Name: Aldis Gamble
Sport: Men's Fencing
Hometown: Yarmouth, Maine
High School: North Yarmouth Academy
Activities/Clubs/Committees: Haverford Fencing Co-Armorer, Haverford 'Ford S-Chords (an all-male a cappella group)
Why did you choose Haverford?
I first heard about Haverford because I was looking for a small liberal arts school with excellent academics, and a varsity fencing team. As I started to do more research, I found myself very drawn to the kind of community and culture that the Honor Code creates, and the Quaker values that help to guide Haverford. I visited campus in the fall of my senior year, and I had a wonderful visit. I sat in on the first team meeting of the season, and met with Coach Spencer, which helped get a feel for the culture of the fencing team. I also had an amazing host who showed me all round campus on my overnight and introduced me to lots of his friends. Shortly after my campus visit I decided to apply early decision and was lucky enough to be accepted.
What is your favorite team experience?
Every year our team comes back to campus ten days early from winter break for our winter training camp. It's the most physically challenging week of the season because every day we have two three-hour practices. None of us could make it through all the conditioning alone, so we have to learn to support each other through the toughest days and make it through as a team. Outside of practices, we spend all of our time together cooking, eating, and just hanging out. Every year without fail, winter training camp is time during the year when we all become closer friends and really bond as a team.
Why did you choose to play a sport in college?
I wanted to fence in college because I know as a student, I perform better academically when I am working out regularly and that the structure of daily practices helps to ground my weekly schedule. I also love the combined physical, mental, and emotional challenges of fencing and I wanted to continue to push myself to improve in these ways. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I wanted to be a part of a team, to have and help build a supportive community of friends a teammates.
What does being a student-athlete mean to you?
Being a student-athlete means committing to being a member of a team that is dedicated to striving toward excellence in all that we do. We each have individual goals academically and athletically, and as a team we have shared goals for our competitive season. Being a student-athlete means always striving to become the best possible version of yourself that you can as you work to achieve these goals, and at the same time supporting your teammates as they do the same.
What advice would you give a high school student considering Haverford?
If you can, come visit campus. Try to meet some of your potential teammates, but also get a feel for the rest of the Haverford community outside of athletics. If you are unable to visit campus, then contact your potential coach and ask if they can put you in touch with current members of the team, or recent alumni. Either way, try to gain as good a sense of your potential team's culture, and Haverford as a whole as possible. In particular, I highly recommend you try to learn as much as you can about the Honor Code. The ideals of the Honor Code are the foundation on which our entire community, and thus all of our teams, are built. They inform the ways we strive to build our teams as equally competitive and supportive, and interpersonal conflicts when they arise. I think it will be valuable to consider whether you would enjoy and thrive in the environment the Honor Code helps create. Lastly, I think it can be helpful when looking at any school to ask yourself, if you ever were seriously injured or for any other reason chose to stop playing your sport, would you still be happy there for four years? Obviously we all hope that never happens to any athlete, but it can be a good way to figure out whether Haverford really is a good fit for you, and you are a good fit for Haverford, which I believe is the most important part of the college search process.