Without athletic scholarships, under-the-table wads of bills, free plane rides, or extra-friendly strippers, Tufts' Class of 2008 is ready to take their place as the latest batch of Jumbos to don the brown and blue.
As for what kind of roles these new athletes will play on their respective teams and how they will adjust to life as a Div. III collegiate student-athlete, the answers will begin to come today, after matriculation and fall practices begin.
Many first-year athletes will find themselves on the low end of the totem pole until they build strength and get used to their coaches' respective systems.
"Here's the way I explain it to guys when I recruit them," football coach Bill Samko said. "I say, 'we have guys who are 22 and shaved seven times this week. You haven't shaved seven times this year.' Everyone's different, so I never say never. But why should a guy at 18 be as developed as a guy who's 22 and spent three years in our weight room?"
Baseball coach John Casey echoed the importance of strength training during the freshman year.
"From a physical standpoint we can get them in the weight room for the whole school year before they even play," Casey said. "Some people can become different players after six or seven months of lifting."
But while baseball season occurs in the spring, the fall sports have to work with freshmen that are unfamiliar with Tufts as a whole, let alone the practices of sports teams.
"I think it's harder in the fall sports because everything's new," Samko said. "New place, new classes, new people; everything's different. That's hard. Our preseason is right in the middle of orientation, so they're running around doing all that stuff."
Women's Soccer coach Martha Whiting, while admitting that orientation is a tough time, thinks sports play a positive role in helping athletes adjust to campus.
"It's a great way to instantly meet 20 or 25 girls who you can bond with and you have a shared interest with," Whiting said. "And it's a nice support group. You're out there in tryouts going through the same thing with everyone. When everything else is new, soccer is the one constant that you have in your life, so it's comforting to just get out on the field and play."
Still, in terms of actual playing time, it takes most freshmen time to adjust to the faster speed of the collegiate game, where players are bigger, faster, stronger, and smarter.
"Some players will come in and have an impact right away, but typically the freshmen are there to make the rest of the team
better, and also to make themselves better for the future," Whiting said. "They don't typically start right away."
In football, the further you are from the line, the better chance you have of seeing immediate playing time. Graduated wide receiver Mark Tilki received playing time his first year, while ex-Jumbo Adam Collette played sparingly as a rookie before morphing into an All-American lineman his senior year.
Men's Cross Country and Track and Field coach Connie Putnam stressed that a different frame of mind is necessary for collegiate athletics.
"Most of the athletes we get were the best athlete on their high school teams," Putnam said. "And then when they get here, they're just one of several, and it's hard to compete against mature juniors and seniors."
"In high school you make a few plays and you get a few hits and you're a star," junior shortstop Greg Chertok said. "It's different in college; it's so much more intense."
And while Jumbo athletes may not have the talent of Division-I studs, that doesn't mean they don't work hard.
"I have friends that play at the University of Pennsylvania who marvel at the physical conditioning and practice schedules we have," junior pitcher Erik Johansen said. "The main difference between D-I and D-III is with the travel and the level of play, generally. Our program is so regimented that without an intense level of commitment you just would never be able to maintain your spot on the team."
Making time for the commitment collegiate athletics demand, however, can be difficult with the rigorous academic schedules freshmen must adjust to over their first few semesters.
"We definitely understand that it can be tough academically at first," Casey said. "That's why we're conservative with the freshmen; we want them to have a career."
"You feel more pressure than a regular student because of the time commitment that being an NCAA athlete requires," Johansen said. "But at the same time, the experience of being a varsity collegiate athlete prepares you for that pressure extremely well. So it is possible that I actually feel less pressure than a non-athlete because the pressure affects me less."
Since the lack of athletic scholarships prevents Tufts coaches from attracting the top talent in the country, they look for a blend of talent and dedication.
"What we look for is a talented athlete, a bright athlete," Putnam said. "We're a blue collar team and we're proud of the fact that everyone on the team has to work hard for their success."
"We want kids with good games, good work ethics, and good attitudes," Samko said.
But while Tufts coaches do recruit, there's always the opportunity for walk-ons to make the team. Chertok came to Tufts unrecruited and uncertain if he would even play. He wrote the coach an e-mail, came to a preliminary meeting, played fall ball, and made JV freshman year. Last year, he started at shortstop on the varsity.
