On the Record

FIVE ATHLETES WHO HAVE LEFT LASTING MARKS AT DARTMOUTH REFLECT ON THE IMPORTANCE OF SPORT IN THEIR LIVES.

GRETCHEN ULION SILVERMAN '94 HOCKEY

HER RECORDS: Most goals by a Hockey forward in a game (8 vs. Yale in 1994), season (49 in 1990-91 and 1993-94) and career (189); most points by a forward in a season (85,1993-94) and career (312 over 105 games).

WHO SHE IS NOW: A gold medal-winning 1098 Olympian and at-home mom of two sons, ages 4 and 2. Married to Steve Silverman since 1998. Lives in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Silverman keeps the Olympic gold medal she won as part of the 1998 U.S. women's ice hockey team in a display case built for her by her high school coach. "Other people are more interested in looking at it than I am," she says. "My memories are more valuable to me than any hardware."

Besides her Olympic memories, Silverman cherishes those from her days at Dartmouth, where playing in front of "a good crowd" meant being cheered on by a bunch of parents."Playing for them was enough," she says."Occasionally someone would wander into the rink lost and catch a game by accident."

She landed in Hanover after a high school career at Loomis-Chafee, harboring no thoughts of making a national team. This wasn't because she lacked ambition but because the idea of women's hockey as an Olympic sport hadn't yet taken hold. "Growing up I dreamed of playing in the NHL," she says. "Then I realized that wasn't going to be possi ble. The Olympics represented the ultimate,"

Since graduation Silverman has coached and run a summer hockey camp and the occasional clinic for kids. She's accustomed to signing autographs: "It's adult women hockey players who are most impressed by my record," she says. "Young girls don't realize what it takes to make the Olympics."

Hockey, says Silverman, "has pretty much shaped my whole life. I met my husband playing in a league soon after college." It's a part of her mother role as well: Silverman and her husband created a backyard rink on which they taught their 4-year-old son to skate. He hasn't really taken to it, she says,but "my younger son looks like a future champ."

GAIL KOZIARA BOUDREAUX '82 BASKETBALL

HER RECORDS: Most points in a game (43 vs. Holy Cross, 1978), season (588 in 1980-81) and career (1,933 over 89 games); highest season and career scoring average (23.4,21.7); most rebounds in a game (30 vs. UMass in 1981 and Princeton in 1982), season (492, 1979-80 and 1980-81) and career (1,635)—among others.

WHO SHE IS NOW: President,Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois; director, Genzyme Corp.; board member, Heart Association of Chicago.Mother of sons,ages 7 and 10. Married to Terrence Boudreaux since 1989. Lives in Lake Forest, Illinois.

A Parade All-American basketball player and track star in high school, Boudreaux came to Dartmouth as the result of alumni recruiting. Although Big Green women's basketball was in its infancy, she became a three-time Ivy League Player of the Year and a two-time All-American. Her rebounding and scoring records still stand, despite her playing in an era that predated three-pointers.

Although she hasn't played full- court games since rupturing her Achilles tendon in a 1999 alumni game, Boudreaux does play on her in-home court. Its walls are decorated with posters from the Ivy championships she helped win, the first of which she recalls vividly. "We had only eight players healthy," she says. "I still have pictures of us at Yale. All of us were singing 'Men of Dartmouth.'"

The women had arrived—big time—on the College's sports scene, but their fan base was limited. "Even though we didn't have all that much support, playing was a great way to meet people around campus and to get to know alumni," says Boudreaux.

"Sport gives you such great camaraderie," she says. "It shapes business values and gives you life skills. The lasting effects are dramatic—from the discipline required to the time you spend being part of a team. It also forces you to be very organized."

Boudreaux doesn't spend much time sinking three-pointers in her wastebasket, she says, but she's "always up for some kind of competitive game." In addition to family hoops and coaching her sons' basketball teams, she works out every day, plays competitive tennis and a lot of golf. "I'm into what they call 'adult sports' now," she says.

SANDY BRYAN WEATHERALL'83 LACROSSE

HER RECORDS: Most points in a women's lacrosse game (12 vs. Plymouth State, 1980); most assists in a game (7,same game).

WHO SHE IS NOW: At-homemother of three children, ages10,5 and 2. Married to Bob Weatherall since 1990.Lives inIpswich, Massachusetts.

Once a member of the U.S.lacrosse team in addition tobeing a standout lacrosse andfield hockey player, track starand cross country skier at Dartmouth,Weatherall is candidabout sometimes struggling with the "mom image" she projects now. "A friend of mine says she no longer defines herself as an athlete. I've been trying to hold on but I'm at a different place in my life right now," she says.

Still active as a recreationalsoccer player even as herlacrosse sticks "are moldering inthe basement," Weatherall saysthat she misses being viewed asa jock. "It used to be so easy tobe modest about accomplishments when I was actually involved with college and nationalteams and events," she says.

"Now that I have no great accomplishments besides dinner on the table before everyone falls apart, I find myself figuring out how to insert into a conversation that, yes, once I was an athlete."

The fact that she's a grownup in her bustling household as she juggles mucking a stable, getting her 10-year-old daughter to practice her violin, making school lunches and changing diapers is not lost on her. But Weatherall says one of the things she loves most about sports is "just feeling like a kid. I loved playing on a team, having a schedule, having a purpose and measurements of success put out for you. It's a lot of hard work, yes, but it also allows you not to have to think about a lot of serious issues."

The competitive urges remain strong enough that she often sees parts of her daily routine in sporting terms. "There's a particularly busy intersection of multiple roads I often have to cross and I find myself feeling satisfied when I have a car picking for me," she says. "Parenting is a delicate balance. Some days it's easy gliding; others I don't even get my

hands in front of me before I hit the ground. On those gliding days it all comes together as it might in a moment on a great team."

MARIBEL SANCHEZ SOUTHER'96 TRACK

HER RECORDS: Best time in the 3,000-meter run (9:14 in the 1993 indoor NCAA Championships); also holds the women's record of 1:18:40 in the Covered Bridge halfmarathon in Quechee,Vermont.

WHO. SHE IS NOW: Women's cross-country coach and assistant women's track coach at Dartmouth. Married to John Souther since 2003. Lives in Enfield, New Hampshire.

For Souther, every day is a run down memory lane. As a coach at Dartmouth, she is literally reliving her College athletic career. After a year as an assistant and a year as interim coach,

Souther feels she is just starting to write in a new record bookfor herself and those runners she is helping to develop. "We won the Ivy League championship every year I competed [1992 to 1995]," she says. "I want to get us back to that and to be nationally ranked." She will do so, she says, not by recruiting necessarily the fastest runners she can find but by seeking "good girls willing to work really hard; those who are serious and committed." Just as she was. "Competing in the Ivy League meant so much to me because it wasn't just for me, it was all about Dartmouth and running for my school."

Her own record—high school Ail-American, All-Ivy, Collegiate All-American and former professional runner—bonds her immediately with her student charges. "They know I understand what they're going though both academically and athletically," she says.

Sometimes the students seem young to her, she admits, but more often she identifies with them completely. As a MALS student (she is pursuing a master's degree in cultural studies), she can still be stressed herself over juggling classes, running and the rest of a busy life.

She estimates that she runs 50 miles a week, sometimes with members of her team, often with friends. "It's a great way to have a long conversation, and there are so many beautiful trails," she says.

Souther's route to her coveted job was not as direct as one might assume. After graduating with a degree in sociology, she spent two years in Hanover training full time under her former coach, Ellen O'Neill, whom she still considers a mentor. Next she moved to Boston to train and work for four years as a massage therapist. Then came the call from Dartmouth asking if she'd be interested in coaching. "I said yes," she says. She did so quickly.

CHRIS GATES '89 SOCCER

HER RECORD.: Most goals scored in a Dartmouth women's soccer career (32 in 55 games);most points scored in a career (79).

WHO SHE IS NOW: A family practitioner in Portland, Maineand a newiywed, Married Matthew Kelly in September 2004.

Friends of Gates will not be surprised to hear that a soccer game "broke out" at her wedding, The only reason she didn't participate. she says, was the length of her dress. Before medical school, after abandoning law . school, Gates was an assistant women's soccer coach at Michigan State while working on a master's in environmental studies. There she observed second-class treatment of women's sports that were granted more respect in the Ivy League. "I played at a time when the women's teams were actually stronger than the men's," she says,

Her life at Dartmouth revolved around her soccer and lacrosse teams—"beating Harvard was always fun," she recalls—and she still gathers regularly with former teammates. "The fabric of my life was sports and classes," she says."I napped accordingly."

Learning to be part of a team actually helped get Gates through medical school. "I studied alone for my first set of tests and didn't do very well," she recalls of her early days at the University of Massachusetts. "Then I joined a study team to which different people brought different strengths. It was a concept I understood." The team approach served her well throughout her training: "I knew that what was really important was for me to take care of my own work, to hold up my end and count on others to do theirs."

Gates now plays in what she calls an "old ladies soccer league," where the quality of play may not equal what she grew up with or experienced as a member of the semipro Boston Renegades, but which she values for its friendships and health benefits. She works out five or six nights a weekr she also bikes, skis and sails. "I preach diet and exercise to my patients so 1 like to do what I say," she explains.

Silverman in her garage December 13, 2004, days after moving into her new home.

Boudreaux underthe boards on herin-home court,December 11, 2004.

Weafherall at home with her family and pony, Sam on December 14, 2004.

Souther working out December 15, 2004, in Leverone Field House.

Gates warming up outside her home on December 16, 2004.