DHA’s Sweats, No Sweat Required

They may not be willing to admit it, but some kids landed in Cambridge dying to sport the cotton luxury of grey and crimson: the classy splendor of DHAs.

In prior years, these anonymous DHAs lovers—the aspiring athlete, the sweatpants junkie, the almost-girlfriend—have had to resort to mischief to nab their own pair. There are tales of DHAs disappearing from the laundry rooms, exes who refuse to part with this prized possession post break-up, and the simple borrowed-from-a-friend-and-never-given-back.

That era has come to an end.

Thanks to fall budget cuts, the funding for DHAs was transferred from general athletic expense to a team concern.

“We let each individual coach and team decide whether DHAs would be a good thing for them,” said Director of Athletics Robert L. Scalise.

However, when the equipment requests came back, many teams had decided to forgo funding for DHAs.

“As much as we all love DHAs, unfortunately they were not identified as items that made crew members row faster, softball players hit better, or tennis players rip more backhand winners,” said Robert A. Glatz ’88, executive director for Harvard varsity clubs.

At this point in the game, the Athletics Department decided to partner up with the Varsity Club to sell DHAs to students at the discounted price of $25 per item, as long as they were willing to trek to the Club office by November 6.

According to Glatz, the Varsity Club had about 700 students in their office last week with order forms.

Basketball captain Claire M. Wheeler ’11 said she is “indifferent” to the change.

“It’s actually nice, though, to hear this in a way, because there can be some negative attitudes towards athletes at Harvard,” she added. “Yet anyone who is going to buy DHAs on their own accord is actually going out of their way to be associated with athletes, not vice versa.”

But for her, DHAs should be more than about fashion.

“If you buy, you better show up to our games,” she said.