Freshman Skaters Take to Ivy Ice This Season

"It's been a godsend for us, a real blessing for the University of Pennsylvania."--Penn hockey coach Bob Crocker.

Not all the Ivy coaches are quite as enthusiastic as Crocker about the league's ruling that allows freshmen to play varsity hockey this season. But then, not many are knocking it either.

"I can't speak for all the coaches," Bruin mentor Dick Toomey said Wednesday, "but from my own standpoint, it's a good thing for Brown."

Brown, which is having problems filling two teams this year, is skating five freshmen, as are Dartmouth, Penn, Princeton and Cornell. Yale boasts the most, with eight freshman starters, and Harvard the fewest, with only two.

For most of the Ivy squads, the addition of freshmen should have some immediate positive impact. "Dartmouth is really coming on," Toomey said, "and one of the reasons, I think is the freshman rule."

Dartmouth started training with 11 returning seniors, but coach George Crowe (replacing Grant Standbrook, who became an assistant coach with the U.S.Olympic team) is skating only three seniors on his team now.

"I'm very pleased that our freshmen are doing so well," Crowe said. "I think the addition of freshmen will balance out the league."

Balancing out the league means catching up with Cornell and Harvard, the Ivy powers of the last ten years. Over the past decade Cornell has won eight championships while Harvard has taken the last two.

"I don't think the new rule will have much impact on teams like Harvard and Cornell," Crocker commented. "They have lots of depth and a lot of bodies to work with." Tommey agrees.

"I'm not sure that if I were coaching Harvard or Cornell, I'd be in favor of the rule," Toomey said. "I'd have a lot of players to choose from. I could use what I had in the program and get the so-called walk-ons."

Brown, as well as Penn, Princeton and Yale, has had trouble keeping enough players in their programs. Recruiting has been part of the problem, as the Ivy schools could not compete with schools that featured freshman eligibility.

"Lots of kids are not mature enough for an Ivy education," Crocker said. "They want to play hockey four years." Now they can do both, and Ivy schools will definitely be more attractive to top hockey prospects.

Princeton, which has only enough players to field one team, could certainly stand to attract more icemen to the halls of Old Nassau. "From a hockey standpoint, a good player is a good player," Tiger coach Jack Semler pointed out. "The issue is, once you get into the thick of the season, how well you do academically. And we're keeping an eye on that."

Academics has been the stumbling block over which the Ivy league stepped to allow freshmen to play with the varsity. Both Harvard and Yale voted against the new rule, which will be reviewed again in three years, fearing that a freshman could not handle the pressures of a varsity sport and his studies at the same time.

"It's too bad a kid can't take a leisurely trip through his freshman year," Yale's Paul Lufkin feels. "Yale gives kids a first-year chance to jump into a lot of different courses to see what he likes. It should be that way with athletics. What's happening is that a guy who comes in now is almost a pro athlete."

But Lufkin is merely pointing out the negative aspects. He feels freshman eligibility will help his recruiting and the eight freshmen will improve his present team. The Elis have nowhere to go but up after a 1-21-1 season last year. Most coaches share Lufkin's thoughts, but still agree freshman eligibility makes sense.

"If a player has no trouble academically, there is no reason to hold him back," Toomey contends. "Freshman hockey, though it has a lot of good points to it, still can be just as demanding and time consuming as the varsity."

Toomey, like Crowe, Crocker, Lufkin and Semler, does not see the addition of freshmen to his squad as the answer to all his problems. Cornell and Harvard are still considered to be the favorites. After all, they too have the option of skating freshmen. "The teams that are strong continue to be strong and the weak ones continue to be weak." Lufkin, winless so far this season, sighed.

"But the league as a whole has gotten much stronger," Toomey points out, with an eye on the non-Ivy opponents that have always allowed players to skate four years if they had the talent, "You can see the improvement by the increasing number of Ivy teams in the ECAC playoffs, and this year should be no exception."

Brown and Dartmouth look like the top pretenders to the Big Red-Crimson hold on the Ivies. After that Princeton and Penn are certainly improved, but are still a ways from the crown.

As for Yale, it looks like another long season for Lufkin and company. "I feel sorry for Lufkin," Crocker said.