Come Homecoming, the same questions abound year after year around campus. "Why do we always lose on Homecoming?" we in the sports department are always asked. And when we answer, "Because we always play Williams or Amherst," the response is almost always:
"Why don't we just play a team that sucks so we can beat them?"
Everyone seems to think that would be fun. A football victory would prevent putting a damper on the hoopla surrounding Homecoming. Bring in a Bowdoin or a Bates so we can win and feel a lot better about ourselves. The alumni can watch a victory, and can have something amusing to watch other than TUPD checking ID's at tailgaters village.
But would that really make a difference? It probably wouldn't to either the football team or the fans. Football has to play Williams regardless, so when it happens doesn't so much matter as how the team plans to avoid the traditional drubbing. And to expect football players to provide the Homecoming happiness is not fair to them or the other athletes working their asses off: see Saturday's women's soccer game, which deserves the greater part of the attention this year.
The soccer team finished with its best regular season record ever, has outscored opponents 29-12 this season, and has a goalkeeper, Randee McArdle, who just tied the school record for career shutouts. The football team is 2-3, starts an offense comprised of newcomers who are not yet a part of the Homecoming tradition, and completed three passes on Saturday. It's the good teams that should be expected to win on Homecoming, not the young, inexperienced teams. This year, the good team - women's soccer - won, and another pretty good team ? men's soccer - was just as impressive in nearly beating the best team in the nation. As a matter of fact, even though men's soccer lost, the fact that the team led Williams for most of the game has to be more satisfying than a 7-0 blowout of some nobody team.
And Tufts is not Boston College, where football and tailgating are the tradition. We do not have a team which singlehandedly deserves all the Homecoming attention. We should spread the attention, not only on Homecoming, but all year long, because not one team is good enough on an annual basis to deserve more fan support than any other. We're not a Division I school known for its athletics, we're a D-III school with some pretty impressive sports accomplishments each year, accomplishments that tend to change with the graduation of some talented seniors.
The football team was 7-1 two years ago (of course, its only loss came to Williams), and these days it's not turning any heads. The basketball teams are lot better certain years than others, too. Tufts does not have enough of a fan base to support every one of our athletic teams ? people simply don't come out to games enough. But what support we do get should go to a deserving team, and deserving teams at this school tend to fluctuate. So don't ask why football loses to Williams on Homecoming. Ask why football loses to Williams at all, and then turn your attention to a team that did better off. Celebrate what accomplishments this school does rack up, and do it as impartially as possible.
Come to think of it, is football really the focus of Homecoming anyway? Plenty of alumni didn't even leave tailgaters' village, as it was too funny to watch police busting balls and pissing people off. Plenty of alumni did watch the soccer games. And plenty of alumni just want to see their old friends, because they probably didn't go to a football game in their four years at Tufts anyway. "Homecoming is about seeing people you haven't seen in a while," a recent alumnus said. "The game just gives you an event to attend."
The alumni also added: "The only time I ever bailed out on football for one of the soccer teams were when the soccer teams were doing well and had postseason hopes."
Alumni, if they are even worried about how sports teams are doing, are willing to spread the wealth it seems. That's not at all to say that football is not important. Certainly more students tend to flock to Zimman Field for football or to Cousens for basketball games then other sports. Football and basketball are alluring venues that will inevitably draw more fans, but at a school where no team is expected to win year in and year out, football and basketball should not by any means be the sports expected to make us happy. There was plenty to be happy about this past weekend: we beat Williams in two of four games, and nearly in another. We go to Tufts, so that's good. Very good.
Athletic Director Bill Gehling says things are going to change next year. Bowdoin's going to come in, he hopes. Bowdoin is the last team we played on Homecoming that was not Williams or Amherst. This was in 1990; we went undefeated, winning three and tying one. I'm sure it was very nice. But it also probably took away from Homecoming to beat up on a poor opponent, because it didn't provide a forum in which the better teams at Tufts were showcased. Instead, everyone won, everyone looked nice and all that, but it was not very fulfilling.
It's fine that we bring in Bowdoin next year. We don't have a rival (Williams may be our rival, but we are certainly not theirs), so mixing things up could be good. But bring Williams back sometimes, bring Amherst back, let us play the good teams, because some of our teams are good as well.
Those are the teams we should be celebrating, instead of complaining about others.
