Who are the Swarthmore Warmothers?
We are a group of women who are diverse in our academic interests, backgrounds, personalities, and skills. We believe that maintaining a positive, supportive environment on and off the field is essential to becoming a competitive team. We are each others' coaches, mentors, friends, and study partners. We believe in putting forth one hundred percent of our participating energy to the game while on the field or the sideline.
Team mentality
Because we do not belong to the athletics department, we function as our own administrators, fundraisers, coaches, mentors, and treasurers, to name a few jobs that we hold. Since there are so many things that need to get done in order for our team to remain a competitive entity (secure funding! design and order uniforms! book hotels and vans! drive to tournaments! schedule and run practice! etc), we have to work closely and effectively as a group. This means that we are constantly checking in with each other to ensure that everyone is committed and doing their part to help our team run smoothly, whether it means reserving vans for an upcoming tournament, getting to practice on time, or participating in a team fundraiser.
Friend mentality
We are very proud of how close the Warmothers are as a team. We are committed to being supportive of each other off the field as well as on: when someone on the team has a chamber music performance, for example, many teammates attend; when a Warmom wants a friend to work out with, she will send an email to the entire team inviting everyone to join her workout. It is common to see Warmothers walking around campus, getting a meal, or working on throws on Mertz field together. It is very important to us that everyone feels both wanted and included on our team.
Academics and Ultimate
At Swarthmore, it is basically impossible to favor extracurricular activities over academic work since the workload is so heavy (and we are all huge nerds). The Warmothers do a great job of balancing (and excelling in) athletics and academics.
Warmothers success: a timeline
1998: The Warmothers qualify for Regionals for the first time.
1999-2001: The Warmothers take first at Regionals and go to Nationals, led by captains Lindsay Goldsmith ('01 Callahan winner) and Jenny Hoedeman.
2002-03: The Warmothers go to Nationals.
2006: The Warmoms go to Nationals, led by captains Marie Laurenza ’06 and Mae Tobin-Hochstadt ‘06
2009: Number of players increase by 100% since 2008
2010: The Warmothers come in 2nd at D-III Nationals in Appleton, WI; team numbers increase by 200% since 2008
2011: Team numbers increase by 300% since 2008; Warmothers officially qualify to compete at the Division-I level; place 5th at Ohio Valley D-I Regionals
2012: The Warmoms fly across the country to attend Centex, place 7th at Ohio Valley D-I Regionals
2013: The Warmothers place 5th at D-III Nationals in Milwaukee, WI
2014: The Warmoms qualify for D-III Regionals.
2015: The Warmothers place 5th at D-III Regionals in Westerville, OH
1999-2001: The Warmothers take first at Regionals and go to Nationals, led by captains Lindsay Goldsmith ('01 Callahan winner) and Jenny Hoedeman.
2002-03: The Warmothers go to Nationals.
2006: The Warmoms go to Nationals, led by captains Marie Laurenza ’06 and Mae Tobin-Hochstadt ‘06
2009: Number of players increase by 100% since 2008
2010: The Warmothers come in 2nd at D-III Nationals in Appleton, WI; team numbers increase by 200% since 2008
2011: Team numbers increase by 300% since 2008; Warmothers officially qualify to compete at the Division-I level; place 5th at Ohio Valley D-I Regionals
2012: The Warmoms fly across the country to attend Centex, place 7th at Ohio Valley D-I Regionals
2013: The Warmothers place 5th at D-III Nationals in Milwaukee, WI
2014: The Warmoms qualify for D-III Regionals.
2015: The Warmothers place 5th at D-III Regionals in Westerville, OH
- Ohio Valley D-III player of the year: Warmoms Captain Amy Jin '15
- Ohio Valley D-III All-Region 2nd team: Cappy Pitts '16, Tessa "Kirby" Jones '17
- Ohio Valley All-Region 1st team AND player of the year: Tessa "Kirby" Jones '17
- Inaugural Donovan award winner: Tessa "Kirby" Jones '17 (Here’s the article: https://ultiworld.com/2017/05/21/2017-donovan-award-winner-swarthmores-tessa-jones/ )
- Ohio Valley All-Region 2nd team: Emilie "Shep" Shepherd '18
- Ohio Valley All-Region 1st team: Emily "Bazinga" Cai '18, Emilie "Shep" Shepherd '18
- Ohio Valley All-Region 2nd team: Becky Norling-Ruggles '19, Chelsea "Spuds" Semper '21
- Ohio Valley All-Region 1st team: Sumi Onoe '21, Iris Wang '21
- Ohio Valley All-Region 2nd team: Chelsea "Spuds" Semper '21, Gillie Tillson '20
- 20th in USAU D-III College Women's Division rankings
- Players to Watch: Gillie Tillson '20 https://ultiworld.com/2020/02/04/d-iii-college-womens-primer-2020/
- Donovan award finalist: Jasmine Xie '20 https://ultiworld.com/2020/05/13/the-donovan-award-the-2020-finalists/
- Season cut short by COVID, USAU College Championship Series cancelled
- Fall 2020 - Spring 2021: no official practices/tournaments held due to COVID (only freshmen/sophomores on campus in the fall, only juniors/seniors on campus in the spring). The moms stayed in touch through Zoom workouts and socials!
- USAU Championship series moved to Fall 2021 (originally Spring 2021) due to COVID-19 pandemic: the Warmothers played through wind and snow in Hilliard, OH to lose 4-8 against Kenyon in the game-to-go to Nationals, taking home 3rd place at Ohio Valley D-III Regionals (holding seed).
- Ranked 23rd in Ultiworld D-III Women's Power Rankings on 3/9/22
- Ohio Valley D-III Regionals was played at Swarthmore, PA on Saturday and at Manheim, PA on Sunday. The Warmothers came into Regionals seeded 6th and played Saturday games but forfeited Sunday games due to low numbers and last-minute location changes, which caused transportation issues. The number of bids in the Ohio Valley region decreased from 2 to 1.