Relaxing on her front porch listening to football games in the fall in Hanover and going to every men's hockey game in the winter, Chelsea Dodds never thought about being anywhere else than Dartmouth.
   
Now, instead of listening or cheering, she is playing right across the street from where she grew up.
   
Chase AstroTurf Field, the new field hockey facility that was constructed two years ago, is a stone's throw away from where she used to eat dinner and hang out with friends. The Dodds family moved from Enfield into Hanover some years ago and why? "My parents bought the house because they could hear football games being announced from the front porch," said Dodds. "That was the main reason."
   
Football was not the first love of the Dodds family, however, it was ice hockey. Dodds would have commitments throughout the week with sports and school, but on Friday and Saturday nights, she could be seen with her father, John, in the stands at Thompson Arena.
   
"It was one of those things when you're really young, it started out as an obligation," said Dodds. "I was picked up where ever I was and forced to go to the hockey game. I had to sit there and my dad would make me pay attention. I learned quickly around seven years old that this was supposed to be fun and then I really loved going with him."
   
When it came down to choosing a school to go to following high school graduation, Dodds had only one choice in mind.
   
"I was going to come to Dartmouth regardless if I was playing field hockey or not," mentioned Dodds. "I had taken a class here and loved it, loved the community. I really loved the culture and the energy of the campus."
   
She said she was forced to look around, but she called her feeling for Dartmouth as "tunnel-vision" and it was the only place for her and field hockey was almost an after thought.
   
Dodds had only been playing field hockey since eighth grade after growing up competing in gymnastics, which was a year-round commitment. She decided to try other activities because she had so much time off after school. So field hockey and ice hockey became those two new sports.
   
Ice hockey was a given, since her father is the girls hockey coach at Hanover High School and her uncle guides the boys squad. In Hanover, hockey is the lifeblood of the town in the winter. Field hockey was something her mom, Patti, suggested and Dodds saw other friends trying out, so she thought she would give it a shot. She ended up liking it from the start.
   
She ended up at the Dartmouth camp and hit it off with the coaches and was recruited to play for the school she grew up watching and cheering, not bad for an athlete that picked the game up four years prior. Her wish had come true. She didn't have to leave home to play top Division I athletics. She mentioned going to a place that was warmer, but there is nothing like being able to go home and have a home-cooked meal any night of the week.
   
"It is incredible," said Dodds. "Once I am at school I do feel that I am away from home, with the added bonus of being able to go home and have dinner whenever I am able."
   
Since joining the field hockey squad, Dodds has become a steady player for the Big Green. She is really known for her ability to strike on penalty strokes. The last four goals she has scored have come on strokes. Last season against Harvard in a scoreless game, she was called on to put the Big Green on top. She is a very confident player when it comes to her specialty and this game was no different.
   
"There is a split second that you have to think about it and you're out there taking the stroke," said Dodds. "You don't have time to over think it. I remember after the game that it would have been really bad if I had missed the shot."
   
She didn't miss the shot and led Dartmouth a 1-0 win over the Crimson and helped the Big Green finish with 4-3 Ivy record and a third-place finish in the league last year.
   
This season she has tallied one goal in her six games played. She was a key reason the Big Green was able to pull out a double-overtime victory at Vermont. Dodds came off the bench with less than 10 minutes remaining with Dartmouth down 2-1 and drove home the game-tying goal on a stroke to send the game into the extra frames.
   
At the end of this season, Dodds will graduate with a degree in mathematics and will enter the financial world in New York City with Morgan Stanley. She will be doing sales and trading for foreign exchange. For the first time she will be away from home for a long period of time, so like most she is nervous, but in some ways she says it reminds her of Dartmouth.

"New York City is not Hanover and it is really different," said Dodds. "I was there this summer and doing an internship and I really liked the group dynamic and the business. It reminds me of Dartmouth. There are a lot of Dartmouth Alums there and a good support network."

Dodds did look at other schools and said the only thing that could have pulled her away from Hanover was warmer weather. Luckily for Dartmouth, she had a dream as a kid to go to her hometown school and for her the three months of warm weather was enough. (Matt Faulkner)