Senior Gahan an Aggressive Competitor

Out West, water polo draws crowds. The stands are usually awash with people, screaming at the ref, pointing out bad calls, egging on the players. But when senior Jen Gahan, former player at the U.S. Nationals in California, dreams of water polo, there is only silence. She has to stay focused, the former Crimson captain says, and whatever sounds reverberate have become just background noise.

Gahan has an unusual background in water polo. She's played the game for a decade, starting out on the men's varsity team at Philips Exeter Academy. It's basically her what have I got to lose? attitude that propelled her to the sport.

It all began in the fall of her freshman year at Exeter. She stpped out of an empty women's locker room, onto the pool deck for water polo tryouts, and realized "there were 98 guys and me."

"That was a critical moment in my life," Gahan says. "I decided to go though with it. I figured, what's the worst that could happen? I wouldn't make the team, like about 80 other guys, so what's the big deal?"

Her attitude has served her just as well in the "Big Decisions of Life" already has a job lined up, as a staff Consultant with Arthur Andersen Consulting.

"I totally entered recruiting on a whim," Gahan says. "I thought, why not, and handed my resume in. My mom characterizes it as `thoughtlessness', and my friends would call it `spontaneity," I suppose."

Her spontaneity looks as if it'll lead her to San Francisco for now. But Gahan, who grew up a stone's throw from a beach in New Hampshire, shays in the long term, she'll live in a coastal city. It is the lure of the water that beckons.

"I wasn't one of those kids always screaming to go to the beach, But I did love to walk on the beach by myself," Gahan says. "I love watching the sunrise."

In fact, walking alone on the beach is one of Gahan's favorite ways to while away her free time. Time by herself is essential to her, she says. outside of the pool, she is an introvert.

"I'm one of the most shy people my friends know," Gahan admits. "I'm a private person. But for water polo I put on a different persona, I definitely don't disappear during the game. It's something I've never quite figured out," she says.

This is one reason why Gahan has chosen athletically-solitary housing at North House, she says.

"I like being up at the Quad, because I like having my own space. A lot of people like to live close to their teammates, and find it hard to believe that I live far away from my teammates. But we're really close."

Indeed, before this interview, I found Gahan in the computer room, e-mailing her teammate, senior goalie Amber Keasey, something she does on a regular basis.

In the water, however, Gahan is an extroverted player, upfront and forceful. In one of her final home games against Princeton last Saturday, Gahan was a powerhouse. She scored three goals in the game, which the Crimson won after a thrilling final quater, 10-8.

"She's a very strong player, she really knows the game well," says freshman teammate Joan J. Ryoo. "She's a very smart player, She's always two steps ahead of everyone else. She saves our asses a lot of the time."

"Jen's very devoted," says team captain Suzanne M. Foley '94. "She wants to win, she wants to score. She's very competitive, she's got dirve and instinct."

Playing with the boys developed her "aggressive" style, Gahan says.

"I learned to be aggressive, or get squashed at Exeter," Gahan says. "But it worked against me, in that I find it hard to deal with women, especially women athletes. I've gotten better at understanding my teammates now, but I relate better to guys than to girls."

Outside the team, most of Gahan's friends are guys, she says. Her only other sibling is a brother, Chris, a sophomore at Brown, to whom she is "very close." And it is her father who comes to her games, armed with a video camera.

In her time as a varsity players, Gahan has garnered quite a few accolades. She was voted All-American as a freshman, All-East in her freshman, sophomore and junior year, and Most Valuable Player in her sophomore and junior year. Her success in water polo has carried her through the inevitable rough spots of her college experience, she says.

"I definitely have had a love-hate relationship with Harvard," she says. "It's been an up-and-down thing. When I need to get away from my problems, water polo's my outlet."

But this year has been a good one for her, she says. She's pleased with the progress of the team, with the completion of her thesis, and is looking forward to the upcoming Easterns. And to prepare for it, Gahan is headed home, for time alone.

"I am a team player, but to get ready I need to be by myself," Gahan says. "I can't interact with other people--not my dad, my brother, or my boyfriend...I'll probably go running on the beach with my dog."