Hockey Season Begins; Sophomores Will Start

Harvard's chances of regaining its usual reputation as a hockey power this winter depend on the most uncertain commodity in collegiate varsity sports: sophomores.

If eight graduate of last year's 14-4-1 freshman team can develop, the Crimson should return to a .500 record against the toughest schedule any varsity team faces. In any event, the season, which will open officially next Saturday, should be as exciting as it is long.

Last year the bottom fell out of the traditional Harvard hockey powerhouse. The sextet's 15 losses in 24 games established Harvard's first losing season since '53-54 and its first finish in the Ivy League's second division since '51-'52.

Coach Cooney Welland has 11 letterman returning, led by defenseman captain Bobby Clark and junior goali Bill Fitzsimmons, but last year's performances won little more than letters for this starless group. Right wingers Pete Waldlinger and Dennis McCullough, both juniors, led the team in goals, but their totals of nine apiece is more a mark to build upon than brag about.

The Crimson's inability to score more than 67 goals in its 24 games is one reason Welland is counting hopefully on Kent Parrot, Jack Garrity, Bob Fredo, Don Grible, and Ben Smith, a quintet that totalled 75 goals in the 19 freshman games.

Welland's early plan to work these sophomores in with the experienced upperclassmen has resulted in four lines of approximately equal merit. Once the collegiate season starts, he will revert to three lines, though all 12 forwards will see action at some point in the juggling that the addition of five new players makes inevitable.

At present, senior Pete Miller is centering for juniors Ed Zellner and Eric Rosenberger on the only all-upperclass line. The other lines have Smith and Grimble flanking senior Gordan Price, Parrot centering for Waldinger and senior Jorge Gonzalez, and Fredo and McCullough at the wings beside Garrity.

Defense Shifts

Unlike the lines, the defense pairings have been shifted since the varsity's 6-3 win over the Alumni team last week, and they will probably be shifted a lot more during the early part of the season.

Tag Demment, who played at center for the freshmen last year, is now at defense with captain Bobby Clark. Sophomores Bob Carr and Jerry Delaney are teaming with lettermen Chip Scammon and Kevin Burke, respectively, in the other combination.

Fitzsimmons, who averaged 30 saves a game as a sophomore while splitting the goalic chores with Wade Welch '65, is a prospect for stardom if he can withstand the pressure that will be incessant once December arrives. Senior Dex Newton will fill in the nets if anything happens to Fitzsimmons.

The youthful team will have plenty of fire to test its mettle, starting tonight at the new Ridge Arena in Braintree. There the varsity will take on the Eastern Olympic Hockey Club, featuring Harvard grads Gene Kinasewich '64 and John Daly '65. The Eastern Olympians began their 20-game home schedule mostly against New England colleges with a 9-0 shutout of U.N.H. and an impressive 4-4 tie two nights ago with Boston College.

Saturday the hockey team opens its intercollegiate season against Colby in Waterville, Maine, and in two weeks its hits the toughest part of its schedule. After Harvard meets Northeastern, St. Lawrence, Clarkson, Brown, and Toronto in a ten-day gruel starting December 8, it will be much clearer whether Harvard's return to hockey prominence is here or still one year away.