Four Returning Lettermen Lead Squad

There is just one trouble with being a great team--every opponent considers you "the team to beat." This is the problem which the varsity squash team must face as it goes through the Eastern Intercollegiate Squash League in the role of defending champion. The Crimson, with one of the finest collegiate squads in many years, will undoubtedly enter each one of its matches in the role of favorite.

There will be four or five top-flight teams, however, which Harvard must play this year, each one eager to upset the favorite and to avenge last year's defeat.

Against these teams, Coach Jack Barnaby will rely heavily on his top five of Captain Ben Heckscher, Cal Place, Larry Sears, Charlie MacVeagh, and Charlie Hamm. As Barnaby puts it, "Here are five men who should be outstanding this year."

Heckscher needs no introduction. In his third year as number-one singles, he is playing better than ever. He is currently ranked number seven in the United States and is the Intercollegiate Champion. Only Diehl Mateer and Henri Salaun can be expected to beat him in national competition, and recently in the Ticknor-Glidden Round-Robin, Heckscher had a 2-0, 9-2 lead on Salaun, before the ex-national champion could rally to a victory.

At number two singles Cal Place is probably the finest match player to compete for Barnaby in many years. Undefeated last year, he would be first man on almost any other college team. Place rarely has a "bad" day and according to Barnaby "never has lost a match that he possibly could have won." He should be regarded as an excellent bet to repeat his undefeated season of last year.

The most improved player on the team is Larry Sears. He was undefeated last year in the eighth and ninth positions, and has made a tremendous jump up to the number three slot this season. Barnaby is "very impressed with Larry's improvement" and points to the additional power which Sears has added to his game as being the major factor in his rise to third singles.

The fourth and fifth men, Charlie Hamm and Charlie MacVeagh, are both players of Place's and Sears' calibre but do not have the experience which is necessary to the completely rounded player.

MacVeagh is a relative newcomer to squash, having picked up the game in his freshman year. As a result of this fact, he loses more of his game over the summer and has a harder time regaining his shots and match techniques. Barnaby feels, however, that the difficulties which MacVeagh is facing now will be shortly ironed out and should leave him ready for a season like last year, when he lost only one match.

Hamm, captain of last year's freshman team, does not have the varsity match experience which the other players have acquired over the past year or two. Yet his game is a very experienced and powerful one, and with match play he should develop into a serious contender for the second spot on the team.

In the number six and seven positions, John Davis, number nine and ten man last year, and Henry Cortesi are rapidly becoming "tough players" and should give the first five a solid backing at the top of the bottom four. Both of them have improved considerably this year and appear healed for excellent seasons.

Barnaby's main problem lies with the bottom two positions on the team. At present, Bob Hartley, back at Harvard after three years in the Service, seems to be in the eighth position, but a group of six players, Pete Lund, Hank Holmes, Tom Lee, Bob Magowan, Ed Wadsworth, and Kent Allen, are all in contention for the ninth spot.

This problem at the lower end of the squad is a minor one, however, in light of the tremendous potential at the top. However, the team will have tough matches against Princeton and Navy, which have large segments of last season's squads returning.

Barnaby calls it "a good team with a great player on top," and predicts another "hair-raising season like last year." The team will have to work to get through the season unbeaten, and, says Barnaby, "we are starting right now getting ready for Navy. If we can stay in shape over exam-period and avoid any injuries, we might make it.