In honor of Valentine’s Day, we decided to take a look into events that are all about new relationships: varsity mixers. At the Claremont Colleges, varsity sports teams are the closest thing we have to Greek life. Houses throw parties and teams host mixers with one another that resemble formals between sororities and fraternities.
As NARPs (non-athletic regular people), we wanted to know what happens at these mixers as they’re usually closed to anyone not on the two teams present. Multiple athletes declined to be interviewed, but others who have frequently attended the events shared their experiences and opinions.
According to Jake Taylor CM ’26, a junior on the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) men’s water polo team, the mixers are simply a way to meet other athletes across the 5Cs. However, Taylor noted, it’s a rare occurrence that these mixers happen between two teams of the same gender. Organized by upperclassmen, who often hold the role of “social chair,” the parties are usually thrown in one of the team’s houses.
“Most of the time, it is just one men’s team, one women’s team,” Taylor said. “It’s a good way for usually the younger people on the team to get to know the other people in their grade that they might not know so well.”
The CMS water polo team has mingled their way through the 5Cs. According to Taylor, the mixers happen almost every weekend ahead of a night out.
“We’ve done [mixers] with most women’s sports teams,” he said.
Mixers might be just another form of team bonding, but it wouldn’t be Valentine’s Day without a little spice. For Audrey Reimers PO ’28, a freshman on the Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) softball team, the events take on another purpose.
“I think it’s definitely more fun than normal parties in a way, too, because it’s more like they’re trying to set certain people up sometimes,” Reimers said.
All of the athletes we interviewed described “activities” that happen at the mixers, usually in smaller groups (or partners of one man and one woman) designed to make the event more intimate. P-P lacrosse player Audrey Jacklyn PZ ’27 described how these activities can help break the ice, using the men’s club lacrosse team as an example of an especially fun mixer.
“Sometimes it’s like some team games,” Jacklyn said. “And at those ones, I feel like there’s more mingling between teams.”
According to Reimers, the activities — and sometimes even the mixers themselves — are often designed with romance in mind.
“Some teammates find that they are going for a lot of people on another team. They’ll try to set people up and do partners or something like that, and then pair those people together just to do a fun activity,” Reimers said.
While this may work with certain teams, Jacklyn described how the mixers can sometimes feel uncomfortable when put in a room without knowing anyone on the other team beforehand.
“Some are more, I don’t know, awkward,” Jacklyn said. “It’s more like, maybe both the teams are in the same room, but people just stick to their own teammates … I find the setting kind of forced.”
Most of us who are not on a varsity sports team will never know exactly what goes on at these mixers, but setting people up — whether as friends or more — is definitely in the spirit of Valentine’s.
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