Nobody would claim that Wellesley is an athletic school. Attendance of sporting events among the student body is abysmally low in comparison to other colleges. In fact, 34% of students are not even aware that Wellesley has varsity NCAA teams, and 40% still don’t know what the crew does or why there are so many of them. Often, athletes take this on the chin; they look at the empty stands, chuckle with their teammates, and focus on the game at hand. But when they go to other campuses and see their turnouts tripled, there’s an anger that grows in the deepest part of them. Every away game, every extra head in the crowd, every extra cheer for their competitors, and every moment of silence they face, they get angrier, angrier and angrier. Wellesley athletes are bitter.
Or, rather, they were bitter. Until they decided to do something about it.
It was soccer that first concocted the idea. After hearing crickets at their Sept. 6 game against Endicott at home, a game they lost in the deafening silence, an anonymous senior slapped a junior in the locker room. After a moment of silence, the two began a full-fledged battle, and, rather than intervening, the team began to pick sides, screaming in support of their chosen fighters. In the end, there were only a few scratches and bruises to be seen, but both players felt more gratified than ever before. The team then enjoyed a lovely dinner together in Lulu, feeling truly bonded, with their bitterness released.
A field hockey player, upset with similar turnouts, overheard the fight; they decided to reach out to their friend on soccer to see if they could get in on the action. On Sept. 17, the first inter-athletics fight club was held in Severance Hall’s Dungeon of Fun. There were three fights total: a captains’ show-down, a sophomore 2v2, and an all-out first-year brawl. In the end, soccer took home the win, but all of the players had resolved their bitterness for the time being.
Though their teammates were loud, both teams wanted the crowds bigger. They contacted every team in the following weeks, with everyone agreeing to participate privately except crew, because it was past their bedtime. Each Sunday night thereafter in the Dungeon of Fun, athletes would get bloodied, bruised, and feel the unmistakable ecstasy of glory. Most had rarely experienced loud crowds or wins before, and both became addicting.
When winter came, the fight club was at its peak. There were 10 battles every Sunday. The organizers, soccer and field hockey, wanted to end the semester with a bang; they scheduled a night full of the most high-stakes battles yet. The highlights included a volleyball vs. tennis match, where a setter and hitter pair smacked volleyballs at two tennis players and the tennis players responded by serving tennis balls right back at them. It was a game of chicken- the first partnership to stop would lose- and tennis ultimately took the win. There was also a swim vs. dive wrestling tournament in a kiddie pool and a battle of the fencers with real swords and armor. The night was unforgettable.
However, just after the last battle, a group of first-years hungry for a party stumbled into the DOF, and the fighters fled the scene. The Wellesley Athletics Fight Club dissolved that day; since then, an anonymous source has exclusively shared the story with the Wellesley News, who is always excited to highlight athletes’ hard work. Why, you may ask? Well, she said, with tears in her eyes, “I miss the beauty of the brawl, and the memories I made with my friends while we KO’ed those softball players.” She wanted to publish the story to let her fellow fight clubbers know that she is still willing to try the whole thing again, changing times and locations, and bribing new RAs to ignore the noise complaints. Until then, she submitted the following photo that reminds her of the good ol’ times, for everyone to enjoy.
