YEAR-ROUND COACHES

The growing success of Harvard's two new major sports, basketball and swimming, particularly from the point of view of team spirit, have made the undergraduates acutely conscious that two other major sports have suffered by contrast. In both of these other two, hockey and baseball, there exists a coaching problem.

The complaint against the conduct of hockey here is not a new one but one which has been in the air for several seasons. One poor season, however, has brought the issue to a head. Followers of Harvard hockey had every right to expect a great showing from this year's sextet. That they were disappointed has led to every sort of criticism of the hockey set-up. The team was a house divided, the team lacked spirit, the team trained at the Ritz and the Copley, the team had forgotten that it represented the Harvard undergraduates. How much of this criticism is justified is not certain, but the fact remains that Coach Stubbs failed to control some of the members of his team. It was his job; the captain could not do it alone.

Coach Ulen a short time ago kept his star free-styler out of two meets because of training violations. This year Coach Fesler was not afraid to discipline the Seniors on his basketball squad. In contrast, we find a member of the hockey team, who, by his conduct at the end of three quadrangular league games, gave non-Harvard men the impression that Harvard is a home for soreheads and poor losers. If discipline was not attempted by the coach, then it was squarely up to the Director of Athletics to take action.

Probably hockey's first need is a rink, but this is a monetary matter. The Crimson feels that it is important right now to have hockey coaching put on a year-round basis. The coach, who it appears must be a new man, must see and control the members of his team on and off the ice all season; he has even the obligation of checking on them during the off-season. He must be on the pay-roll for nine months.

Baseball has presented many of the problems which have existed in hockey. Every sort of internal difficulty was said to exist on the ball field last year. But baseball, it seems, has become the most neglected of the seven majors. The Athletic Association has forgotten that baseball is the national sport. Restoration of the baseball Junior Varsity team and the reorganization of fall practice would probably help. Indeed they are necessities if baseball is to gain back its former student support. As in hockey, however, the primary need is the recognition of a year-round coaching system for the future.