The first and second round games were played with mini goals and no goalkeepers. However, for the third and final round, teams played with regular soccer goals and goalkeepers. Each game was around 30–45 minutes long. The referees for the tournament were third-year Zoe Garver and fourth-year Brynn Adams, who are both women’s soccer players and recent All-NCAC honorees.

College third-year Olivia Gonzalez is on the club soccer team and played in the tournament. Her team — Koby’s BFFs, named after third-year Koby Mbonu — was a mix of College students, varsity soccer players, and members of other varsity teams.

“I had a great time at the tournament!” Gonzalez wrote in an email to the Review. “It was awesome for BSAG to organize this event, and I’m really proud of the turnout and success!! I was on Koby’s BFFs and despite our early elimination to Him (which actually featured a lot of my club soccer friends), we still had a blast.”

Gonzalez joined club soccer at the end of her first year, and though she believes she still has a long way to go in improving her game, it has given her an opportunity to practice a sport she loves.

“It was definitely daunting to join the club at first because I hadn’t played since middle school,” Gonzalez wrote. “However, we have practices 4–5 times a week, and slowly I’ve improved!”

These days, Gonzalez serves on the club soccer leadership committee team, which helped with the organization of the soccer tournament.

“BSAG invited me to one of their meetings to discuss logistics for the event and to run some ideas by club soccer regarding game timing, promotion, and rules,” Gonzalez wrote. “But I credit the majority of the event planning and success of the event to BSAG!”

Mbonu, who is co-chair of BSAG and on the men’s soccer team, served as one of the main organizers for this event.

“BSAG wanted to create another sports tournament for the Oberlin community and decided a soccer tournament would be the best idea,” Mbonu wrote in an email to the Review. “We partnered with Club Soccer and Yeofit (who were great to work with) and had an amazing time.”

Mbonu reached out to the club soccer team because it would guarantee players for the tournament. He also reached out to YeoFit since they would provide resources for the event, such as hoodies and frisbees for raffles and food and beverages.

“We haven’t hosted anything in the past with either organization, but will definitely be doing this tournament next year so we’ll be sure to reach out again,” Mbonu wrote. “In addition, the athletic and non-athletic community don’t cross over too much at Oberlin so it gave us a chance to do that as well.”

Only one team could win it all, and that was Tacha’s Team. Tacha Lee, a third-year on the women’s soccer team, thought that it would be fun to put a team together. It was composed of all varsity soccer members from the men’s and women’s teams.

“The tournament was really fun!” Lee wrote in an email to the Review. “It was nice seeing a bunch of people play soccer together. Winning was also great but it was more fun to just hang out with my friends and kick the ball around.”

Third-year Samantha Gilfond, who is on the women’s soccer team, played on the winning team.

“It was nice getting a chance to play with my teammates again after our season ended and also play alongside the men’s team,” Gilfond wrote in an email to the Review. “I thought it was a great way to spark friendly competition and meet new people. I love playing soccer and I am very competitive so it was a great way to support BSAG and leverage my competitiveness.”

When asked how the tournament was compared to a Division III in-season soccer match, Lee commented on the light-heartedness of the game.

“It definitely was a lot more relaxed than varsity soccer and I could just kinda enjoy myself while playing soccer more casually with others,” Lee wrote.

Gilfond noted the similarities and differences between this game and varsity games.

“It was super different, especially when we were competing against teams that were not made up of majority soccer athletes,” Gilfond wrote. “In the final game both teams were made up of mostly varsity soccer players which made the level of play pretty high.”

Mbonu, who also played on Tacha’s Team, had similar remarks to Lee and Gilfond.

“It was great playing in the tournament,” Mbonu wrote. “All around, I believed everyone had a great time though. It doesn’t really compare to DIII soccer at all because a lot of people playing weren’t currently training athletes, but the competition level was still high and I hope it will keep the same standard for next year.”

To our team, thank you for allowing us to end our collegiate careers by creating history. Thank you for trusting us. Thank you for buying into the vision of what we wanted our season to be and what we’ve always wanted it to be. Thank you for creating a family and sticking together through all of the cracks.

It took three years, but we did it. There’s no team like us. No one else is going to break out in dance battles during a timeout or do a catwalk before the game to Beyoncé’s “Crazy In Love.” You all have provided a home in the chaos of what the last four years have been for us. We’re grateful it was this team we got to accomplish this season with. Every single person was integral to creating our family.

To our newest members, our first-years, you all make us so incredibly excited for the future of this program. When we look at you, you remind us how far we’ve come. We started just like you and can’t wait to see the people you become and watch you lead this program to an even better future than we can imagine. You committed to building relationships on this team and taught us how to be better teammates, leading through empathy.

To our second-years, you truly brought the joy of playing to this program. You raised the bar in discipline, and your love for the sport of volleyball is contagious. Each of your diverse perspectives and personalities taught us how to be better leaders through listening and making sure each voice was heard. When you joined this program, you reignited each of our loves for this sport. We can’t wait to watch each of your flames grow.

To our third-years, you are the core of our little family. We shared our first season with you, and you’ve grounded this team for the last three years. You started us on our leadership journey and have instilled confidence in us with your trust as we’ve grown up together. While you may not feel ready, we have full confidence in your ability to lead the team. You don’t even know how much the underclassmen look up to you and how much of a leader you already are. As we pass the baton onto you, we have a couple things we’ve learned. First, the person always comes before the player, and your worth is never determined by your performance on the court. Lead with empathy, and compassion will follow. Second, em- brace your own leadership style. The way each of you lead doesn’t have to be the same, and it won’t be the same. Everyone on the team brings something special, and it’s our differences that build our community. Lastly, change is a good thing. Over our four years, we’ve learned that, even though change is scary, good can always come from it. Two years ago, Stanny joined the program and transformed how each of us see the game of volleyball for the best. Without change, we could not have built the program we have today.

As our lives are about to change, we know we will always have a home here and can call OCVB our family, and we can’t thank you all enough for that.

Peace, love, volleyball.

For the first time, cross country had their very own Senior Night, organized by the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. In previous years, the cross country seniors were celebrated alongside track and field during one collective ceremony at the end of the year. This year, however, SAAC organized a ceremony to celebrate cross country on their own during the women’s soccer game against Hiram College. 

Fourth-year Margo Lee, who has been running track since she was five years old, expressed how personal this ceremony felt. 

“Definitely sad,” Lee said. “I have been playing at Oberlin for only two seasons, and I think that has made it especially personal. Wednesday was Senior Night, then we had our conference Saturday, which made me super aware going into Senior Night — like, I’m a senior and it’s my last one. But yeah, I’m feeling good.” 

Lee had the unique experience of being a transfer student-athlete, which has impacted her experience at Oberlin. When asked how her experience may have been different if she hadn’t joined cross country, she explained that her team served to ease the anxiety that came along with transferring. 

“I honestly can’t imagine my time as a transfer student at Oberlin without being on the cross country and track teams,” Lee said. “Transferring to a small school, especially halfway through an academic year, is such a scary thing to do, and I feel so grateful that I was greeted by a group of wonderful people who quickly became my closest friends.”  

Each senior expressed how different this year was compared to previous years playing their sport. Lee notes how this year she felt acutely aware of the fact that she is graduating in the spring.

“As a result, I am intentional about being present, definitely more so than in my previous year and a half at Oberlin,” Lee said. “I’m definitely emotional about having limited time to be a part of something so incredible as Oberlin cross country and track and field, so I try to soak up every moment, whether I’m in the middle of a tough workout, writing mantras on my teammates’ arms before a race, or walking with teammates from the locker room to [Stevenson Dining Hall] for dinner.” 

This past weekend, the cross country team participated in their first round of conference meets hosted at Denison College. Despite the meet being two hours away, they were greeted by 20 of their fellow track teammates who carpooled to cheer the team across the finish line. Lee described the comfort this brought her, making the away meet feel like home. 

“Our coach, Ray Appenheimer, often talks to us about the importance of making every meet feel like a home meet, and our team made sure that happened last weekend,” Lee said. “Throughout most of the race, I could hear my teammates cheering, and that energy gave me strength and pushed me forward. Perhaps most notably, they delivered a Yeo Baby cheer that I could hear for an entire mile.”

The cross country team is known for their exceptional spirit on the course. Lee highlighted how Oberlin was the only team who was covered in glitter and mantras they had written on each other in Sharpie. 

“I’ll write like ‘I’m strong,’ ‘I’m fearless,’ ‘I’m great,’ that kind of thing,” Lee said. “This weekend I wrote, ‘For the love of OCXC, OBLITERATE YOURSELF’ and I think that kind of thing lightens the mood. It’s like, I’m about to endure 20 more minutes of being drenched — but [I’m] having fun.”

Hunter Wilson, a fourth-year on the football team, emphasized hoWw rejuvenating his last season has been with new head coach John Pont. Wilson described the end to his football career as bittersweet.

“I would say that being with the guys for so long and growing such a strong bond with them has meant a lot for me,” Wilson said. “And it has really brightened my experience at Oberlin. But now that it’s coming to the end, knowing that I’m not going to be able to see them as much and interact with them and get to do all the things that I was doing like practice in the morning, lift, things like that — that’s gonna hurt a little bit, but obviously I really enjoyed my experience, and spending time with my family on Senior Night meant a lot for me.”

When asked how this year’s Senior Night differed from previous years, Wilson emphasized the impact that Coach Pont has made on the team’s camaraderie. The team won 37–35 on home turf against Concordia University Chicago for the first time in four years. 

“So this season, under our new head coach, Coach Pont, I felt a greater sense of faith and camaraderie amongst our team as opposed to previous seasons, when there was a lot more negativity in our program,” Wilson said. “Whereas this year, you know, when things have gotten difficult, we’ve all maintained positivity, and we also were able to get a big win in our second week of the year, and the season is not over yet. So, we still have two more opportunities. So, you know, obviously we’re moving in the right direction. There’s a lot of growth from last season just in terms of the faith that people have in our team. That just continues to build.” 

Wilson expressed how the recognition he received during the ceremony brought him immense satisfaction. 

“I felt recognized, especially for my contributions to the team,” Wilson said. “I really cherish the discipline that being a collegiate athlete taught me. It required me to create a schedule. It required me to be on time and attend everything that I had set in my schedule and give it my full effort and ability, which I feel like moving on into post undergrad and my life taught me a lot of lessons that I can continue to maintain.” 

Field hockey competed in their Senior Night game on Saturday, putting up a strong fight against Allegheny College, but ultimately losing 1–0. For fourth-years Abbie Patchen and Dee Pegues, the celebration evoked many heartfelt emotions. 

“I was feeling super reflective and sad that this was my last year playing field hockey,” Pegues said. “I’ve put so much work into the sport for so long that it feels weird that it’s over. But that moment on the field surrounded with the best team in the world, I felt nothing but pride and happiness. I am so glad I could spend my last game with them.”

Similarly, Patchen explained how nervous she was for the last game of her career. 

“I was more nervous for that game than I probably had been for any game in my career,” Patchen said. “There’s a lot more pressure when it’s the last game and all of our families were there but once we started warming up it all went away and we were all just able to have fun and enjoy our last time playing together.” 

A common Senior Night tradition is for all non-seniors to decorate the locker rooms for the graduating class prior to game day. Pegues expressed how not participating in the decorating was particularly moving. 

“I think the biggest difference was not decorating the locker room,” Pegues said. “I remember spending hectic late nights decorating the locker room for previous seniors. It felt so weird being on the other side of that experience. I know it seems small, but not decorating the locker room really stuck out to me.” 

When asked what they’d miss most about the season, both players emphasized how the time they spent with their teammates meant the most to them. 

“What I’ll miss most is getting to see them at the end of every day,” Patchen said. “Getting to laugh with them, just while we practice. Sometimes school can be really stressful. But practice and playing feel like it’s a time where you get to be outside, run around, and spend time with all of my best friends.” 

“I’m going to miss the team so much,” Pegues said. “Not just interacting with the team, but also playing with them, especially the seniors. The seniors and the team have been the one constant in my four years at Oberlin, and seeing us all improve over the years has been so special to see. I’m going to miss playing with them so much.”

“We’re running our best when it matters most,” Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Coach Ray Appenheimer wrote in an email to the Review. “It’s a testament to how hard they have trained and how well the team has taken care of themselves throughout the semester.”

The women’s team finished the competition with 99 points. Third-year Sage Reddish led the Yeowomen and finished in 23 minutes and 13.4 seconds, earning them second-team all-conference honors. Fourth-year Eliza Medearis and third-year Camila Ciembroniewicz both earned third-team honors, while fourth-year Margo Lee, second-year Amber Borofsky, first-year Sophie Mateja, and third-year Caleigh Lyons all made it into the top 50.

The men’s team finished the competition with 62 points. The team’s best performances came from third-years Walter Moak and Jonah Barber, who ran the 8K in 26:12.2 and 26:18.7 respectively, earning the pair first-team all-conference honors. Third-year Johnny Ragsdale was not far behind and earned third-team all-conference honors with a time of 26:42:5. 

“We couldn’t have asked for a more positive start, to be honest!” Ragsdale wrote in an email to the Review. “I think we all ran great individually, but more importantly we worked very well as a team on a difficult course. That’s what will help us most at regionals!”

Appenheimer was quick to credit the runners who were highlights for the team this past weekend.

“So many of the runners stepped up today,” Appenheimer wrote. “Up front Walter, Jonah, Sage, and Eliza did a great job leading. For both Camila and Johnny, it was their first time getting all-conference honors in cross country. Danny, Margo, and Aiden were also close and ran great for the team. It was a total team effort.”

Ragsdale echoed Appenheimer’s statements and was quick to highlight how highly each runner placed in the race. 

“It just shows the strength in depth we have on this team!” Ragsdale wrote. “Cross country isn’t about who has the fastest runner, but the fastest team. For both the men’s and women’s teams, that’s the case!”

The positive note set the team in a great position for their final two events, one of them being the NCAA regional championships.

“We are all super excited for regionals,” Ragsdale wrote. “It’s going to be a fast course and the feeling around the whole team is we are so amped to toe the line together! If we treat regionals like we’ve treated every workout and every other race this season, we are a dangerous team.”

“It feels great,” fourth-year Ruby Schreiber said. “We haven’t had a lot of home games this year, so it was nice to see some success on our turf and having family and friends coming out to support in the lead up to the end of the season.” 

Transylvania dominated possession in the first quarter of the game but never managed to get past the Oberlin defense. In the second quarter, Transylvania continued to control possession, but Oberlin’s second-year goalkeeper Janny McCormick made three saves to keep the game level. The third quarter brought more action as the Yeowomen were more involved in the attack, getting a few shots into the area and some corner shots. Finally, in the fourth quarter, the team was able to get the draw to force the game into overtime to try and get the win there.

“It was definitely mentally tough; staying in the game for a full 60 minute regulation and 20 minute OT had its challenges.” Schreiber said. “By the time shootouts rolled around and the scoreboard could finally match the success we were seeing on the field, we were all feeling happy and relieved.”

The first shot of the penalty shootout resulted in the game-winning penalty scored by fourth-year Abbie Patchen, who shot the ball into the right side of the cage. 

“Everyone worked hard for 80 minutes to put me in a position to score the shootout.” Patchen said. “Luckily, our team has a lot of experience taking games to overtime and shootouts, so I have been in that position many times before. It is thrilling and such a relief to score when it is your turn to go 1 vs. 1 with the goalie.”

Second-year Elly Scheer spoke about how she played a critical role in the game as the shot leader for the team with two shots.

“Being the shot leader for this game is so exciting,” Scheer said. “As a defender, I don’t get a lot of chances to be able to take shots, and when I did get the chance to take the ball on the offensive side of the field, I tried my best to work as hard as I could for our team.” Scheer said. “Regardless of whether it was myself or another teammate, having shots on goal is always an impressive feat, and I am so proud of my entire team no matter what the statistics say.”

The team’s final game of the season will also be their Senior Day, which will celebrate the five seniors on the team.

“I definitely have mixed feelings about senior day,” Schreiber said. “While I’m excited to play with the team for one last time and celebrate the four other seniors and the hard work we have put in, I will be sad that my Oberlin field hockey career will come to a close. It’s been such an amazing four years with the team, and I will miss them dearly.”

The final field hockey game of the regular season will be against Allegheny College this Saturday at 4 p.m. on Bailey Field.

When asked how it felt to be nearing the end of their careers, soccer player Brynn Adams, volleyball player Lauren Sands, and soccer player Nasim Amer all described it as “bittersweet.”

“It’s definitely bittersweet,” Adams said. “I think that’s what every senior would’ve said. I mean, Oberlin soccer is the most special team that I have ever been a part of, and I’ve been very lucky to have a great experience with great coaches and great people.”

Sands emphasized the commitment it takes to be a collegiate athlete and how strange it feels for it to be coming to a close.

“I have been playing volleyball for about half my life, so it has been a really big part of my life,” Sands said. “And the fact that it’s coming to an end is sad, but I’m feeling good about it, ready to move on,” Sands said.

Amer highlighted that his first season on the team was a COVID-19 season, so he has had the same amount of playing time as all of the juniors on the team. Nonetheless, he relishes the time that he has spent competing as a Yeoman.

“I think the time that I’ve been here was very enjoyable, even though over the years our record wasn’t the best, or we maybe didn’t get as many wins as we hoped,” Amer said. “It’s a great group of guys and I enjoyed playing with them, every practice and every game.”

The seniors had been a part of Senior Nights in the past, but always as underclassmen. All three athletes mentioned how meaningful it was to be supported and celebrated by their teammates and the student body, but for Amer, his Senior Night was extra special.

“That game, that was the first game my parents ever came to watch me play live at Oberlin, so for me, I was just trying my best to have a good game,” Amer said. “You know, ultimately I just wanted to get the win but maybe score a goal for them. I ended up scoring and we didn’t win the game, but I scored and it was nice. When your parents are watching, you may play a bit harder.”

Although he wishes that the team still had a chance to compete in the North Coast Athletic Conference Championship, Amer’s individual career ended on an incredibly high note — winning the NCAC Athlete of the Week Award.

“That was amazing,” Amer said. “I was talking to my mom the other day, saying ‘It sucks not having a freshman season but it kinda feels like everything is wrapping up in a really nice way.’ It’s nice to win the individual achievement but all the guys on the team, they helped me with that.”

Sands admitted that her Senior Night felt completely different to the others that she has been a part of and that she was grateful for the support of her friends and teammates.

“The fact that everyone was there celebrating me and my teammates in my class, all of our accomplishments, it was very meaningful and emotional — definitely more emotional than my other senior nights,” Sands said. “[The emotions] definitely were with me when I stepped on the court, especially because I had my family there watching, it just felt like a really big moment.”

Adams acknowledged that her Senior Night was a bit of an out-of-body experience, since it truly signaled that her time as a Yeowoman was quickly coming to a close.

“It was surreal, it kinda felt fake,” Adams said. “It was weird until the moment I realized they were going to be calling my name and be talking about me. We have our locker room decorated every Senior Night and then I realized my locker would be decorated and so when I walked in there I was like, ‘Oh crap, it’s about me and it’s real.’”

The women’s soccer team has a motto that represents what their team stands for and the bonds that have been formed and strengthened within the team. Adams was happy to use the same motto as a way to sum up her career at Oberlin.

“We say this saying on our team, we say, ‘OC Love’ all the time,” Adams said. “We’ve defined the letters, we’ve picked words to define the ‘L-O-V-E’ that we use as our core values as a team. But we always say ‘OC Love,’ we’ll sign things ‘OC Love,’ and I think that’s a good definition of my career. Just OC Love.”

This meet will not be the first time that track and field athletes have hit the road to lend support to the cross country team. Because most cross country athletes are also part of the track and field team in the spring, the two teams are very closely tied. According to Reese Hyatt, a third-year sprinter on the track team, athletes who compete exclusively in track frequently take time out of their weekends to travel to cross country meets to support their teammates. 

“If there is a meet that is close enough, we try to gather some track folks to go and watch,” Hyatt said. “I try to travel to support as much as possible.”

Kambi Obioha, another third-year sprinter on the track team, added that attending cross country meets can be important for team spirit. 

“We go to cross country meets to just run around and support and just to get the whole team hyped for competition,” Obioha said. 

Obioha also mentioned that, when the cross country team competed in Granville earlier in the season, he was able to attend. 

“It was very competitive, and they’ll be doing the same race,” Obioha said. “I’m excited to come out and support again.”

Amber Borofsky, a second-year on the cross country and track and field teams, said that cross country athletes appreciate the support and energy that the track athletes bring.

“I love being able to hear our Oberlin cheers, like the ‘Yeo Baby,’” Borofsky said. “It’s also really exciting when you’re looking around and seeing teammates or other people from Oberlin to know that you have that broad support.” 

While the two teams are separated during the fall, athletes mentioned that, when cross country athletes compete alongside track and field in the spring, the separation doesn’t affect them or the team’s chemistry. 

“I think that the track and cross country team could be described as a big family,” Hyatt said. “Towards the beginning of the year, it may feel a bit separated or disconnected due to us practicing and meeting separately. … Once we join together for indoor season, the team becomes much more connected and feels a lot more like a family.” 

Obioha mentioned that, despite the differences in their individual events, the athletes who compete exclusively on the cross country or track and field teams never waver in their support for one another. 

“We operate like one big family, so regardless of whether somebody runs longer than another person or not, or we’re not in the same events, we stick together as one unit,” Obioha said. “We mainly do it for the purpose of supporting each others’ goals and getting them through challenges together.” 

According to Borofsky, part of the unity that the teams feel is due to the continued support of the cross country team from the track and field athletes who don’t compete in the fall.

“We come together on track and bring the energy for each other, and likewise, they bring the energy for us,” Borofsky said. 

Hyatt added that supporting the cross country team in the fall is essential for creating a healthy team environment once the two teams merge together in the spring. 

“I think it’s really important to have a good relationship with the cross country team because, at the end of the day, we are all the same team,” Hyatt said. “Making good connections with the team in the beginning of the year will ensure success towards the end of the year once we are all competing together and cheering each other on.” 

Obioha echoed the sentiment and added that the cross country athletes also add a lot of energy and support to the track team during the spring season. 

“Regardless of whether you’re alone or not in your event, you’re always going to have people from the cross country team, or really good friends who are in your same events, come out and support you,” Obioha said. “You’re never alone when it comes to competing.”

The teams have carried their momentum into the beginning of this season. The Yeowomen placed second in two of their four meets, and the Yeomen have similarly finished in the top third in half their meets. 

The Yeowomen are led by the duo of fourth-year Eliza Medearis and third-year Sage Reddish, who have routinely placed in the top 10 this season. Last weekend, they finished seven seconds apart from each other, earning sixth and seventh, respectively. Medearis credited Reddish for their combined accomplishments.

“For me personally, Sage is my running buddy, ride or die,” Medearis said. “And I feel like everyone on the team has at least one person, if not three or four people, that have worked out together. Someone you can just look for in a race. That’s so valuable. That was definitely how our men’s team won [the] conference last year, by just being together and looking out for each other.”

The Yeomen ran well last weekend, placing all five of their runners in the top 45. Third-year Johnny Ragsdale, who rounded out Oberlin’s top five, was appreciative of how the team works together to push each other through pain and discomfort. He acknowledged  the team’s mental toughness as one of their strong suits.

“I think we run really well together when in a lot of pain,” Ragsdale said. “On cross country courses, you get in a lot of pain, and you gotta stay tough, you gotta deal with that. And I think that this group has really grown together over the past couple years, how we’re able to work together and build together.”

Head Coach Ray Appenheimer was quick to focus on the community the cross country team has built and the aura surrounding the team.

“So much of what we do, and get so much out of is extracting as much joy and connection out of each day,” Appenheimer wrote in an email to the Review. “This team is such a positive community that supports one another at practice, at races, and throughout their lives. There is such a positive energy around this group that success is all but assured.”

Medearis echoed Appenheimer’s statement and emphasized the importance of balance on the team.

“Leading up to the meet [last weekend], we just had spent the whole day together, we were goofing off, spending time with each other, and having fun,” Medearis said. “And I think that really leads to strong performance. We’re competitive, but we know how to have fun with it. Everyone is genuinely happy to be there and go out and do our best.”

The NCAC Championships are in under four weeks and both teams are looking forward to the competition. However, runners and coaches alike signified the importance of enjoying the journey and not thinking too much about the race.

“We are getting closer to the championship portion of the season,” Appenheimer wrote. “We want to stay healthy, stay positive, stay focused, and take care of ourselves and one another. We’ve found that always being focused on the process ends up yielding the best results.”

Medearis had a similar view. She expressed excitement about the championship race but was wary to look too far ahead.

“Winning [the] conference would be huge,” she said. “A conference second place would also be huge, but we have to shoot for the moon. We definitely want to be the winners. But we also just want to have fun. I feel like that’s the main goal for me and the entire team, … just finishing out [the season] really, really strong and happy.”

Cross country will continue their season next Saturday, Oct. 14, at the SUNY Geneseo Mike Woods Invitational in Geneseo, NY.

Both Smith and Cornwell played football growing up, despite the lack of women’s teams available to them. 

“Starting in middle school, I told everyone I could how much I loved football and wanted to play,” Smith wrote in an email to the Review. “Every time I did, everyone would give me a weird look or shoot down the idea. My parents were passively supportive … no one in our family had ever played football …  At first, I was just testing myself — was I strong enough to do it? And then I wanted to be good.” 

Smith ended up becoming the first woman to ever achieve a varsity letter in football at her high school. In college, she played with the Iowa Courage, a women’s club team. She eventually moved to Atlanta where she played with the Atlanta Xplosion for five years as part of the Independent Women’s Football Team, during which she collected two national championships. In 2010, Smith was called up for the very first United States National Women’s Tackle team. There, she played center and earned second-team All-World All-Star accolades during their gold-medal performance at the first-ever International Federation of American Football Women’s World Championship. 

Cornwell also played football, although as she got older and her fellow players got larger, she realized her size would make it difficult for her to continue in the sport. 

“As everyone started getting really big, and I was 5’4’’ and going against a 6’2’’ [defensive back], that wasn’t fun anymore,” Cornwell said. “But coaching was a way for me to stay in the game because I loved how it pushed me mentally and physically.” 

Cornwell began coaching in high school and continued through college. In 2022, she was selected for the NFL Bill Walsh Diversity Fellowship, where she was able to work with the Tennessee Titans and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. She was also selected for the NFL International Player Pathway Program where she coached four international players, two of whom were selected to NFL teams for the 2023 season. 

Cornwell and Smith have both managed to have successful careers in professional football, even though it is still a largely male-dominated field. In the 2022–23 NFL season, there were 15 female coaches out of the roughly 400 total NFL coaches, which is the highest number achieved in the league for any season. In general, the number of female coaches has been on the rise in the NFL, partly in response to the League’s diversity initiatives, such as the Bill Walsh Diversity Fellowships and initiatives requiring teams to have a woman or a member of an ethnic or racial minority on their offensive coaching staff.

Smith noted that the increase in opportunities for women in professional coaching roles has been impactful. 

“Over my lifetime, I went from being one of the few girls to play high school football to seeing girls represented in Super Bowl Commercials to working at a school where there are two female position coaches,” Smith wrote. “Every woman in those roles has continued the legacy required when you are the first to accomplish a milestone: not to be the last. I love that each woman has a different story of making their own path.”

Cornwell also mentioned the benefits of the NFL’s diversity initiatives. 

“I think the accelerator programs are awesome,” Cornwell said, in reference to programs from the NFL which bring together existing head coaches and new coaches of marginalized identities. “It’s doing a good job getting people who are qualified and who are a minority in an area where they can be seen, and it’s just continuing the whole mindset of, ‘Don’t hire them because they’re a minority. Hire them because they are also qualified.’” 

Both Cornwell and Smith agreed that the new opportunities which allowed them to build their careers and end up coaching at a college level exceeded what they had ever imagined was possible at a young age. 

“It was once unusual or uncommon for girls and women to be involved in football — that has changed dramatically,” Smith wrote. “Becoming a college football coach was beyond any dream I had growing up, but I love that it can be for girls now.” 

Despite the opportunities and success she’s had, however, Cornwell also noted that her gender, particularly in combination with her age, caused some people to initially write her off. 

“There’s always some hesitancy from some coaches because I’m so young. I’m 22, and I’m a female, so they’re always like, ‘Why are you doing an NFL internship?’” Cornwell said. “That part is hard, but how I overcome it is I know my stuff. I’m on my game. I impress people by my work ethic and my knowledge of the game, especially for my age.” 

Cornwell also noted that despite some of the initial hesitancy, once people and players started to work with her, they realized that her gender doesn’t impact her ability to coach. 

“Good leadership and great leadership qualities don’t really differ by gender,” Cornwell said. “I think at the end of the day, almost every single player that I’ve ever worked with, … if they did have any worry about having a girl coach them, at the end of the day, I’ve realized as long as you’re getting them better and you know what you’re talking about and you show up and you show that you care, they do not care that they’re being coached by a female. They just care that they have a good coach.” 

Smith agreed, mentioning that the most important aspect of coaching is building relationships with the players. 

“I was some of my players’ first female coach,” Smith wrote. “I take my role seriously to first make sure they know I care about them as people … and next, to make them as prepared as I can for anything they might encounter.”

Growing up in San Diego, Sweet’s first love was basketball. She did not start playing volleyball until sixth grade, when she joined a recreational team, and didn’t join her first club team for two more years. 

“I started club [volleyball] in eighth grade,” Sweet said. “I was not good. I was actually terrible. I was so bad in my first tournament my coach told the setter not to set me anymore. They just put me up there to block. I was just a big girl on the team.” 

The same coach, Coach Liz, became one of Sweet’s biggest mentors.

“She was willing to work with me and saw the potential in me,” Sweet said. “I would go in for individuals and privates pretty much every weekend. I would stay after, and we would drill it over and over and over. I went to every workout she held, getting me to hit how she wanted me to hit and getting me to block how she wanted me to. I was super dedicated that year. I always thank her for seeing the potential in me and not just seeing me as another ‘tall girl.’”

Now, over six years later, rather than avoiding setting her, the team does everything they can to get her the ball for what she calls the best feeling in volleyball: a hard overpass. It’s tied for first with a stuff block.

The women’s volleyball team has jumped to a 10–3 start this year. Sweet partially credits their success to dance parties. If you do not see the team on time for warmups at home games, do not worry. They are getting down to Sweet’s favorite artist, Childish Gambino, or Beyonce’s “Energy.” 

“Before games, we’re in the locker room dancing,” Sweet said. “We are literally having a dance party. No skills work, no game talk, nothing. We turn on some good music and dance there.”

The tradition started this year in their first tournament, when Sweet shared AirPods with fourth-year setter Taylor Gwynne. 

“We were dancing to music because we wanted to get warm,” Sweet said. “We didn’t want to do another warmup. We killed it in that game. After that, we thought, ‘Let’s just have a dance party before every game.’ That’s why we went on that nine-game winning streak.” 

Sweet also mentioned that the team’s only three losses this season came when they did not have a pregame dance party. 

When Sweet joined the team as a first-year, she was comforted by the racial diversity of the team and a team culture that celebrates diversity. Today, nearly half of the team are women of color.

“When I came in, the team was almost 50 percent Black, which is almost unheard of for volleyball; that never happens,” Sweet said. “It was really fun to come into a team where I could share my culture and [be around] people who can share my experiences, and we can talk about those things.”

The success and atmosphere the team created this season can, in part, be accredited to hardships the program faced last year. Last year, in a non-conference away game, the opposing team’s student section yelled racial slurs at one of Sweet’s teammates. 

“It was a really hard thing for all of us to go through,” Sweet said. “But it made us stronger, coming together and being able to stand up against something like that and supporting each other through that. This year, we were asked to play them again, and the whole team stood together and said, no, we’re not going to give them the privilege of playing us because we were wronged by the culture of that school. After that talk, we had one of the best practices we’ve had all season. It showed the unity and love that we have within the team. People know they are going to have to fight for things  they maybe never had to think about before, but that mindset really brings us together.” 

The team’s connection stems deeper than volleyball. Their relationship is rooted in perseverance and being there for one another. 

“We sent a message to any other team that plays us: we’re not going to take you saying anything to any of our teammates,” Sweet said. “Any other team in our conference and all across DIII, you have the power to make these decisions. We have a responsibility to take care of our POC teammates and to make sure that we all come together in support of one another.”