Crossing Over: The Scout Team Ballers

After a tough opening schedule, the Harvard women’s basketball team broke into the win column last Sunday, beating San Jose State 83-62 in impressive fashion.

Leading the way was sophomore guard Emily Tay, who dropped a double-double on the Spartans with 13 points and 10 assists.

And it was like taking candy from a baby—even San Jose State’s tallest player, 6’4 Amber Hall, appears infinitesimal compared to the mountain of a man waiting on Harvard’s new male scout team—6’7 Zach Putchel ’05-’07.

Puchtel, the former Crimson tight end turned University of Minnesota basketball starting forward, leads a band of former Harvard JV—or Gopher varsity—team members to serve a new purpose: become the most vaunted scout team Harvard women’s hoops has ever seen.

The unit includes freshman forward Alex Ahmed, fellow first year Dave Boswell, and senior big man Jacob Mays to compliment Puchtel. The challenge this squad of athletic, quick, and often mammoth men poses to the women’s team is a double-edged sword—it is a struggle but also a huge boost for the team.

“It helps to play men a lot faster and stronger than us—guys play at a lot higher level,” sophomore forward Katie Rollins said. “The coaches want us to play up there by being a lot more physical and quicker just as they are.”

The scout team, as it functions in any sport, works to mimic what Harvard will face in its coming game. As a result, the scout team is a touted opponent, but the women’s squad also looks to them as role models, with Puchtel, the rough and tumble scout team’s fearless leader, right at the center.

“Having [Puchtel] on the court, you learn—he’s talking constantly,” Tay said. “That’s what [Harvard head coach Kathy Delaney-Smith} wants from us, and we can take a lot from him.”

And this vocalism is an extra asset to post players, who can learn directly from Puchtel’s experience on the block.

“It’s awesome; we’re so lucky he is working with us. He commands control on the court, and he helps us out every scrimmage,” Rollins said. “He gives you a lot of confidence—saying things like, ‘Come on, shoot over me, you know you can make it’.”

But the majority of the male scout team has not achieved the same limelight and exposure Puchtel experienced last year. They are former high-school or JV players simply looking for a competitive outlet.

“I was probably watching [Puchtel] in his games last year,” Ahmed said. “But I didn’t even know it.”

But despite the lack of notoriety, these players have taken full advantage of the opportunity to play in Lavietes—Harvard’s biggest stage. And although the crowd of seventy-odd fans is not present, the scout team still relishes the chance to be a part of Harvard basketball in any way.

“The huge commitment is not there, but we get to play in the main gym, get after it two times a week,” Boswell said. “It’s always nice to be back on the court.”

Boswell, who was a high school basketball player in Texas, played Crimson JV basketball before taking leave of the team because of his conflicting obligations with the Navy ROTC.

As is the case with his fellow scouters, he obviously has the requisite skill to challenge the women’s team. But possessing the ability of transitioning to the women’s game’s style of play—that’s a different story.

“It’s definitely a full speed game when we play—but the women’s basketball game is more fundamentally sound— the defense is a lot quicker,” Boswell said. “So we’re still playing really aggressive, but in the style of the women’s game.”

This strategy to produce a male scout team is not a new idea. Duke, with consistently highly ranked women’s and men’s basketball programs, has scoured its campus for similar all-male scout teams for its women’s squad. The result: the Blue Devils made it to the championship game of the NCAA tournament last year.

Now, the crop of top-tier basketball talent is deeper at a larger, more well-known basketball powerhouse such as Duke. But members of this Crimson scout team, with Putchel at its forefront, possess a commitment for similar results.

“One of his goals is to get us to the NCAA tournament,” Rollins said.

Make that happen and this band of ex-JV, ex-high school, and ex-Gophers will no longer be just scout teamers—they will be stars.

—Staff writer Walter E. Howell can be reached at wehowell@fas.harvard.edu.