Newnam: From Basketball Country to the Rinks of New England

When looking at the Dartmouth women's hockey roster, many players come from hockey-rich communities in Canada and the Northeast, but then there is senior co-captain Sarah Newnam who traveled to Hanover from a place that honored another sport, basketball.

The four-year blueliner for the Big Green came to Hanover from Culver Academy in Indiana. The all girls academy, which she arrived at as a 14-year old, was surrounded by basketball traditions in Purdue, Valparaiso and Notre Dame. Culver gave her more opportunities on the ice then her hometown at the time, which was another traditional basketball hot-bed in Lexington, Kentucky.

“Playing hockey was the main reason I went to the academy and I never even thought I would go to a boarding school as a kid,” said Newnam. “It was the reason I started looking at boarding schools because, living in Kentucky, there isn't really that opportunity to play hockey.”

She mentioned that even though hockey was not the most traditional sport in the area, Culver gave her a great opportunity to become a better hockey player. The team would not compete with local schools, but play club teams and make an appearance each year at the Cushing Academy Winter Tournament.

“Looking into the hockey program, it was a lot like here, where you can practice everyday and there are two sheets of ice, two games every weekend,” said Newnam. “I was able to play with girls, which was a change because I had grown up playing with boys.”

Culver also had an interesting twist to high school life and Newnam definitely took advantage of each opportunity.

“When I was there you always had to be on a sports team or a member of a P.E. club,” said Newnam. “You had to do some type of activity. So, when I was there I played lacrosse, hockey and soccer.”

Newnam started playing all three sports as a freshman, including lacrosse which she took up because everyone on the soccer and hockey teams decided to give it a try. Well, it turns out they were pretty good as they won back-to-back Indiana State Championships in 2002 and 2003. Newnam was also named to the all-tournament team in 2003.

Her lacrosse career, however, didn't continue after the 2003 season because of an injury she suffered during hockey season.

“I tore my ACL my junior year playing hockey,” mentioned Newnam, “and I actually played on it for a month until I realized I had torn it. Something seemed wrong, but I didn't realize it until I went home on Christmas break and found out. I got surgery that January so I missed the second half of that season and that was the end of my lacrosse career.”

From there, her attention was put on hockey. Newnam had many official visits around the northeast, including Boston College, UNH, Harvard, Ohio State and Dartmouth. In the end, it was the small-college feel at Dartmouth, which resembled Culver, which ultimately decided where she would play the next four years.

“Once I came on my official visit here in Hanover,” said Newnam, “I called my parents from the airport and told them I wanted to come here. I love the people and the small town college feel. Dartmouth resembled how I felt at my boarding school, where the people and the community were great.”

There was also a connection that Newnam had when coming on her visit to Hanover. Her father was a military man for 20 years, working with the 82nd Airborne as a special operations lieutenant colonel, and graduated from West Point in 1979. He was also a graduate assistant in the late 80s, when Dartmouth's head coach Mark Hudak was attending the U.S. Military Academy.

“When my parents come up on trips both Mark and my father always chit-chat in Smoyer Lounge after the game about West Point,” said Newnam. “Mark loves to bring it up.”

Since coming on campus, Newnam has been a steady defender for the Big Green and has made appearances in two NCAA Tournaments, won an ECAC Hockey League Regular Season and Tournament Championship and an Ivy League Title.

In the past two years, including this year, she has been one of the best blueliners in ECAC Hockey. Last season she was voted to the All-Ivy Second Team and she is well on her way this year to becoming another All-Ivy and All-ECAC skater with six goals, including a team-high five on the power play, and six assists for 12 points. This year, she believes that she is not doing anything different.

“Honestly I am doing the same thing, except this time the pucks happen to be going into the net,” said Newman. “I'm surprised more than anyone else that all these pucks were going into the net. I am moving better laterally across the blueline and the pucks are not being blocked.”

Her journey started with figure skating as a kid and now she is a consistent defender for one of the top Division I programs in the country. With her career closing out this season, Newnam has already obtained another career. She will be graduating from Dartmouth this spring and moving again, this time to New York City to work for Morgan Stanley as a sales and marketing representative.

Newnam has gone from the basketball havens of Kentucky and Indiana to the cold winters and frozen ice surfaces of New England. The journey's next stop: the big city.

Schedules