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Mind-Body Challenge Newsletter
Issue 3

From the Director’s Chair

The fall’s intramural season results are now official.  The Hustlers defeated the Waves in a playoff game 36-22. (It was a cold and rainy and muddy battle on the lower field that John Madden would have loved.)  The Druids took the soccer title paced by the beautiful play of a very skilled striker, sophomore Cory Castellaw, and the athleticism of their stopper, senior Mike Mowery.  The first half of the Ultimate Frisbee season (Ultimate was introduced as an ‘official’ team sport last year) remains tied between the Spartans, Druids, and Hustlers, and will wait for resolution this spring when the second half of the Ultimate season is completed.

On the women’s side of the ledger, as befits the current ethos of the Kunvai Kthonyai, the players scoffed at the proposal that any playoff was needed, so the soccer season ended happily in a tie between Red Rum and Dan’s Football Club (for those of you not in the know, the women now choose somewhat playful and funky names for the fall soccer season, and then assume the traditional names for the women’s teams for the basketball season.)  Much cheering ensued upon hearing the answer to the question of whether or not the names from both teams would appear on next year’s plaque: the answer was a resounding YES.

I received many wonderful emails in response to my inquiry about what you’ve been up to athletics-wise since graduation.  Here is a sampling:

John Rees A73 wrote, “My brother David Charles Rees, A90, ran the Marine Corps Marathon last Sunday with a little extra. He couldn't find parking near the Iwo Jima monument, which is where the race begins, so he finally had to park across the river in DC near GW hospital, and then he had twenty minutes to get back to start the race which was about two miles away. So he ran the two miles back to Iwo Jima, and then ran the 27 mile marathon. It was his first marathon in over ten years, and he wasn't going to let a little thing like parking stop him from completing it....”

 Thomas Day A71 wrote, “I suspect that I might not have come to St. John's if not for the sports program.  I'd been very active in sports (football and baseball) in high school until my junior year when the effects of my polio finally caught up with me.  I had to stop all sports and by my senior year I was in physical therapy. My college choices came down to St. John's and University of Michigan.  I remember asking myself whether I wanted to go to a college where I would sit in the stands on Saturday and watch someone else play or go to a college where everyone could play? At St. John's I was able to play football, softball, basketball, volleyball, soccer and fencing.  My "bone cutter" was a pretty smart guy and the physical therapy was obviously successful.  I enjoyed all the sports but soccer really caught my interest.

After I got married and moved out to Seattle to work for Boeing, I was able to hook up with some socceristas and ended up playing semi-pro soccer for 3 years.  After Boeing moved me back to Virginia I was again able to hook up with a league and ended up playing soccer for over 30 years. A couple of injuries convinced me to hang up my "boots" but I was able to remain connected to soccer by coaching in the Sterling Youth Soccer Assn. and later the Washington Area Girls Soccer.

I used to tell my girls, "The worst game that I ever played in was better than the best game I ever watched."  Soccer was a large part of my life for a long time and St. John's made it possible.  The fact that I got the best education going was icing on the cake.”

Alan Hoffman, A49 wrote, “I am now just one month from my 81st birthday. I started skiing in 1947 on long wooden skis without metal edges, release bindings, and composite bottoms. The bindings were of the "bear trap” variety. The bottoms had to be waxed each day, an effort that could take on average one half an hour of application of a base wax and the a running wax both rubbed down with a waxing cork. It was hard work. Those long hickories were almost impossible to turn. If you fell there was always a good chance of breaking an ankle.

I am still skiing. I avoid the bumps. My knees won't take it. I will ski the steeps if they are groomed and not icy. I ski with my son and daughter and my son's two children. It is a great family sport. I don't know how much longer I will be able to keep it up. As you get older the muscle mass diminishes and you need strong quads to ski. In addition arthritis gets to the knees which need to be flexible to ski well.

It is a great sport. It has become extremely expensive. The equipment, clothing, and lift tickets are out of sight. However, the fresh air and thrill of skiing under control is exhilarating. When you ski your entire focus is on doing just that. It gives the mind pause to rest and allows it to refresh and regenerate itself. It is good for the inner self as well as the body which contains it.”

And Christopher Hodgkin A66, fresh from this past September’s Homecoming, reflected, “It was both nice and sad to see the changes in Iglehart -- nice to see some more up to date facilities, and to see that the running track where I wasted way too much time when I should have been reading Kant is still in use, but also sad to see the racquetball courts gone -- where else could one spend a half hour on a winter afternoon and come out with two dozen fresh bruises from the court being so &$*@ small that it was way too often impossible to dodge both the ball and a not very skilled opponent's wild racquet swings.  Of such pains are memories made.”

Any SJC sports-related memories you care to share?  Any tales of post-college athletic glory you care to relate?  Please, I’d love to hear them.  Email me at leo.pickens@sjca.edu.

Iglehart Year in Review:

At St. John’s we value knowledge for the sake of knowledge. The athletic program’s values run quite parallel to that of our academic values where we value sport for the sake of sport. As this year comes to close, we hope you will enjoy watching some of the best highlights from this year’s intramural program. Click here to witness the stellar athleticism of some of our current students and alums.

St. John’s College Athletic Triumphs in 2009:

  • Our Croquet team swept 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th place in the 2009 Croquet National Tournament.
  • SJC Croquet defeated the Navy Croquet Team for the 4th straight year, and for the 11th time in 13 tries.
  • A record number of 96 women came out for Kunai soccer this year.
  • Women’s Varsity 8, placed 2nd in the Mid-Atlantic Crew Championships.
  • The Hustlers won their 2nd straight football title.
  • The University of Maryland Terrapins football team lost their 2009 season home-opener to UCLA by a score of 52-13. This is Terps most lopsided season-opening loss since the first game in school history, a 50-0 loss to St. John’s of Annapolis in 1892.

 

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