December 17th officially concludes over two months of endless late night study sessions and commences a break to spend away from school. The difficulties of the finals period offer a chance to dream about upcoming holiday festivities, a period of relaxation after a grueling semester, and exciting adventures with friends and family.
Yet, for some, winter break is not a return home. Winter varsity athletes, as well as students with extraneous circumstances, stay on campus during the break. For them, the break consists of a few days home for the holidays, if at all, but is otherwise consumed by short days on an empty campus, faring the Cambridge winter with or without teammates.
Men and women’s basketball, skiing, ice hockey, swim and dive, indoor track & field, and wrestling all have seasons that run through the break, making it mandatory for the teams to spend their January in Cambridge competing for Harvard. Varsity athletes in general can easily spend upward of
15-20 hours a week on their sport, in addition to navigating a course load and other extracurriculars. For the athletes with an added January term season, the lack of a true break can make the risk of burn-out very real.
Denham Wojcik ’25, a sophomore on the men’s basketball team, articulated the harsh reality of winter athletes. “The truth is we miss out on any chance of a family Thanksgiving, and any Christmas festivities in our hometowns,” he said.
The typical basketball season runs from September until mid-March, forcing athletes to miss several holidays, especially if they live far from Cambridge. Evan Nelson ’25, a sophomore basketball player from Tucson, Arizona, explained why his Christmas plans included staying on campus. “I personally am not going home to see my family because we have only a day or two travel window and prices are too high.”
Despite the challenges of not having a full break to spend at home or away from campus, these students have found a positive side to their circumstances. “Being on campus when everyone else is gone is odd in the sense that it’s empty and the dining halls are closed,” Nelson added. “But it’s peaceful and quiet and a nice break from the pace of a normal semester.”
While these winter athletes will spend most of their breaks training, they will also spend their time off socializing with their teammates or other winter athletes, or working jobs in the Cambridge area. The major advantage of not having other students around or assignments to work on is that teammates often become very close with one another and can grow as a family.
In the words of Wojcik, “It’s a grind, but it has been well worth it.”
Isabel Eddy ’24 (iaeddy@college.harvard.edu) writes Sports for The Independent.