Local Coach May Get Chief Boston's Berth

At Columbia nobody was very much worried last week that its football team plays Harvard on October 2. Art Valpey, now a veteran of four months coaching in Cambridge, thought that was a natural and encouraging attitude. "We have "certain advantages," he mused and passed on to the problems. The post of Jayvee football coach, which Chief Boston '37 resigned two weeks ago, is still open and will not be filled until the middle of the summer, Valpey says. "The new assistant will probably be from the Harvard family or from one of the Eastern high schools because we need balance rather than more men who know the Michigan system."

Boston's departure puts one more 1947 coach on an enemy staff for the 1948 season and emphasizes the main imponderable affecting Harvard chances for the fall. Boston is now with the Army; Hank Margarita and Henry Jacunski are both with Yale; and persistent reports say that Dick Harlow will advise Lou Little at Morning side Heights. Their knowledge of Crimson personnel will naturally be of aid and comfort to teams facing a new, unscouted Crimson system.

"Actually I don't think it's a problem to be seriously concerned about," is Valpey's feeling, however. While complicated in its own right, the imported Michigan defense puts more emphasis on rushing than on the loops and waltzes of the bygone Harlow days. "Personnel idiosyncrasies change under different systems," Valpey points out and adds that "men will be playing in different positions next fall." On offense, the Michigan system and last year's melange have little in common except in certain phases of line-blocking, which should further confuse the picture.

Meanwhile Valpey and his assistants are already scheming about next season and have already perused certain selected movies made at last year's Cornell, Army and Columbia games. Crimson coaches will also get one look at the 1948 Columbia team on September 26 and two looks at Cornell before Harvard plays them on October 2 and 9. During the summer, Valpey and aides will look at more opponents' movies, analyze Crimson spring practice films, and pick the 50 men who will be asked back to pre-season fall practice. Others are welcome, but must pay their own way.

In the fall Valpey plans to use the first three and one-half weeks preparing "for the season as a whole," and the last week in special drills for Columbia.