The Pull

Right now I am a freshman at Hope College in Holland Michigan, and I am absolutely loving it! The second week of school, I started doing something called the Pull. I knew a lot of people that had done in it in the past, and when I knew I was going to Hope, this was definitely something I knew I had to do.

Now to try and describe what the Pull is, is like impossible. But I'll do my best. The Pull is one of the oldest college traditions in history, it was started 113 years ago. It is a competition between the freshman and the sophomore classes. Juniors coach the freshman and Seniors coach the sophomores. Season is three weeks long, with practices monday-friday from 3-6. Then the two saturdays in season practice is from 8am-4pm. It's a huge time commitment for three weeks, but when Pull day comes, it is so worth it. Now I have played sports my entire life, as did everyone else on the team, and they would all back me up that Pull conditioning is way harder than any sports conditioning. So just imagine doing that for three weeks straight every single day. Now that you may have gotten a sense for how hard Pull is, I will continue. There are 20 guys and 20 girls on the team. The boys are the Pullers and the girls are the Moralers. NO, WE ARE NOT CHEERLEADERS. just thought i would clarify.

Anyways, one of our coaches is standing in front of all the pits doing certain hand motions that we call, 'call sets.' The way the Pullers are laying on the rope, they can't see up front, so their eyes are on us, moralers at all times. And our eyes are on the caller at all times. We have certain things we say and do to let the pullers know what they are supposed to be doing with the rope. Now pull day is EXTREMELY loud, so us girls had to learn how to say things in a "moral voice". Which is a very loud, very deep sounding voice so the boys can hear us. So when pull day comes around, the boys are in lots and LOTS of pain for three hours max, sometimes less. This year us as freshmen were obviously the under dogs, and everyone was expecting us to lose. Well we did lose, but we have been the only freshmen class in a very long to make it last the full three hours. Everyone was extremely impressed with our team, and we now are getting physched to beat the freshmen next year.

Now from day one, our coaches were telling us that we were gonna be family. None of us actually thought they were gonna be right. We spent about 5-6 hours together everyday for three weeks straight, to say the least, we became a family. Now I am best friends with people on that team. We went through, LOTS of pain, LOTS of tears, LOTS of fun, LOTS of bleedng, and other crazy things together, so of course we bonded.




Each puller had to pick a moraler they wanted to be paired with for the season, and then they had to show up at our door and like 'propose' to us. That's when the bond begins. Trying to explain the bond between a puller and a moraler is also sort of impossible. Us moraler's are like a mix between their girlfriend and their mother. We are responsible for our puller's well being. The puller's go through so much pain every single time they are on the rope, it is our job to be right next to their face screaming at them, and encouraging them. It doesn't sounds important, I know. BUT if you ask any puller, they will tell you they couldn't do it without us. Some puller and moralers end up getting married, dating or just become very good friends. It's understandable why; we go through the worst pain we have ever experienced together, give each other massages, gifts, and do pretty much everything together for three weeks straight. That at least describes my relationship with my puller, James. Even though Pull is done now, our relationship is still just as strong. Our coaches always encouraged us to realize that our bond and our closeness will not end just because Pull is over.






I am so extremely grateful for this experience. It gave me amazing friends, and taught me how i don't have any limits. Pull pushes you to do things you never thought were possible for you to do. Now when walking around campus, when I see someone from my 14 family, we have a nice long hug :) i love this family.