Lights from the cityscape flicker on and off, diving beneath the soft undulations of the Charles River. They flow through the entirely inadequate, ghost-thin blinds covering the windows of Christina Reuter’s Sleeper Hall dorm room.
But the windows also reflect inwardly. As Reuter does the same, she can see the student-filled streets of Madison, Wis. The home of the University of Wisconsin and the Capitol Building, it’s not altogether a quiet Midwestern town. But, it’s not altogether – heck, it’s not at all – Boston.
The only problem is that, in order to see the lights in their emergent grandeur, there’s got to be a stare into the darkness of the new area. Into something entirely foreign.
As she and her 4,174 freshman classmates breathe in the common wealth of opportunities Boston allots them, Reuter, a goalkeeper for the Boston University women’s soccer team, has thrived arguably more than any other new athlete to this point. With a 1.2 goals-against average in her five games – she splits time in net with sophomore Steph Dreyer – and with a team-leading 11 saves, Reuter has looked anything but too fresh.
By knocking away the hands that tend to pull freshmen back home in thought, sometimes in actuality, she’s managed to make an imprint on a team that now stands on the doorstep of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America’s Top-25 party. But, again, she’s not as alone, as freshmen tend to feel. Every varsity team counts at least in small part on their Terrier pups.
But because of women’s soccer’s recent trip into the Top 25 – the squad stood at 22nd before a loss to the University of Michigan – Reuter has played under limelight that reflects not off the river, but off her and her teammates.
“She’s been huge,” said BU women’s soccer coach Nancy Feldman. “She’s come in and been confident enough to step on a field right in the beginning and make a statement that she was ready to play.”
Not that she’s the only new talent the team has drawn from. Freshman Alexandra Riccomini has played in four games, putting three shots on net, while Nicole Lucey has put three on net in five contests.
And, just like the city skyline – “there’s nothing like that back at home,” Reuter said – she and her teammates have the luxury of great support.
Though, if you ask them, their support is stronger than any steel.
“I feel like I’m thriving,” Reuter said. “A lot of what makes it so easy is having such a supportive team. To be a part of things makes it so much easier … Plus, that of people back home … it makes it so much easier to be so far away and so connected.”
Although her connection seems seamless to her, with the only real homesickness test being the trip to Michigan – “To be so close to home, and not go home, it was so hard” – her results are atypical, Feldman said.
Most freshmen need to be nursed into full service, she said. Not just on the field, but to allow their individual personalities to light up the sky like a Sox game on a cloud-covered September evening. There’s a David Ortiz-sized personality void left to fill with the exit of each year’s batch of seniors.
Their charisma generally stays quiet early, Feldman said, as they try to adjust to the new surroundings. For many, close-knit towns became over-knit floors within dorms bigger than a Red Sox World Series title.
The closeness might be exactly what the new athletes need, said field hockey coach Sally Starr. In preseason, her team spent their three weeks cycling roommates to forge some early bonds.
Despite some early anxiety, the energy’s there. It almost has to be, just as it is throughout the teeming-with-youth city.
“They’re so wide-eyed about everything,” Starr said, “from the equipment they’re issued – how cool it is to get stuff and get stuff washed – to the traveling. There’s an awe but a feeling of gratitude.”
Some never get the chance to stay away from university washrooms, though. The men’s soccer team had two players drop faster than hot laundry.
“One got homesick before he got here, really,” said head coach Neil Roberts. “He got overwhelmed, and he was more nervous than he needed to be. I think he got here and panicked. He never trained, never played. Sometimes they just get scared.”
But for those who stuck around, if just for kicks, four true freshmen have seen significant chances to contribute, “a bonus [for a freshman],” Roberts said. Miles Dunn and Shane Westbrook have started, Roberts said Roland Erlichman will start against Boston College and Ian Maio saw action against top-ranked Indiana University.
Though the Hoosiers presented a challenge the Terriers met, as BU led 2-1 before eventually losing 3-2 in overtime, the gut-check comes just around the time that players start double-or-quintuple-checking their books, Roberts said.
After the initial excitement wears off and the days start to stumble and sulk by, the players really begin to learn what college athletics is all about.
“It’s right around midterms that they start getting tired,” Roberts said. “The season is more than they’ve ever done as far as time, pace and the level of teams they’re playing. Then, add the academic pressure and they get worn down. They start getting tired and feeling sorry for themselves, and start getting homesick, which is natural. But it only lasts about a week.”
Even without getting caught up in the mix of the Hub.
“A lot of the kids don’t get to see much of the buildings in the city because they’re so busy with school and soccer,” the coach said. “They don’t get past Sargent College and the Case Center in the first three months.”
This frantic pace, coupled with the team’s playing the part of surrogate family, provides a means for settling, “with less time to think,” Feldman said. When athletes spend less time in small rooms than a claustrophobic, there’s relatively no time for sadness.
There’s only time to look forward. To the next game. To the next half. To the next shot.
Not at the miles of elongated heart pulling a freshman back home.
The trick, Feldman says, is to make sure the movement keeps going forward, without anybody falling off the bus. Those wide eyes can only take in so much at one point, she said.
“You have to let players know expectations and how we go about our business,” she said. “But, at first it seems like there are so many rules, and you’re not doing this or that right. You have to … tell them they’re not gonna get everything in the first day. And sometimes the upperclassmen forget they were once freshmen and how overwhelming it can be. So, you just have to be patient without letting up.”
Starr echoes Feldman, saying that the key to the family is to keep everyone on board.
“You’re leaving home for the first time and living with strange people,” she said, noting also the need to perform. “You get physically and emotionally exhausted … If you see someone frowning, or if someone seems down, you get an arm out and nurture them.”
Especially when you start out as strong as women’s cross country’s Christine Laakso. Laakso placed second in the Terriers’ first meet at Franklin Park, running the five-kilometer race in 18:26, five seconds behind teammate Victoria Botticelli.
She’ll be joined by fellow freshmen Jessica Cickay, who finished in 19:21 at Franklin, and Andrea Walkonen, who sat out the Northeastern meet with the flu.
To keep away from slacking, it’s important to keep the legs moving. Faster and faster. More and more forward, according to cross country head coach Bruce Lehane.
“[In high school], you’re running hard, and the next thing you know, you have a lead,” Lehane said. “Now, you’re in the middle of the pack and you’re seeing people move away from you. That’s a whole new situation. Some kids will take that and use it, but it takes maturity to do that. Other kids will lose their confidence.”
Athletes must be prepared to deal with even more pressure to succeed, even when they’re pressured by themselves just to feel right. But, sometimes that same pressure can be a kick-start.
“Some kids get very homesick … but participating in sports helps because you immediately become part of a group,” Lehane said. “But, [the pressure] can be tough. In college … you’re racing against other state champions.”
The men must deal more with failure from the beginning, Lehane said. The race doubles from 5-to-10K in some races, making men who are “fast as hell” in shorter distances “useless” in cross-country, he said.
However, Lehane said he predicts freshman Jake LaRoe, the New England two-mile high school champion last year, will make an impact when he returns home to New York at the Iona Invitational on Sept. 24.
“He may as well be our first guy in, or close if he isn’t,” Lehane said. “I think that will happen … But Christine’s actually run a race. Jake, we’re just projecting. He may blow out like a candle in the rain, but I actually think he’ll hang in there.”
Exactly as the “work-in-progress” field hockey team must do, Starr said. She called this year’s crop of 10 newcomers one of the best she’s seen since she’s been at BU.
Right now, five of the freshmen have seen considerable playing time, as opposed to Starr’s usual one or two. Sarah Shute, who has put three shots on net while recording an assist against the University of California on Sept. 1, is one of five Terriers to record a point so far this season.
Pam Spuehler and Hayley Hamada have both added to the attack, while Laura Dean has seen more time on defense than freshmen usually do. All are more than capable, Starr said.
“Top to bottom, they’re all great athletes,” she said. “They’re all good hockey players and good kids, too. They’re consummate team players. The first thing we’re looking for in recruiting is someone who’s going to be a good teammate first, then a great athlete.”
Because, in the end, it’s like Cicero said.
Every illuminated sight, every turn of the river that perforates the college capital of the world. It all means nothing without a family to share it with.