After many long winter months, Deerfield students rush to the Lower Fields at the first sight of sunshine for hours at a time, enjoying the outdoors and being in the company of their peers. How is it that Deerfield students manage to spend endless hours at the low- er fields? Here is a list of common activities that consume Deerfield days near the river.
Lacrosse
This activity is dominated by lacrosse boys trying to get in extra pre (or post) practice reps. However, beginners can also be seen passing a ball with their friends who have already mastered the sport. Lacrosse is a relatively safe activity, until a rookie to the game throws a ball astray, which ends up catching a bystander off guard with its painful rubber and ability to zoom through the air.
Golf
Somehow, the upperclassmen boys have turned the Lower Fields into their own personal golfing range. Needless to say, it is rather unpleasant when they get too close to the groups of tanning people and start hitting golf balls off of peoples’ chests (and sometimes even hit people in the leg with their errant chips!). Nevertheless, they seem to be having fun with each other and improving their golf skills (in order to avoid any more stray golf balls).
Tanning
You can often find groups of girls laying on their towels on the Lower Fields, usually listening to soft music, trying to work on their base tan before the summer months, or evening out their tans before prom. Due to the Deerfield sun’s rather deceitfully strong rays, tanning can be a rather unpredictable activity… remember to bring your sunscreen!
Homework
While doing homework at the river always seems like a good idea, it never quite works out the way you plan. Between the glare of the sun on your laptop screen, the grass getting between the pages in your book, and the lack of a comfortable way to position yourself, the idea of doing homework at the river is always easier to imagine than to accomplish.
Spike Ball
You can often see someone walking down the hill to the Lower Fields carrying a spike ball net on their shoulder and a yellow ball in hand. If you are the owner of a spike ball net, you are immediately wanted at the river. Spikeballer’s can be identified by their quick sprints to hit the ball into the air before it reaches the ground and their cheering after a victorious match.
Shriving
While many activities at the Lower Fields are centered around the river, students barely spend as much time in the river as they do engaging in other activities. Despite this, the river is a common place for co-curriculars to cool off after practice, students taking a break from the Deerfield sun beating down on them, and the river rats. These hardcore shrivers can be found walking south on the Lower Fields and letting the river pull them back north to the main river entrance. Somehow they are able to withstand the chilling Deerfield river for longer than others.
With only a short amount of time left in the spring and the sudden increase in temperature, Deerfield students will surely spend a majority of their remaining time on campus this year at the Lower Fields.