This Year's Theme: The NCAA Tourney

1996

Awards

Rookie of the Year Most Improved Team Most Improved Player Coach of the Year

1997

Rookie of the Year: J.R. Prestifilippo

When your goaltender walks away from his first season with both Rookie of the Year honors and the team MVP, the next three years begin to look that much more promising.

Freshman goaltender J.R. Prestifilippo definitely made his mark on Harvard hockey this past season. His 10-18-3 record, 3.18 goals against average and .895 save percentage does not even begin to tell the entire story. The struggling Crimson offense, which could only muster 2.35 goals a game, continually placed added pressure on the freshman goaltender.

"He's been consistent," Harvard coach Ronn Tomassoni said. "He's given us the opportunity to win every game, regardless of how we've played."

Add to the equation the sudden departure midway through the season of Harvard's backup netminder, sophomore Peter Zakowich, which left Prestifilippo alone with sole responsibility for the Harvard net, starting in all but one of Harvard's 32 contests.

"Presto" made his mark on the record books on March 7 on the first night of the ECAC Tournament against Cornell. His 33 saves that night moved the freshman into first place on Harvard's single-season saves list. Presto's final total of 844 surpassed the old mark of 789 set by Grant Blair '84 during the 1985-86 season.

"He has been simply outstanding," Tomassoni said. "He's only a freshman, but he has not played like a freshman."

With three more seasons to go, Presto will hopefully bring the magic back to Harvard hockey.

Most Improved Team: Men's Soccer

Memories of last year's 6-8-3 campaign still rankled soccer fans when Harvard opened its 1996 season against Cornell. Less than 20 minutes into the game, those ghosts re-emerged from the crypt, as the defending Ivy co-champion rocked the Crimson for three goals to win, 3-1.

Harvard, however, used the right combination of skill and magic to exorcise the demons and achieve soccer nirvana. The eight returning seniors provided mass quantities of both experience and goals, and a talented group of freshmen were eager to contribute. Meanwhile, senior Peter Albers (1.06 GAA) and sophomore Jordan Dupuis (0.78 GAA) stifled opponents in front of the net.

Make that stifled opponents, period. The Crimson just continued to win. Three consecutive opponents could not score against Harvard; less than a month later, the Crimson started a new streak of four straight shutouts.

The team's school-record 16th victory, capping its school-record 16-game winning-streak, epitomized the season: Harvard just found a way to win. Down two goals with 20 minutes remaining against Boston University in the NCAAs, the Crimson stormed back to win. While Hartford eliminated Harvard in the semifinals, the unexpected brilliance of the season lingers to captivate Crimson fans.

Most Improved Player: Brian Ralph

Everyone knew junior Brian Ralph could play center field with anyone in the Ivy League. He used his speed and grace to make many a difficult catch look like a can of corn during his first two seasons with the Crimson.

But the criticism was always that he was erratic at the plate and too small to put the ball over the fence. This year, Ralph proved his critics wrong in dramatic fashion.

He still made run-saving grabs in center, laying out for several diving catches over the course of the season, but he also arrived at the plate, hitting .390 with six home runs and 36 RBI in the team's 50-game season. Several of Harvard's longest home runs of the season came off the bat of the 5'10 Ralph.

Ralph played especially well in the second half of the season, hitting two home runs in the division-clinching series against Dartmouth and adding another one in the series clincher against Princeton. His two Ivy League Player of the Week awards in the last two weeks of the season undoubtedly helped him win the Ivy League Player of the Year award for the 1997 season.

Coach of the Year: Joe Walsh

The sign of a good coach is an overachieving team. Even if the players believed otherwise, the Harvard baseball team was not expected to make its way two-deep into the NCAA Regional Tournament.

Walsh inherited a 10-25 last-place team two years ago. Last season he took the Crimson from worst to first in the division, finishing 23-17 and an Ivy-best 14-6.

But after last season's loss to Princeton in the Ivy League championship series, Harvard had some unfinished business. Walsh was not only able to take his team to an Ivy title over the Tigers the following season, but the Crimson bested Army to win a ticket to the tournament, then posted upset victories over UCLA and Stetson in the Midwest Regional.

Even in defeat, against Oklahoma State and in the second game against UCLA, Walsh's squad went down clawing. Harvard baseball fans can rest assured that their team is in good hands.