Two Sports One Captain

How do you do? Meet Rachel Burke, student-athlete extraordinaire and poster woman for the U.S. military.

Why bestow that title on the Currier senior? Remember the old Army recruiting slogan, "We do more by 9 a.m. than most people do all day?"

Burke lives those words.

"Yeah, I usually get up around 7:30 every day," she says, laughing. "I mean, sometimes, I'll sleep in, but I like to get an early start."

Early starts would seem necessary for any Harvard student who captained two sports teams and participated in ROTC this past year.

As the Co-Captain of both the women's lacrosse and field hockey squads. Burke found her schedule quite full, regardless of when she started her days.

"Obviously [the ROTC and sports commitments] take up a lot of time, but everything eventually gets squeezed in," Burke says. "I like being busy."

Who would doubt her? Growing up as one of seven children in her family in Alexandria, Virginia, Burke always seemed to have something to do.

"My parents influenced all of us to get into sports or music lessons or something," she says.

The constant drive to do more, to get involved, to stay active, translated itself into a myriad of athletic activities for the young Burke. At West Potomac High School, she won honors running track and playing field hockey.

When she arrived at Harvard, the hyperkinetic Burke decided she wanted to do something "new and different." Voila--lacrosse.

Because she started playing the sport only as a Crimson freshman, Burke did not make the varsity during her first season. Characteristically, though, her hard work eventually produced a starting position on the Harvard defense.

"When I first started playing. I could barely pass and catch the ball, and then I finally managed to get to the point where I could check off the other team's attackers, and it was a great feeling," she says.

Checking off the other team's attackers apparently became only one of Burke's skills, as she was voted first team All-Ivy this year for lacrosse.

Couple that with her second-team All-Ivy honors in field hockey this year, and you start realizing how special an athlete Burke is.

And now, unfortunately for Harvard sports, she's ready to move on. She was commissioned into the Navy yesterday--all those ROTC hours had to pay off, after all-and will receive her Harvard diploma today.

After serving summer duty in Bethesda, Maryland, Burke will enter training this fall to become a naval doctor. One detects the slightest trace of ruefulness as she says, "Yeah, I owe the Navy 11 years now."

Then again, it can't be that bad for Superwoman Burke. Asked to describe what made her successful at Harvard, she paused momentarily and then replied, "I think it's a matter of wanting to do well. If you try hard enough at whatever you do, everything else falls into place."

Well-thought words from Rachel Burke, student-athlete extraordinaire and poster woman for the U.S. military.