A Kinder, Gentler Athlete

Beck Stringer '98: Humanitarian, humorist, and star sweeper shows true grit in the face of adversity

By Matt O'Keefe

Special to the Gazette

It is not unusual to hear an athlete talk like a high-ranking official in a totalitarian government. For example:

"We're all part of a team. There is no 'I' in 'team.' "

"It's not for me to question the coach's decisions."

"Everybody has a job, and if everybody does their job, we'll be successful."

"Losing's not something we talk about."

While these attitudes have no doubt been at the heart of some of the world's top programs, the fact is the Berlin Wall came down some time ago. This is the era of the kinder, gentler athlete, and at Harvard, these times are embodied by none other than field hockey player Beck Stringer, humanitarian, humorist, and star sweeper.

Stringer, a senior, is tall, friendly, and relaxed. Off the field she is a fan of English literature. "I think it's so ironic that I'm studying something I love," she says, "getting assigned to read the books I want to read." She has cofounded a women's humor magazine that may someday rival the Lampoon. In high school she was part of a performing group that sang Broadway medleys. These traits and achievements don't explain what makes Stringer such a skilled defender. Or do they?

"Beck has an extremely creative mind, and certainly some of that quality comes across when she plays," says field hockey Coach Sue Caples. "She has a strong field presence, she's a good organizer, and she was the lock on the door back there when we needed her."

Stringer didn't always play sweeper, a position that might be likened to the "Secretary of Defense." She was an offense force in high school, but when she showed up at Harvard, she deferred to Caples's ability to match player with position.

"Maybe she said, 'Here's this big, mellow, laid-back girl. Let's put her on defense.' " Stringer says. "Or maybe she had her quota of forwards that year."

Stringer's first stint as sweeper didn't last very long. Two weeks after she arrived at Harvard as a freshman, she broke her foot in a game. She's not sure how it happened. Her foot hurt, she played the rest of the game in pain, and the next morning she couldn't walk. They put her into a cart and gave her crutches.

"Initially it was pretty traumatic," Stringer says. "I'd been here two weeks, I was just getting into the groove of things, starting to know where everything was. . . ."

She continued to go to practice and games, where she hung out with the trainers, did statistics, and traveled. She developed a facility with her crutches, using them for alternative activities such as hailing cabs. By the time she was ready to play, however, the season was over.

The following summer a healthy Stringer went with the team to play in Australia. She returned in the fall, played two games at sweeper, and hurt a ligament in her hand during practice. The injury was not of the season-ending variety, so Stringer dutifully waited for it to heal, performing many of the same injured player activities that she had perfected the previous season. The day came for her return, and lo!, she was diagnosed with mono.

"My trainer told me I had mono, and I started cracking up," Stringer says. "I said, 'You've got to be joking, I don't feel tired at all.' "

That was the end of that season. Fortunately, Stringer's mono eventually went away. She came back, and, this November, wrapped up her second consecutive injury-free campaign.

It was a season that could have sapped the good humor from any player, a season that began with high expectations and ended with a 7-10 record and missed playoffs. Inconsistency was the problem. The team would blast a nationally ranked opponent and then roll over and lose against a sub-.500 club. Stringer has no problem putting the situation in the correct perspective.

"We had a really talented squad," she says. "We'd play great and then hit a lull. We'd dominate games, but we wouldn't score. The good thing was that it didn't weigh on the team. A defeat is a defeat -- people process it and rebound."

Just like Stringer has done.