By Orli Strickman, Senior Associate Editor for Campus Life
As students swipe into the Wheaton College dining hall — known colloquially as Saga — and try to decide where to set their plates down, they may notice ensemble groups clustered around several circular tables that have been pushed together, residence hall floors gathering weekly since the start of the school year, or student leadership groups catching up over a meal.
They may also notice large tables of athletes by the fireplace, in the central atrium and over by the booths, enjoying fellowship together after a long practice.
Most athletic teams eat together at least several times a week, but how often and where in the dining hall varies by sport.
The cross-country team, for example, always has at least some runners eating together at every meal. Sophia Huber, a junior English literature major, said this helps the men’s and women’s teams come together outside of running.
“A lot of times it can be easy to just run with the team and then that’s all that you do,” she said. “But at the team table, it’s a way of coming together in the middle of a school day or at the end of a school day and checking in with each other about how life is going and how classes are going.”
Junior health science major Elizabeth Dieter said the tennis team has mandatory dinners twice a week, though they often eat together at other meals. “When we’re in season, I go to dinner with the team almost every night, just because we’re finishing practice and heading to Saga,” she said.
Dieter agreed that eating together as a team has helped foster community. “The more time that we can spend together off the court, it helps energy on the court and get to know each other. That’s when we talk about our days or classes or big things going on,” she said. “It’s super valuable and we’re eating anyway, so we might as well just go eat with each other.”
Sophomore political science and business economics major Jed Ritchie noted that the swim team is a rare example of a sport in which men and women practice together and attend all the same competitions. “Eating together I find often brings us even closer, and since we eat with the women’s team and we spend time with the women’s team, it really connects us, I think, really well,” he said.
Huber said running was a central part of her life as she entered college, and the tight-knit community of Wheaton’s cross-country team ultimately won her over. “I met with the coaching staff during my visit to Wheaton, and in talking to them, they were the kind of people that I wanted to run for.”
Similarly, Ritchie said he was drawn to the uniqueness of the Wheaton swim team’s culture. “The team culture Wheaton had was something that won me over, not only in the way that the coach treated me, but the way other people treated me and the way I saw them treating each other,” he said.
Dieter agreed that the coaches are a huge part of why students want to play for Wheaton. “Something that sets apart this program is our coaching staff,” she said. “They definitely make playing for this team just such a gift.”
“The girls on the team are also a huge blessing. Just getting to know them and develop relationships with them and grow in my faith and my tennis ability alongside them is also a huge gift.”
Beyond the team table, Dieter said that the women’s tennis team often watches other Wheaton sports together and has movie nights at least once a semester. “We always do a pickleball tournament with the men’s tennis team, so that’s a fun way for us to get to know them. And we sometimes have combined team dinners with their team,” she said. Their annual training camp and spring break trip also serve as a way for them to build relationships with each other.
Dieter emphasized that building friendships with her fellow athletes improves their performance on the court. “There’s something really special about being an athlete, and getting to do life with people that you also compete with is a huge honor,” she said.
“We have this deep love for each other that we grow a lot in spending time together off the court. When we’re on the court, it becomes less of competing just for my own gain. I’m supporting my team and I’m playing as hard as I can because I love them so much.”
Huber said she sees parallels between the intentional community of Wheaton athletics and the biblical principles of breaking bread together laid out during the Last Supper and the Book of Acts. “In that way, it just builds that Christ-centered community, if you want to use the big Wheaton words,” she said.
Ritchie also emphasized that team table draws on some of the themes of communion. “We’re talking about Christ-centered community, and I think that eating together as a team really exemplifies that.”
“I really see the Lord being faithful to our team and being present in our conversations with each other and in our desire to get to know each other through having meals as a team,” said Dieter.
