A Tale of Two Baskinds

The only things sophomore Melanie Baskind loves more than peanut butter are soccer and lacrosse. This year, the Harvard soccer standout has decided to pursue both of her long-time interests by joining the Crimson women’s lacrosse team.

“I just want to be happy [and] feel like I have no regrets throughout college,” Baskind said. “Playing lacrosse is a huge part of that.”

Through high school, Baskind was a three-sport athlete, captaining both the soccer and lacrosse teams and playing on the ice hockey team at Framingham High School, located 20 minutes from Cambridge. The Massachusetts native led her high school’s lacrosse team to back-to-back state championships in 2006 and 2007 and was selected as a first-team All-American for both soccer and lacrosse.

But when Baskind came to Harvard, she was faced with the difficult decision of picking one sport to focus on. She settled on soccer.

“Soccer was my love from the start,” Baskind said. “It was a combination between loving the girls, having the team, and loving the sport…It just made sense.”

As a freshman, Baskind led the Crimson soccer team to an Ancient Eight championship, earning the Ivy League Rookie of the Year award along the way.

But Baskind could never let go of her great memories of lacrosse. Although she did not begin playing lacrosse until her freshman year of high school at the urging of her sister, who was senior captain of Framingham’s lacrosse team at the time, Baskind nevertheless developed a strong attachment to the sport.

“[Lacrosse is] a little bit faster, because you can run at full speed,” Baskind said. “I like the contrast…I really enjoy the differences between the sports.”

Reflecting back, Baskind is glad that she focused on soccer during her first year in Cambridge, because it gave her the opportunity to grow as a person and evaluate her goals.

“I’m happy I didn’t play last year,” Baskind said. “I think it was the right decision. I didn’t think I was ready just in terms of finding a place in the soccer team socially, figuring out my concentration, and making friends my freshman year.”

But with a year’s worth of maturity under her belt, Baskind decided that she was ready to rekindle her love for lacrosse. She talked with both soccer coach Ray Leone and lacrosse coach Lisa Miller and worked out a schedule where she can fully participate in lacrosse while keeping up with soccer.

Although Baskind practices full time with the lacrosse team, she continues to attend soccer practices in order to keep up to date on what her teammates are working on. Baskind plans on practicing for soccer rigorously over the summer to make up for the lost time.

“A couple years ago, I thought she was the best player in Massachusetts for lacrosse, and [Leone] scooped her up before I arrived,” Miller said. “We’re just really happy. Two-sport athletes in the Ivies used to exist all the time in the 80s and the 90s. And I think it’s a way to create bonds between teams, and then generate a little more interest for a crowd.”

With the start of the lacrosse season in early February, Baskind jumped right back into the sport that she excelled in throughout high school. Even though she is one year removed from competition, Baskind has no problem keeping up with her teammates.

“She’s one of those kids who plays at speed all the time,” Miller said. “She has that kind of hardness already because she’s played in big games. I thought she might be a little bit out of rhythm, and yet it was like [fellow teammate and newcomer] Jennifer VanderMeulen and Mel Baskind had been playing together for decades.”

Indeed, Baskind’s diligence and experience have evoked nothing but praise from her fellow teammates.

“Mel has really taken a leadership role already on the team,” VanderMeulen said. “She is a great player who makes the players around her better. Her quick speed and stick skills have made an immediate impact on our team. She has a great field sense, and I think that comes from her being a soccer player as well. She knows where to be and when to be [there].”

According to her teammates, Baskind’s greatest quality is her personality, a mixture of humility with competitiveness, which helps motivate her on the field and improve her skills off the field.

“As a teammate, [Baskind] is not afraid to ask for help,” VanderMeulen said. “She honors the opinions of anyone. For instance, the other day she asked me to help her with her stick and did not look down at me for being a freshman.”

As the lacrosse team looks forward to its first game of the year tomorrow, there’s little doubt that Melanie Baskind will be an essential piece of Harvard’s game plan. As long as the dining hall keeps serving peanut butter, Baskind will be happy with her full plate.