Photo by Will Kirk
tach*y*car*di*a [tak-i-kahr-dee-uh] (noun)(1) excessively rapid heartbeat. (2) name of a flag football team consisting of a dozen nursing students from the Johns Hopkins University Class of 2009.
tach*yp*ne*a [tak-ip-nee-uh] (noun)(1) excessively rapid respiration. (2) name of a flag football team consisting of a dozen nursing students from the Johns Hopkins University Class of 2009.
Our first game, the teams were equipped with a first-aid kit and Gatorade to stave off dehydration. Not to mention we all have our CPR certifications. It may be the safest playing environment I’ve ever participated in,” says team captain David Twillmann ’09, who wasted no time in organizing the school’s intramural sports teams when he arrived for orientation in August.
The result of his recruitment efforts was the formation of Tachycardia and Tachypnea, the School of Nursing’s first-ever flag football teams. The teams comprise half of the university’s four-team co-ed league (there are 28 other teams at Hopkins). With just two men on each team, nursing is unusual—even in the co-ed league—for its large proportion of women.
Beverly Ukandu, captain of Tachypnea, is no stranger to women’s football. She played “powder puff” football for two years in high school, earning the nickname “You Can Do It” (a play on her last name) from her teammates. “Everyone on Tachypnea is so encouraging. The games are all in fun, our heads held high, and nobody puts their teammates down.”
In addition to outdoor flag football, students hope to form teams for outdoor soccer, basketball, and inner tube water polo. Twillmann’s enthusiasm for sports is contagious as he invites students, faculty, staff, and alumni to “Come out and watch the rumble in the Hopkins jungle!”