Completed Event: Men's Soccer at Columbia on October 11, 2025 , Win , 2, to, 1
Final
Men's Soccer
at Columbia
2
1
Spotlight on Aaron Gaide
11/1/2010 11:58:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Spotlight on Aaron Gaide '11
by Bruce Wood
Aaron Gaide had gotten that breakthrough goal three days earlier in a hard-fought win at Vermont, and this latest one on a cross from Lucky Mkosana would prove to be the gamewinner in a 3-1 victory over Yale on Burnham Field.
A hard-working senior midfielder from Avon, Conn., Gaide had reason to be smiling. He'd appeared in 30 games with 20 starts over his first two years and while he'd been a solid contributor on teams that won 22 games during that span, the back of the net had eluded him.
Last year, Gaide figured to be an integral part of a Dartmouth team that was ranked as high as No. 5 in the nation before his season was ended by a stress fracture after one start and just three appearances.
Now back in full health, his second career goal in as many games breaking a tie with the Elis, Gaide would have been forgiven for breaking out in a smile. But he didn't. Quite the opposite, actually.
"You look at the video after he scored and the camera zooms in on him and he has this miserable, angry, frustrated look on his face," said 10th-year coach Jeff Cook with a laugh.
Well, Aaron, what's the deal?
"I just watched the video and I guess Coach was right," a sheepish Gaide confessed recently. "I think I was still annoyed that we let in a goal on Burnham Field. We were really trying to get the shutout that we've been missing, so I was a little more perturbed than anything else. We needed to get that third one before I smiled."
Cook values that über-competitiveness as well as Gaide's game.
"He has an absolute, 100 percent belief in his ability to impact games regardless of who the opponent is we are playing," said Cook. "Whether it's the top-ranked team in the country or a team that we are expected to beat, he is the same every time.
"The other thing about Aaron is he understands how important movement off the ball is. He does a lot of unselfish running. People only see that when he gets the ball and scores the goal, but we see it as coaches all the time. He will literally run himself into the ground."
According to Gaide, that's the only way he knows how to play. "It's not the most flashy thing," he explained, "but it's definitely something you should be doing because as long as everyone is working off the ball, which our team has done a good job with, you should be in great shape when you do get on the ball. You'll have the right amount of space and time. A lot of people don't notice it, but coaches do."
Cook first noticed Gaide's endless hustle at former Dartmouth coach Bobby Clark's Notre Dame camp, which he attended after making the Connecticut all-state team for the second year in a row.
"I went there the summer before my senior year of high school," Gaide said. "Bobby Clark had contacted me and I was really excited about the opportunity to possibly get recruited by Notre Dame. Coach (Cook) was sort of my coach for the week. I guess that was kind of a lucky stumble."
The two kept in touch and instead of wearing the Fighting Irish green the next year, Gaide would end up in Dartmouth green. He couldn't be happier about it.
"Notre Dame is a great institution for both sports and school," he said, "but Dartmouth, arguably, is better at both of those aspects. Things couldn't have worked out better."
Except for last year, when a promising start was sabotaged by injury.
"I remember coach saying when we were coming in that junior year was really going to be the year for us with a strong senior class and our class, as big as it is and the quality in it," Gaide recalled. "The beginning of the season went pretty well. In our preseason games I felt really good; I scored the first goal against UMass-Lowell."
But it wasn't long before the pain started. A difficult diagnosis eventually identified a stress fracture in one of the bones in his hip. He'd originally thought he could shut it down for a couple of weeks and then return, but when he did, the pain returned and he had little option but to call it quits for the season.
"It couldn't be more of a heartbreak to be that excited about the season and then have something that seemed so miniscule prevent you from doing things you wanted to do," he said. "Not just for yourself, but for your teammates. Craig Henderson also faced injury and I think the team did a great job recovering. They battled right through the (Boston College) NCAA game."
Gaide spent last winter doing an internship with the Charles Group, what he describes as a "boutique government relations consulting firm," run by former assistant secretary of state Robert Charles '87. While he was there he rehabbed with Scott Epsley at Georgetown. That hard work has paid off this fall.
"It's really exciting to be playing again and it's more fun than anything else to be with your teammates," he said. "It's been really nice to come back and be able to do the things that you thought you were going to do junior year as a senior."
And yes, he almost smiled when he said it.
Players Mentioned
Bobby Clark Head Coach of Men's Soccer Bo Oshoniyi Postgame vs. Harvard - 11.7.25
Saturday, November 08
Bobby Clark Head Coach of Men's Soccer Bo Oshoniyi Postgame vs. Penn - 10.25.25
Sunday, October 26
Bobby Clark Head Coach of Men's Soccer Bo Oshoniyi Postgame vs. Cornell - 10.4.25
Sunday, October 05
Bobby Clark Head Coach Bo Oshoniyi Postgame vs. Northeastern - 9.17.25
Thursday, September 18
