Women for All Seasons

Four teams, two captains.

Starting this season, two remarkable seniors will undertake a task rarely performed in intercollegiate sports these days. Chris Gates (soccer and lacrosse) and Betsy Aldrich (golf and ice hockey) will captain two different teams in the same year.

With the exception of the track and crosscountry teams, most intercollegiate sports do not share leaders. Given the demands on students' time, the responsibility of captain seldom falls to the same person in two different sports. But that is not the only extraordinary thing about these two women.

Chris Gates, having captained soccer and lacrosse in high school, wasted no time proving herself to be an impact athlete at Dartmouth. As a freshman forward on the women's soccer team, she set the school record for most goals in a game (four) against Columbia. She finished that year with a team-high nine goals and three assists and a spot on the all-Ivy second team—all before her first set of final exams.

Gates has led the team in scoring the past two years and has been a first team all-Ivy selection both times. With three more goals, she will own the Dartmouth career scoring record; she already holds the career record for points with 69. "Any time she's near the ball she's a threat," women's soccer coach B.J. O'Hara said. "She's one of the most dangerous strikers in New England."

Praise for Gates doesn't end with her fall sport. Women's lacrosse coach Josie Harper sees her as an intelligent competitor. "She has an intense, logical style of play in which she'll slow the team down, vocally lead with directions and yet still lead by her example," Harper said. Gates's freshman season in lacrosse is the kind of example all pea-green athletes hope to emulate. In a contest against Harvard, she came off the bench and threw in the game-winning goal that beat the Crimson and gave the Green its first Ivy title.

For Gates, athletics transcends the competition; when asked her favorite memory of Dartmouth sports, she has trouble deciding between the Harvard goal — and a birthday party. "We were on the road at Cornell playing soccer my freshman year, and the team woke me up singing at seven A.M. with a birthday cake," Gates recalled. "That made me think I was really going to like it here."

of a surprise. "I didn't expect to be lax captain," Gates said, "but I think I can take what I learn as soccer captain and use it for lacrosse." Her competitive nature will soon be set loose in the legal world; the government major plans to attend law school "after a year as a Colorado ski bum."

Although Betsy Aidrich played soccer with Gates in their freshman fall term, her true calling came during the winter when she laced up her skates and played in all 19 games for the ice hockey team. She hasn't missed a game since. Last year, she racked up 11 goals and 18 assists, with three power-play goals. "She's been a first-line player the last two years, and yet I don't think she's reached her fall potential," women's hockey coach George Crowe said. "She keeps improving every year."

Though Aldrich captained three teams in prep school (tennis, hockey and lacrosse), she decided to take her freshman spring term off from intercollegiate sports and enrolled in a golf class. Her break from the Ivy sports circuit didn't last, however. Women's golf Coach Deb Reinders soon got a phone call from the instructor. "He told me, 'You've got to come and look at her,"' the coach recalls. '"She has an incredible natural swing.'" The next weekend Reinders put the novice golfer in the New England Championship where she shot a 95 and a 106. "It was a once in a lifetime discov ery for me," said Reinders. "Betsy is a phenomenon. Not only can she shoot in the eighties after playing only two years but she can excel in two different types of sports. Golf is a very mental game; you have to compete with your own mind, all alone. Hockey is a team competition, and more physical. She is quite obviously a total athlete."

Talk about her natural ability aside, Aldrich sees her dual captaincy as a chance to pass along what she has learned. "Being captain is definitely a responsibility, but you can make a real contribution by showing things to younger kids," she said. "I'd really love to take that experience and become a coach and a teacher."

Her love of sport has influenced her academics; the sociology major has been invited to write a senior honors thesis. She has chosen women's sports as her topic. "My playing experience has worked well with my major," she said. "I'll give the thesis an insider's perspective." Chuck Young '88

Clubhouse Changes

• Men's Basketball: Two-year Green Assistant Coach Frank "Happy" Dobbs has left Dartmouth to take a similar position at Boston College. His replacement is Walter Townes, who spent last season as an assistant coach to Lou Carnesecca at St. John's University.

• Men's Hockey: Dan Craig, who coached last year's men's JV hockey squad, has moved up to first assistant coach under Brian Mason. Craige replaces Bob Gaudet '81, who was appointed head coach at Brown last April.

• Rowing: Larry Gluckman, former rowing director and varsity heavyweight coach at Princeton, succeeds Peter Gardner as men's heavyweight rowing coach. Gluckman directed Princeton's rowing program since 1981 and compiled a cup-race record of 42-23. He was honored as the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges' coach of the year in 1985 after the Tigers won the Intercollegiate Rowing Association championship.

• Women's Basketball: Barbara Iten, head coach at California StateHayward from 1977—88, will be a new face on Jacqueline Hullah's coaching staff this winter.

• Field Hockey and Women's Lacrosse: Jennifer Averill, a four-time Ail-American in field hockey at Northwestern from 1984 to 1987, will take the post of assistant coach for field hockey and women's lacrosse. Averill, who was also a second-team All-American in lacrosse, coached field hockey at the U.S. Olympic Development Camp in 1984 and played on the U.S. national squad in 1985-86.

Senior Betsy Aldrich (right), is one of two women to captain two different Green teams this year.