by Shaivai Finch
When you first pull onto the Sweet Briar College campus, you’re met with a beautiful scene of trees and open space. As you pull in further, you are met with a few deer here and there. The old buildings with hints of Greek elements give you a homey feeling. And all the friendly faces smile back at you inviting you in, especially on your first visit. Everyone is so eager to greet you and get to know you. This friendliness contributes to the family feel, which attracted Tarnisha to this campus. In the summer of 2018, Tarnisha Tarver, a nineteen-year-old field hockey player, packed her bags and moved from her hometown Baltimore, into her new dorm room, ready for a fresh start. Tarnisha, also known as Nisha, came to Sweet Briar to play field hockey. She was ready for a challenge. Nisha wanted to learn new things and feel more supported in her field hockey career. When she was first being introduced to her current team, they were so welcoming to her. They treated her as if she was already a student here. “I felt like I could already joke around with them,” Nisha says. They made her feel at home, helping her to make the decision of where to spend her next four years. But by choosing Sweet Briar, she didn’t realize how different the fan turnout would be.
Nisha was quickly able to find positives here playing Sweet Briar field hockey compared to her high school team. For starters, in high school no one came to the field hockey games. Field hockey at her high school was considered a club instead of a sport. “I remember times where people would approach me and ask me, ‘What’s that stick for?’” Nisha rolls her eyes playfully. “They didn’t even know what field hockey was.” From this it’s safe to assume that no one came to her high school games. Nisha also felt that she now had more supportive coaches who gave her the room to learn new things. She wanted a challenge and that was what she was given, all the way from the moment she signed her commitment papers. “I feel like what I’m doing actually matters, like I am on an actual team.” She says, “It feels like a big family.” Despite how time consuming it is, Nisha believes all the hard work pays off. The team is what motivates her. Knowing that they all are fighting together keeps her going. Unlike her high school team, fan turnout here makes Nisha feel like people actually care. It makes her want to have a good game. She knows that there’s more pressure being watched, but it encourages her to fight harder. She wants people to leave the games knowing that the team played their best.
The reason so many people show up today is because they have boards on campus that have information of when the next few games are. Teachers and students all get emails with alerts to all game information. There are even big cookouts after every field hockey home game, encouraging others to show up. School spirit at Sweet Briar today makes Nisha feel really good. “One time I really felt the school spirit is for our first scrimmage, all of the first years came out to watch us play.” She recalls being able to hear their voices echoing before they even reached boathouse road. Just having people know what field hockey is brings a smile to Nisha’s face. Although this feeling was great, it was not always the case.
On March 3, 2015, an announcement was sent out that Sweet Briar College would be closing forever. Many students and alumnae fought to save their beautiful school. One alumnae who goes by Stewart, fought the hardest. During her time here, Stewart was a field hockey player. When speaking with her she had a confident demeanor. She came all the way out to Connecticut one evening, just to support the field hockey team at their game, never missing a moment to give them positive encouragements. Stewart was impressed with how well the team played. She was shocked that she actually got to witness a win. She said, “It’s amazing seeing you guys out there like that. I haven’t seen a win like this in a long time.” Stewart felt a sense of pride watching her new team out there succeeding. To congratulate them she took the team out to eat at a world famous pizza place to celebrate all of their hard work. Stewart wanted the girls to feel appreciated and show them how close Sweet Briar brings their women. She wanted to form a bond with Sweet Briar’s next generation of field hockey players.
Because of the closing, the sports teams were negatively affected. The number of students attending Sweet Briar dropped, causing the recruitment rate to decrease. The teams turned to a free for all. If you had some free time and even just a little bit of athletic skill, most likely you were asked to join one of the many teams. Most girls on the teams had no idea how to play the sports they were asked to play. These girls knew they were contributing to something bigger than themselves. They were paving the way for the years to come.
Despite the fact that the quality of sports life decreased, the year after the closing actually had a higher fan turnout rate. When talking to a current junior, Corey Lamas, she says “A lot of upperclassman had to live through the closing, and when you almost lose something close to you, you appreciate it more.” Corey believed that because of the fresh wounds of the school almost closing, the school had more school spirit. They did not want to take their school for granted. “More people advertised the games. You had EP’s, a tap club on campus, yelling at lunch to go out to the games,” says Corey. “More Ep’s even went to the games then.” This point of view contrasted with the view of a Sophomore named Alexis Jones, also known as AJ. She says that her first year, Corey’s second, that no one came out to support the games. “No one even showed up.” She believed that people would only show up for incentives. There used to be a system where students could get points to help benefit them later. It gave them incentives like first choice on better dorm rooms. Going to the games gave them some of these points. You could read in AJ’s tone that this hurt. She wanted to feel more supported by her schoolmates, like what she was doing was important. You could now see how the closing threats had a negative impact on the sports life. After witnessing how the team dynamics changed and losing almost every game, no one had any motivation to go to the games anymore.
Despite the many different opinions on the fan turnout in the last few years, when asking Dean of students, Marcia Thom-Kaley, she believes that fan turnout has dramatically increased. As she sat watching her second sports game of the day, she wore a proud smile on her face. Marcia didn’t care about the outcomes of the games, but to see her women out there supporting each other made her happy. Marcia made sure to make an appearance at every game.
Based on the responses from the Sweet Briar community, the closing did in fact negatively affect the sports life and overall school spirit. Despite this impact the women in this community fight to keep their school spirit alive. Sweet Briar’s next step from here would be to increase their population. From there the school can gain more students with positive attitudes and a fierce eagerness to support this community.
All this connects back to today because things are in progress for getting better. More people are now coming to games and the players are happy.Despite this, there are times where Nisha feels like she wants to give up, but she knows she’s playing for a greater good. She’s playing for the people before her. It was based off of their hard work that she even had the opportunity to play. She knew she was playing for the people who saved Sweet Briar.