In print | Published October 1, 2009

I was deeply troubled by Andrew Greenblatt’s column, “Division III athletes work hard — for no money,” published on Sept. 24. As a prelude to the main body of the argument, the author cited how sickened he was by the idea that “Swarthmore doesn’t speak for itself the way Brown does, and that [his] Ivy League friends get more respect and attention, even though Swarthmore is just as selective and just as challenging as any of those schools.” In my opinion, motives concerned with the selectivity of the institution are rooted in vainglory and pretension. If this is the central basis of your college decision then there may be other arrangements in your life you might want to rethink as well.

But I’d like to address the larger issue I had with this article: that there is greater investment in Division I which pushes athletes to train more rigorously and endure more pain, which results in a superior team chemistry when compared with Division III athletes. As a transfer student, I commonly find that I often have greater insight into the lives of our non-Swattie peers than students who have matriculated into Swarthmore as freshmen, merely because I have lived the life of a non-Swattie. However, because of my previous athletic experience (I played Division I lacrosse for the University of Vermont), I confidently consider myself the resident expert on the differences between these two NCAA classes.

So, the article correctly states that there is a greater monetary investment into the careers of Division I athletes. Yet what the author fails to characterize are the various non-monetary investments that Division III athletes receive. In my experience, the coaches of Swarthmore College are far more invested in their athletes and teams than their compensations might lead us to believe. I know that the Swarthmore’s men’s lacrosse coach often works late into the night reviewing game films and strategy, going above and beyond what is expected of him. Not to mention the numerous assistant coaches who give hours out of their lives each week to simply volunteer and be part of our athletic programs. How much harder would you run if you knew your coaches were enduring grueling hours for the beauty and purity of sport and the general interest in your success?

But with regard to Division III athletics, it’s not just the coaches who are at practice in the unbearable heat or frozen rain for the pure love of the game: the athletes themselves are the ones who we should truly admire. The sacrifices athletes at Swarthmore endure are a testament to their commitment to the pristine, and therefore heavily romanticized, Athenian perception of sport.

Nobody at Swarthmore is playing for the money or even the droves of fans, for that matter. In fact, most athletes tolerate subpar facilities, field and court scheduling conflicts, along with social and academic penalties. The real question is, why play at all? The answer lies somewhere in the intrinsic value Swat athletes place on the physical perfection of the human body, the mind’s ability to tolerate physical pain, the innate drive for competition and the feeling you get when overcoming a struggle. And it is some combination of these factors which binds Division III athletes, enables them to have incredible team chemistry, and attain a level of awareness for their sports that Division I athletes are not given the “luxury” of having.

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