The athletes, Glynn noted, are engaging in the same practice of nearly every other diner in Corcoran Commons, just with more scrutiny. "Everyone has their main group of friends that they hang out with on a regular basis," she said. "I have a friend who's on the swim team and she hangs out with the rest of the swim team a lot, because when you're on a sports team together, it's an easy way to form friends."
Steve Aponavicius, CSOM '09 and place kicker for the BC football team, has a unique perspective on the table; his ascendancy from average student to sports stardom is well documented, and among the perks was a seat at the athletes' table. "It's an interesting phenomenon, and even my first couple of weeks on the team I was intimidated to sit here. I like to switch it up at times and get a different perspective," he said.
While many students may feel like outsiders when looking at the insular world of the athlete table, plenty of BC athletes express a desire to meet other people outside of their respective athletic groups. Sam Shaugnessy, CSOM '10 and a member of the BC baseball team, knows the social benefits of having friends both on and off his team. "I believe it's a case-by-case thing; like last year, I made an effort to meet other people outside of baseball, all my roommates are baseball teammates, and I'm good buddies with a couple of different people now," Shaugnessy said. "It's really just out of convenience that we all tend to sit together at the same table and it's pretty much one sport group at a time, because if I see a ton of football players sitting there, I'll sit somewhere else in Lower."
The football players are perhaps the most noticeable when they sit at the "athlete table," for they tend to be larger-than-life, physically imposing men who, as a group, are easily distinguishable by their football practice sweats. They have the faces that a large majority of the BC population recognizes from both the pervasiveness and popularity of BC athletics, making them on-campus celebrities. When asked about the issue of blending in with the rest of the BC student body, Patrick Sheil, A&S '09 and offensive tackle for the football team (and a rather imposing guy at first glance) said "If we really wanted to blend in we wouldn't sit at the same table and wear our sweats, but I feel like I blend in with the average student and that I don't really draw much attention [to myself]."
2008 Woodie Awards
