Recently, Hamilton sports has seemingly gotten more hate on campus (including from the sports section of The Spectator), some describing it as “irrelevant” and being a “lackluster product.” And this raises the question: is this hate warranted?
One possible reason for this hate is football. Let’s admit it, Hamilton Football is dreadful—and that’s okay! However, it is one thing for a team to be lacklustered, but it’s another thing for a program that receives the most resources and funding for coaches, equipment, etc. out of any other team at Hamilton to not have a winning season since 1996. To emphasize, Football has 11 coaches while the rowing, squash, and the swim and dive teams have to share a coach among the men and women’s teams. Sure, Football is a larger team that inherently needs more resources but the perception that they absorb most of the resources, leaving the smaller teams with little gives off a bad look; and it’s not an incorrect assumption. Not to mention they have gone 9-34 in their past five seasons with those funds.
Additionally, it’s football’s omnipresence on campus that feeds into the team’s mockery on campus. In fact, one in ten men at Hamilton are on the football team (Cornely, 2025). Given this large proportion, Hamilton Football is unavoidable—whether its dozens of distinguishable lineman walking around or players wearing Hamilton football merchandise, the football team is everywhere. Ultimately, Football’s concentrated presence amplifies their losing seasons, and the problem is that their criticisms leak into other sports, inherently casting a cloud of hatred over the athletic department as a whole.
In exception to football, Hamilton fall athletics have had strong seasons. Notably, Field Hockey ended the regular season 11-4 and reached a season-high ranking of seventh in the nation. From being a .500 team for the past three seasons to 11-4, this accomplishment should be recognized more on campus. Women’s Soccer also had a strong season, winning their last five games ending the regular season 8-4-3. This late season push has set Hamilton up with a quarterfinal clash against Middlebury this Saturday. Although Men’s Soccer just missed the NESCAC tournament, they still finished the season 7-5-2, ending the season with a 1-0 victory over Trinity on Senior Day. Taking the fact that Men’s Soccer graduated a large number of seniors last year, the team still managed to finish the season with a winning record; and they have plenty to look forward to with a strong freshmen class.
Additionally, the lesser recognized sports on campus have been extremely successful this fall. Men’s Cross Country and Women’s Cross Country placed first in the Hamilton Invitational and the Hamilton Tuneup. Men’s and Women’s Rowing earned first and second place, respectively, at the Mohawk Fall Classic. Although the fall is not their main season, Men’s Tennis won the Men’s Tennis Regional Championships Singles Title thanks to Tarun Korwar’s ‘27 stellar tournament. Lastly, Men’s and Women’s Golf placed first in the Hamilton Fall Invitational.
Unfortunately, despite Hamilton Athletics’ exceptional fall season, there is still a perception of Hamilton sports being “mediocre” and “irrelevant.” And Football’s historic lows does not help. It seems that only a few solutions remain. One possibility is that the Athletic Department could provide better funding for training, coaching, and better player development in hopes of turning Hamilton Football into a NESCAC powerhouse—this would shift student sentiment towards Hamilton athletics and trickle down to other teams. Conversely, the Athletic Department could reallocate funding to other sports teams, but that effectively gets rid of Football as it needs more funding than others to run its team. Lastly, if Hamilton had more students, that would drown out Football’s mass presence on campus, minimizing its overwhelming presence.
Sadly, Hamilton sports has recently gotten a lack of campus support despite its recent fall teams’ successes. Regardless of whether you think that this burden falls on the student body, the athletic teams, or the Athletic Department, the student-athletes should not be faulted—its simply the inherent structure of the College. Nonetheless, students should try to support and celebrate the lesser recognized sport teams’ successes as an attempt to change this sour sentiment towards Hamilton Athletics.
