Chuck the Writer Cheers on his College for a National Championship

Before 2008, Hamilton College never won a national championship in any team sport. Never. And it wasn't for lack of trying, either - because Hamilton was part of an athletic conference called the New England Small College Athletic Conference, they were prohibited from playing in any postseason tournaments that commenced seven days after their last scheduled regular season game. So essentially all they had was the NESCAC tournament and that was it. In 1993, Hamilton and the rest of the "Little Ivies" in the NESCAC conference were allowed to show their stuff in NCAA postseason tournaments.

Last year, Hamilton claimed its first ever national championship, when the women's lacrosse team beat the snot out of Franklin & Marshall. Hamilton is ready to defend its title this weekend, as the Lady Continentals get to pummel Franklin & Marshall like whack-a-moles, and then get to take on the winner of the Gettysburg-Salisbury semifinals. The brackets are here; you can see the path the Continentals took to get to this point.

What was that old Hamilton College fight song again... oh yeah... Dear is thy homestead, glade and glen, we will beat Franklin & Marshall again...