In Athletics, South Paws Don't Feel Left Out

Just what does it mean to be left-handed while playing a sport?

In bowling, the left side of the lane is less worn so a more accurate ball can be thrown. In baseball, a lefthanded pitcher can fool a righthanded-hitting lineup with a good curveball. In boxing, the southpaw presents awful problems to righthanded fighters.

At Harvard, one's physiology can be as great an advantage.

Brita Lind is the only left shot on the women's hockey team. As a result, she has a lot of pucks going her way when she skates up the left side of the ice.

"All their sticks point to pass to me, so it's great," said Lind.

And vice versa. "I like passing to the far post a lot because I know Trots [Julia Trotman] is there," she said.

But if Lind--who eats and writes righthanded--was to play back home in Canada, her talent wouldn't be so rare; righthanded Canadians are taught to shoot left.

"It's wonderful to be a rare commodity," Lind added. "Coach [John Dooley] was psyched when he got me."

But on the men's hockey team, the problem more or less the opposite; lefties are a dime a dozen.

The first line used much of the year--Tod Hartje, Captain Steve Armstrong and Andy Janfaza--are all lefthanded.

"You want to give it to that right wing and [the shot's] not there," Armstrong said. "It's easier to make that pass [with a righty].

Having a great amount of lefties on the team can be a disadvantage, however, especially on the power play. Last year, the power play defensemen could pinch in on the forehand to shoot quickly because Randy Taylor, a lefty, played the left point, and Mark Benning, a righty, played the right point.

"The guys we want out there are Jerry [Pawloski] and Donny [Sweeney] and they're both lefties," said Harvard Assistant Coach Kevin Hampe. "But you change the power play to fit the personnel and not the personnel to fit the power play."

And the left-handedness doesn't stop at the shooting positions. Senior goaltender John Devin totes a stick in his left hand and his glove on the right.

"It helps sometimes," Devin said. "It gets the shooters confused."

Fencing is one sport when a righty and a lefty can be put together one-on-one, and, like boxing, the southpaw can be a problem.

"It's confusing a little bit at first, but once you figure it out, it's a hindrance for them," said junior Kristina Perkin.

"Lefthanders are pretty limited because they rely so much on their lefthandedness," Perkin, a righty, added.

In the domain of Harvard basketball, the lefty-righty dilemma is not as evident because, like in soccer, the players are taught to dribble and shoot both ways.

Nancy Cibotti is the only lefty on the women's basketball team.

"It's kind of an advantage," Cibotti said. "I get stuffed all the time in practice because they know I'm lefthanded, but when I play against other people, I tend to turn the opposite way they're used to."

The difference between being righthanded and being lefthanded is not often thought about by the armchair athlete. Often, being lefthanded can yield the right result.

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