Junior Annie Ross is back in uniform, but with some adjustments - she's traded her goalie gloves in for a bigger one, replaced her shin guards with stirrups, and swapped her vantage point between the posts for one in centerfield.
As the goalie for the women's soccer team and the starting centerfielder for the softball team, Ross is one of many multi-sport athletes at Tufts for whom the spring season brings a new sport, a new position, and a new set of teammates.
Balancing an off-season training regimen with the hectic schedule of an in-season athlete isn't always easy.
"[My schedules] definitely conflict, but both my teams and the two coaches are very understanding," Ross said. "They know that when I'm in soccer season, I'm just doing soccer stuff and when spring comes around, I just focus on softball. It's hard missing off-season training and being with the team, but they understand that whatever season I'm in, that takes precedence."
Most Tufts athletes played several sports in high school, as their athleticism translated across the board. For some, choosing a single sport to continue at the collegiate level just didn't cut it.
"I was recruited for softball and was just going to play softball, but I had played a sport all three seasons in high school, and I wanted to be part of a team my first semester here," Ross said. "So I called [coach] Martha [Whiting] and asked for a workout regimen and I showed up the first day."
Sophomore Derek Engelking also found he wasn't ready to focus on just one sport. Originally recruited as a track runner, Engelking joined the soccer team in the fall instead without planning on continuing with track.
"I thought track would be too much, but when winter came around I talked to [track coach] Ethan Barron and decided it was really something I wanted to do," he said. "It does require a lot of sacrifice, but it's definitely worth it."
Whiting, who has several players on her team pulling double-duty, supports the flexibility of programs that allow student-athletes to play multiple sports.
"We expect them to be focused on soccer in the fall, and I think that's their priority then, too," Whiting said. "But when my players are in season for a spring sport, I tell them to focus on the sport that they're in. Our players will be lifting and playing pickup, but that's not their concern; their focus is on the sport that they're playing right now."
Multi-sport athletes are largely a Div. III trend, as the pressures of big-name athletic programs and the possibility of professional careers usually force Div. I athletes to choose a single sport. The restrictions established by Div. III and tightened by the NESCAC - shorter playing seasons, later start dates and limits on out-of-season competition - allow Tufts athletes the opportunity to play multiple, and even back-to-back, sports.
This more flexible athletic philosophy has attracted many student-athletes looking for an athletic career incorporated into a broader collegiate experience.
"[Div. III schools] don't own you; they understand that academics come first," Ross said. "I looked at some D-I schools, and most athletes here could play at a bad D-I school, but here we get more playing time, have more fun and get a good education."
Athletic Director Bill Gehling, a multi-sport high school athlete who extended his athletic career on the soccer team at Tufts, sees this flexibility as a unique feature and often a recruiting draw of Tufts' athletics programs.
"I'm very much in favor of multi-sports athletes," Gehling said. "Allowing someone to compete in multiple sports is an advantage that Division III schools have, and we can shoot ourselves in the foot if we discourage that."
Gehling, however, noted that the prevalence of multi-sport athletes at Tufts is declining, and attributes this to some shifts in the demands placed on out-of-season athletes.
"Sports have become year-round, even at the youth level, so athletes are starting to specialize at a young age," Gehling said. "Even at Tufts, out-of-season training has become a bigger part of the athletic experience. It can't be required [because of Div. III regulations], but more and more students do participate, which may have some impact on students playing more than one sport."
But to Tufts multi-sport athletes, it's all part of the game.
"We joke that there's one week between seasons; that's our off-season," said senior cross country and track runner Matt Lacey. "Practice is just built into what I consider every day, so I don't even think about it. I love it - I'm in the zone all the time."
