First Weekend Festivities: The First Game
- Natalie Zona
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
The new school year is officially underway and with that comes hundreds of new students being welcomed to Dean College. Every year, Dean holds a multi-day long event called Bulldog Beginnings where students are able to get acclimated to college life and everything the campus has to offer. This year was no different with tons of activities for new freshman such as off campus trips, an Involvement Fair, movie night, and much more.
An event that is always sure to bring in a crowd are the first athletic games of the season. The fall season officially started for the athletes on August 29th, but both the men’s and women's matches got postponed due to weather. That meant that this game, Dean vs Rhode Island College, was the actual start to the women’s soccer season. This Sunday afternoon match against Rhode Island pulled in over 100 spectators including some first years who were experiencing their first Dean game.
First year, Emma McNamara mentioned that she had gone to one of the scrimmages that the women’s soccer team had earlier in the week, but this was her first time going to a real game at Dean. She also said that her roommate was on the team, so that is what encouraged her to show up for the game. Although she was already aware there was a game due to the advertising of the weekend's activities on Dean’s social media pages. When asked if she would attend more games in the future, she said, “Yes, definitely, it was a fun time here today. I would probably go to some basketball and football games too.”
Sophia Klanchesser also spent her afternoon on Grant Field supporting the Bulldogs. She said, “This is the first full game I’ve watched, I think it was pretty good. There was a lot of energy from the crowd.” She also mentioned how she came to support the people that she has met so far on campus that play on the team.
While most of the first years that attended this game said that they thought it was a lively environment, there was an interesting circumstance at this game that does not happen too often. Rhode Island College is only 40 minutes away from Dean College and it
was Labor Day weekend, so a lot of fans were there for the opposing team. Having the support of their own fans and family made it seem as if it was a home game for Rhode Island college when they scored a goal. Although this was the case, it did not take away from the Bulldog Pride that was present at the game. Plenty of fans were in Franklin this past weekend to cheer on the Bulldogs.
After a full weekend of festivities, first-years began their classes on September 2nd, kicking off the fall semester. This week also has a full schedule of home athletic events all on Grant Field.
