The Buddy System

So begins our long journey called track and field (long, as in: our bus broke down at the Price Chopper parking lot; we had to get a rescue bus, and this delayed our journey by about an hour). We departed the McCann Center this afternoon at 3:30 for our season opening meet at Boston University, where so many fine performances have been achieved by our program over the past decade or more. What an absolutely pleasant surprise to see our JTR bus decorated with signs, balloons, streamers and pithy motivational sayings! We can thank our "buddy teams" for this. The buddy system was the brainchild of the wonderful Student-Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC) in the athletic department, headed by Senior Women's Administrator Liz Donohue. Each athletic team has a "buddy" team that they support. In our case, football is "buddies" with women's track; softball is "buddies" with men's track; and vice versa.

Upon boarding the bus, two friendly football men were there to greet us and wish us good luck. They even baked cookies! However, they said we could not have the cookies before competition. Fortunately, us coaches do not compete, so we were able to indulge in their excellent cookies. Nicely done, men! This buddy system is awesome. It gets athletic teams that often would not cross paths to

be thinking about their fellow athletes. We all work hard at our sports; it's nice to be recognized by peers. In short, it's nice to know you have a buddy out there.