By Linley Grosman '28

Bowdoin's own Swiss Army knife, senior Jed Hoggard has impressed both on the field and on the stage during his time on campus, embodying the spirit of a Division III athlete at a liberal arts college.

Football was Jed's first sport, following the path his older brother carved out for him.

"My first memory surrounding sports is pee wee football. I grew up as the youngest child and my older brother played football, so I just followed his shoes there. I remember when I was little, I think first grade, my mom came to wake me up early, like 5 AM. When she came in, I was already awake - I was ready to go, like 'let's do it'."

Jed has always liked to keep active, so just one sport wasn't enough for him. He tried baseball in the spring but didn't like it that much. Following his brother's path again, Jed found lacrosse. In high school, Jed was a three-season, three-sport athlete, playing football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and lacrosse in the spring. Now playing two sports at Bowdoin, compartmentalizing each sport is very important to Jed to make sure he is putting in full effort to both.

"In the summer and when I'm in football season, I'm strictly a football player. Anything that I do for lacrosse would just be going to the coach's office, but I am strictly a football player, and that's where my priority is. And the same thing goes for when I'm in lacrosse season, I'm strictly a lacrosse player."

Going into college recruitment, Jed focused on lacrosse after talking with coaches from the Ivy League and NESCAC at a prospect camp. After getting the green light from the Bowdoin Lacrosse coach, Jed called the football head coach to see if pursuing both sports would be an option for him at Bowdoin. Sure enough, it was an option, something Jed is grateful to the NESCAC and DIII for allowing him, and many other athletes, to do.

"I think the best thing an athlete can do is to play multiple sports – I think they all make you a better athlete and football and lacrosse translate well to each other. Instead of just specializing in one sport, it shows that you want to be competitive, you want to play in different games and you're athletic enough to be able to play in those different sports."

Jed was also drawn to the academic opportunities at Bowdoin, wanting to try many different departments just like he did with sports. He landed on an economics major with a physics minor, and a specialty in theater, as he likes to say.

"The best thing about liberal arts is that it allowed me to explore theater, which I never thought I would do. I ended up taking a class my sophomore year and then another class and then just kept going. I was in the musical this past fall and had such a good time – the highlight of my Bowdoin career was being in the musical. I had so much fun because I'd never been around music, and I made 20 new friends, and they were all fantastic people. Thank you to Bowdoin for letting me explore that interest, and now I have one of my favorite memories of my life."

Back to Whittier Field, Jed's name is all over both the football and lacrosse stat sheets. As a wide receiver, Jed played in 22 games, had 69 receptions for a total of 1095 yards, and scored six touchdowns, four of which were in his senior season. Even if he wasn't the intended receiver on a play, his lacrosse background helped him with blocking, something Jed notes as a benefit to his dual-sport career. He was named to the NESCAC All-Academic Team his sophomore through senior seasons.

In the spring, Jed plays defense for the lacrosse team. Starting in 46 of the 59 games he's played over his collegiate career, Jed is a ground ball machine, second on the team so far this season with 40, 102 in his career. He disrupts opposing offenses, causing 45 turnovers in his career, already 16 this season. Even from his defensive position, Jed has scored five goals in his career, four of them coming this season, and seven assists over his four years. He was recognized as a member of the All-Region Second Team in his sophomore year and was an All-American in his junior year.

When thinking about what he will miss most when he graduates in May, Jed's immediate response was about the people. From his teammates to a passer-by on the quad, Jed has found community at Bowdoin.

"Freshman year, they do a good job of kind of putting you out there, making you have a random roommate. I had roommates from Greece, New York, and California. I had never met someone from Greece, so that was amazing, and I've never been to California. I'm still friends with them, which is awesome. I think [Bowdoin] does a really good job of finding kind people and that makes me have a lot of hope for the world."