Water-Polo May Go Under Next Year As Athletic Department Budget Drops

The Harvard water-polo team, faced with financial difficulties, may have just completed its final year of inter-collegiate competition.

"We asked the College for help but they've told us that they can't do anything," captain Mike Graff said Monday.

Barron Pittenger, associate director of Athletics said Tuesday, "The problem at this point is not only water-polo but other sports as well. We are asked to expand our program while at the same time the College is asking us to cut expenses. Therefore, we hesitate to take on any new responsibilities."

The team is allowed four and a half hours of pool time a week. This amounts to about one and a half hours of practice, three days a week. On one of those days, the team can only use half of the pool.

"We aren't asking for very much. All we want is more pool time and some help from the college to pay for entry fees and uniforms," Graff said.

At the present time, the team owes money to everyone including the league. On several occasions Harvard has "walked" entry fees because it could not scrape up enough money.

"Sure, if we can't afford a fee, we'll try to walk it if we can. It gets pretty bad when we have to mooch from other teams. We feel like we are the orphans of the league," Graff said.

The team has attempted to raise its own money in several different ways, but so far, has only produced a short-run solution to its problems.

"We even thought of looking for sponsors in Cambridge. They would buy our suits and we would wear a little patch somewhere, say for example, Joe's Pizza," Graff said.

No Coach

The water-polo team has no coach. Vladmir Petkovic, a graduate student at the school of design, helps the team when he can.

"Every school we play has one, sometimes two coaches. The only help we get is from Vladmir, who does a tremendous job, but be can only come when he has spare time. Besides, Vladmir can't travel with us to the games when we really need the coaching," Graff said.

This past weekend, the team ended the 1971 season by placing fifth in the NCAA Eastern Championships held in New Haven.

Nine in a Van

"Nine of us went to New Haven in the back of an old Chevy van. We took a mattress from one of the players' rooms and put it in the back of the van so that we could have something to sit on. We took box lunches from the Houses for our dinner because we don't have the money for any kind of a team meal. When we got to New Haven, the team crashed at a friend's house," Graff said.

The other teams at the tournament were all chauffered by bus to the tournament and stayed in the hotels surrounding Yale.

Of the eight teams at the tournament, Harvard was seeded last and opened the tournament against first seeded Yale. Yale defeated the Crimson. 8-5.

In their second game, Harvard unended Army, this year's defending Eastern Champion, 8-7. Freshman Dan Daiss scored a goal in the last 55 seconds of the game to beat the favored Army team. A fine defensive effort by the Crimson made the difference in the game.

MIT Defeated

Led by Peter Kellogg's five goals, the Crimson downed MIT, 10-7, in the final game of the tournament. One week before, the Engineers had routed Harvard, 18-7, while winning the New England Championships.

Harvard finished the tournament with a 2-1 record, but because of a ruling of the tournament, no team could finish higher than fifth if they lost their first game.

"During the Yale game, it was practice and lack of a coach that made the difference. I believe that if we were given the chance to get in more practice and we had a coach, that we could have beaten Yale. Man for man, I think we have the better team," Graff said.

Graff added, "The guys all want to keep the team going on their own, but I'm afraid that unless we get some help from the University, we just won't make it."