YH: Over the past couple years you two have dedicated a lot of your time to increasing athletic support on campus through the Whaling Crew. How did it all get started?
HL: It started freshman year when we went to the Georgetown tailgate, the first football game of the 2011 season, which was actually pretty good. But the second tailgate of the year, the one against Cornell, was horrible—there were not many people there. Sobotka and I had Intro Micro together, so in class one day, we were talking about starting a cool student section at sporting events.
YH: So the Whaling Crew was born out of football, rather than hockey, despite the name.
HL: Yea, we hadn’t even gone to a hockey game yet, but we had heard that our team was good. It was about halfway through the football season by then, too, so we were planning ahead. There was a long deliberation period with the potential names, many of which were atrocious.
AS: Yea, they were really bad.
YH: Like what?
HL: Ingalls Jingles.
AS: The Bowl Weevils.
HL: The only decent one we had was Sons of Eli. I thought it was a little too much like Son of Sam, though.
YH: After starting the Whaling Crew, both of you also started working for the athletic department. How does that affect the work you do for the Whaling Crew?
HL: Since I work in marketing, my boss basically does with the larger community what the Whaling Crew does with students. We pretty much act as a branch of his outreach, and we coordinate. We have to—if there’ s a game on Tuesday and another on Wednesday, and we promote one and he promotes the other, we’re gonna get 15 kids at each game, but if we work together, we can at least get a good turnout at one of them. Just look at basketball’s home opener Tuesday. It was the biggest crowd I’ve seen at a basketball game that wasn’t against Harvard.
AS: They’ve been very helpful in our growth. We’ve become a source of information for kids who want to know what’s going on with sports at Yale, but sometimes we can’t answer all the questions. We feel comfortable approaching the guys in the athletic department.
HL: They also help us do cool things, like getting buses down to the Frozen Four or tickets to the football game at Princeton last week. That would have been a lot harder if Sobotka didn’t work in the ticket office. But it’s a perfect symbiotic relationship. We’re the grassroots movement Athletics has always wanted, and they’re the nice people that we never knew existed. We’ve been way more effective since we started working with them.
YH: There are clearly sports fans on campus, but there’s not always a lot of interest in Yale sports. Why do you think that is?
HL: Generally people think Yale sports aren’t good. It seems that hockey aside, people assume we play Ivy teams and the Ivy League isn’t competitive. Really though, the lacrosse team consistently makes the national championships, and the basketball team could contend for a tournament berth this year. The fact is, sports at Yale are the Harvard-Yale Game, and we’ve lost 11 of past 12. All we need to do is get a couple wins, and the entire atmosphere will change. Football is the big pull. There’s a reason that they play in a 60,000-seat stadium, even though they don’t fill it.
AS: One of the most frustrating things here, especially in our early days, was that huge sports fans wouldn’t go to Yale games because they thought the games weren’t worth their time. Personally I think the vast majority of our sports are high quality. Are they Georgia? Are they Ohio State? No, but they are good, and they wear our school’s name on their jerseys.
HL: I also think some good things will come with the regime change. I don’t think Levin was the biggest supporter of Yale athletics, and that’s being kind. Salovey and Pollock are in a position to make a change. Plus, winning a national championship can’t hurt.
YH: Would you say that Yale sports lack the support of other comparably sized institutions’ sports programs?
HL: Well, at almost every hockey game there’s a good student contingent and so many townies. But football is disappointing for me because we’ve got a big stadium and it’s supposed to be a marquee sport. After all, football started here.
AS: I think wherever you go the fans will follow good teams. Penn football, Harvard basketball, Brown soccer—when the team’s good, people will go to the games. The real difference is that the administration doesn’t support athletics as much as other schools do.
YH: Going back to the national championship, tell me a little bit more about that experience, because that was a turning point for you guys and for Yale athletics.
HL: Those were probably the coolest two games I’ve ever been to, period. Not only that, but going into both games as an underdog, and having Malcolm step up against UMASS Lowell to put us in the finals, and then again against Quinnipiac, who had clearly showed they were a better team throughout the season. But nobody told Jeff Malcolm. One of the things I remember best was the parents crying and the kids going crazy because that just doesn’t happen in professional sports—that’s college sports. And having one of my best friends, Trent Ruffolo, win a national championship, was an awesome feeling.
AS: For me, one of the best moments was the home opener this year when they raised the national championship banner. Sitting in the stands, you could feel the personal connection between the team and its fans. The parents, students, teachers, administrators, alumni, locals—they were all there. We all live in the same place, and we all go to the same classes. These are our people, and being able to celebrate a victory that was all of ours was incredible.
YH: You guys are both juniors, so what’s going to happen to the Whaling Crew when it’s time for you to move on?
AS: We’ve got a very informal system.
HL: A system of levers and pulleys.
AS: Starting in the spring and especially next fall, we’re going to slowly retire. The sophomores who are going to take over are incredibly capable, and they’re completely on board with the mission of the Whaling Crew. I’m very optimistic about the future. We always knew this organization wasn’t going to reach its peak while we were here.
YH: Do you have any advice for freshmen and other students attending their first Game this weekend?
AS: Take it all in, soak it up, and think about how much fun it is to be surrounded by your school. People passionate about sports teams or any cause really know the feeling when there are lots of people around hoping for the same thing. Let that energy take over. Think about how much fun it is, and realize that it doesn’t have to happen just once every year.
HL: I remember the opening 15 minutes of my first Harvard-Yale game, when Yale took an early lead. I felt like I was watching Florida play Florida State. I think we’re the only school in the Ivy League that can offer that atmosphere in football. When it comes to the Harvard-Yale Game, it’s a real college football game. I can’t even imagine what would happen if we win. The other thing freshmen don’t understand and what we barely understand is the pain of losing so many times in a row. If we beat them this year, that’s right up there with a national championship for me, not to belittle what the hockey team has done, because they are incredible, too.
YH: What’s your game prediction?
HL: We’ve got a shot, and I know Varga’s coming back, which makes a huge difference. Last year we scored early, and the place was electric. We have to get up early and be in the game at halftime. These seniors don’t want to be another Yale class that graduates without beating Harvard.
AS: We have the talent, but the injury bug struck right before the Game again. It’s gonna be close.
HL: 28-24 Yale.
AS: 28-24 Yale. That’s what it’s gonna be.
YH: And your plans for Saturday?
AS: Tailgating and watching the dogs roll.