionately that she sometimes forgets the limits of our injuries. Once, a teammate was visibly in pain during practice, but [the coach] told her to keep running," Lilac said.
However, Lilac also believed that the problem lay in the team's culture itself. "I wish we had a healthy attitude towards injuries where we are honest about what you can do and can't do. Some people take advantage of this and use it as an excuse to not go to practice, but other people push themselves to the point of injury or irreversible damage," she said.
Members of the boys' varsity squash team also noted that the “ladder” system, while an inherent aspect of the sport, often fostered a negative team environment. “People feel competitive because in a ladder sport you get directly compared to somebody because you’re either above or below somebody on the ladder,” senior and boys’ varsity squash captain Alex Mangiapane said.
Upper and boys’ varsity squash player Sam Lew said that an unhealthy competition within the team sometimes extended to the players’ relationships with each other outside of the courts. “If [players] rank higher, they can be condescending, [and it] affects your ego,” Lew said. “Outside of the courts, there's so much drama going on…People call it toxic for a reason. It's very hard not to feel the pressure.”
Boys’ squash coach Frederic Brussel, boys’ crew coach Albert Leger and girls’ cross country coach Gwynneth Coogan could not be reached at this moment. Girls’ crew coach Sally Morris declined to comment.
Lew believes that the coaches were unaware of the extent to which a ladder system could promote an unhealthy team environment. “They should be aware that this ladder system is making the team slightly toxic,” Lew said.
According to Lew, Exeter's squash team has more “challenge matches”—matches in which players compete against each other to move up or down the ladder—than most other schools. He thought that reducing the number of challenge matches could improve the team culture.
Some rowers on the crew team have also experienced competition among teammates. This coming week, some team members will travel to Boston to compete at the Head of the Charles competition. Rower Angella*, who wished to remain anonymous, said that every rower must compete for their spot on a varsity or junior varsity (JV) boat, and these seats may change at any time. In other words, a rower could be on varsity one day but moved down to JV the next.
“That's what [brings out] the competitive aspect,” Angella said. “Most of the time, it's a pretty subtle competition. Most people don’t outright try to put other people down or do snakey things; it’s just everyone's so competitive.”
Several athletes, however, believed that competition within a team motivates athletes. Senior and girls’ varsity crew captain Maddy Potter said, “Personally, I didn't make the [New England Interscholastic Rowing Association] boats—which are the big New England competition boats—my prep year, but that's what inspired me to push myself harder. There definitely is competition on the water, but as long as we have that team spirit off the water, it's positive.”
Senior Isadora Kron expressed similar sentiments, and said that the flexibility of the crew team rosters ensured that the rowers would constantly be “on their toes” and would be able to fix any technique issues without the added pressure of rowing on a boat above their skill level.
Lower Sofina Tillman noted that the team culture fosters hard work but the competition is largely self-motivated. “Everyone wants the opportunity to row in such a big event, so it can be competitive…I don’t think that competitiveness comes out against other teammates but more against yourself and trying to do the best that you can,” she said about the Head of the Charles.
Senior Patrick Mungovan—who will row in Boat Four at the Head of the Charles—said, “It’s challenging because we have to function as a club sport in the fall while preparing for a race against teams that aren’t taking this at a club sport level.”
He noted, however, that despite this challenge, there is less competition than he anticipated. “Guys who are in the lower boats are friends with guys on the top boats,” he said.
Though wrestlers do not compete against one another directly, individuals push themselves beyond reasonable limits in
Lower and JV wrestler Will Peeler recounts varsity athletes voluntarily overexerting their bodies in order to achieve certain goals, such as a specific weight category. “[One of the boys on the wrestling team] doesn't eat anything before he goes to weigh in and doesn't drink anything for the entire day before. Then, for an hour and a half before weigh-in, he runs around the gym a couple times with six sweatshirts on and three pairs of sweatpants to get every last bit of water out of his body,” Peeler said. “It's almost horrifying to think about…He spends a couple days recovering, but that's what he does for weight class.”
To wrestle, varsity wrestlers must weigh in under one of 14 weight classes—starting at 106 pounds and capped at 285 pounds—whereas JV wrestlers can wrestle at any weight for their matches during the season. “Once you're in varsity, it stops becoming a recommendation, and it starts [becoming] a requirement,” Peeler said about making weight.
Upper and varsity wrestler Grant Goodall admitted that although he did not know at first how to lose weight safely—commonly referred to as “cutting weight”—he found guidance in his older teammates. “Most people have a higher priority for health than weight because it doesn't matter how low your weight gets if you can't actually wrestle,” he said.
To prevent excessive and possibly dangerous weight loss, each wrestler must weigh in before the start of the season while hydrated and have their body-fat percentage calculated by the Athletic Trainers’ Office. From there, each wrestler is given a minimum weight they can reach by the end of the season and a decent plan to ensure that they lose weight safely.
Senior and varsity wrestler Chimenum Tasie-Amadi explained that cutting weight is not heavily enforced by the team or its head coach, David Hudson, however. “Coach Hudson encourages us to actually not even bother cutting—just wrestle at your natural weight, lift, eat healthy and you should be fine. When you do end up wanting to cut, captains and wrestling coaches here and [at] so many other places would rather that you do it healthfully,” he said.
Despite some wrestlers that themselves, Peeler felt similarly to Tasie-Amadi. “The wrestling team is a great environment. And if you say, I want to cut weight, everyone has tips and will watch out [for you] and make sure you do it safely, but no one will say you have to,” Peeler said.
*Asterisks denote name change to protect anonymity.