Squash Team to Lose Heckscher, Place But Freshmen Hold Promise for Future

It is only with a large amount of trepidation that a part-time sportswriter approaches his typewriter after the season is over, and attempts to call up a few cliches to summarize the efforts of a team which has just completed three or four months of practice, meets, injuries and disappointments.

The 1956-57 season, although excellent in many respects, cannot be accurately described as completely successful one for the Harvard squash team. The varsity won the Intercollegiate Team and Individual Championships but lost the Eastern Intercollegiate crown to Navy and could only manage a tie for the Ivy title with Yale and Princeton.

Resolving the dichotomy inherent in these apparently conflicting facts is actually the best possible "summary" of the squash team's season. The Intercollegiate team title was won on the basis of four men's play, while the other two championships were decided by the performances of nine men.

In a cliche, Harvard had the individual stars but not the depth required to go all the way.

Next year, things will be much different. Ben Heckscher, whose play has led the Crimson for the past three years, will be gone. Possibly, the best squash racquets man ever to come to Harvard, Heckscher was ranked seventh in the country last year, and when this year's rankings come out he will certainly be in the top five, and possibly as high as third.

Cal Place will also graduate this spring. In any normal season, Place would have played at the top of the Crimson team, but for two years stood just a notch behind Heckscher.

Following these two, the varsity will also lose the services of Charlie MacVeagh, who rounded out the top five this year and had played as high as third singles last season. Hank Holmes and Bob Hartley will graduate leaving the Crimson without its number eight and nine men.

Returning will be numbers three and four men, Larry Sears and Charlie Hamm, and sixth and seventh men, Henry Cortesi and Pete Lund.

The two crucial factors for next year's squad will be the improvement of the returning lettermen and the performance of this year's fine freshman team when it moves up into the varsity ranks.

The undefeated Yardling squad was one of the best in Crimson history and its entire top five will be strong contenders for varsity positions, especially Jerry Emmet and Charlie Poletti, who should be of top-five caliber next fall.

Also the addition of Yardlings Al Vinton, Nick Lamont, and John Scullin should give the squad's veterans a strong fight for spots in the bottom four.

In the improvement-of-returning-lettermen category, the squash situation is not too serious. Either Larry Sears or Charlie Hamm could develop into a number one man able to lead the entire collegiate pack. Sears has proven that he is one of the top intercollegiate players. He has lost but one match for the Crimson over the past two years and was the only player to take a game from Navy's John Griffiths in the Intercollegiates at M.I.T., until Griffiths ran into Heckscher and defeat in the finals.

Hamm, a sophomore, also has the necessary potential for a top collegiate player. He is fast, hits with tremendous power, and is the possessor of a very deft touch game to complement his hard drives.

The other two returning lettermen, though definitely below Sears and Hamm in caliber, hold great promise for next year. Pete Lund has improved greatly since his freshman season and if he can come close to matching this improvement next year he will be a big asset to the team. Henry Cortesi, who reached the peak of his season in the Yale match, should do well next year.

Clearly, there are many "ifs" in the 1957-58 squash picture. A lot depends on the development of the newcomers to the team and how they bear up under varsity competition. If Barnaby can, as he says, "toughen them up," they will certainly form the basis of a well-balanced team, and if Sears and Hamm can step into the shoes of Heckscher and Place--even if it means stuffing some paper in the toes--the Crimson should hold its own at the top of the scale.