“If you’re a senior, you’re a captain and you have freshmen on your team, they’re being thrown into this whole new experience,” Hodel says.

“They’re at college. They’re at Harvard. They’re in a situation where you just kind of have to be on the lookout for them, like how do they look like they’re doing? How do they look like they’re feeling [if] it’s their first midterm, first paper?”

That type of extra effort isn’t lost on the other players.

“It’s unique to find a player whose number one priority at all times is her teammates,” Mildrew explains. “That’s what has always made [Hodel] an exceptional leader.”

But for Hodel, leading is just an extension of her natural personality.

“I’ve never considered myself the most talented or most skilled person on the team, so I’ve always tried to be one of the hardest working,” she says. “I’ve just always believed if you have 23 people who are just working their butts off and just so committed to something and everyone wants it and is on the same page, that can do a lot.

“For me, leading is just playing the way that I like to play and hopefully people see that and feed off of it and take it and go from there.”

And it’s likely people will indeed continue to “go from there” as players like Mildrew broaden Hodel’s legacy by becoming starters, stars and captains and passing their wisdom on to future generations of Crimson players.

Of course, to the extent they do, they’ll just be doing what seems to come naturally to everyone—following Hodel’s lead.

—Staff writer Alan G. Ginsberg can be reached at aginsber@fas.harvard.edu.