SPRING PRACTICE FOR SOCCER.

The soccer team last fall lost every league game, and finished with the lowest percentage of all the competing colleges. Although the material was inexperienced, by the end of the season it was above the mediocre. The thing that caused the deplorable record was delay in rounding the team into form. Only lack of confidence from previous consistency in defeat excused the loss of the last games, which were closely contested. If the team had mastered the rudiments of soccer before the beginning of its schedule, instead of at its end, its record might have been different.

Unlike football candidates, soccer men do not start fall practice before college opens. Consequently preliminary training must be obtained in the spring; and last fall's experience illustrates the result of incomplete spring training. As the late winter has shortened practice from five weeks to three, to insure a balanced team next fall a full squad is imperative now. During last week not more than twelve men have reported on any day, and among them lamentably few insignia players. If candidates will practice the rudiments now, unusual assets predict a strong team next fall, for only four regular players are lost by graduation.

Since soccer offers an opportunity for physical development to men who are not large enough for football and crew, or fast enough for track, it is important to the athletic system. Two years ago it produced for the football team one of the best half-backs that have ever helped in the defeat of Yale and Princeton. In order to be able to devote fall practice to the finer points of the game, men who expect to play soccer must learn the fundamentals now.