New Rink Breeds Hecklers

To varsity hockey coach Cooney Weiland, the Donald C. Watson Rink has not been an unmixed blessing. He is now concerned over the fact that the Rink and the College have developed one of the most vociferous groups of goaliehecklers in New England, and probably in the East.

After the Williams game on Tuesday, visiting goalie Dick Marr commented that Harvard and Middlebury had the worst knots of hecklers he had ever seen. "But you expect it at Middlebury," he added. "They haven't anything else to do up there."

At Watson the visiting goalie is unmercifully exposed: by the very nature of his position, he stands alone waiting for action, while a swarm of hecklers can gather behind the screen a few feet away. In a sad way, the Harvard brand of goalie-baiting has been wonderfully successful. Dartmouth's Ted Bagnall received only mild heckling here, but except for one or two games he has been on the bench ever since.

Marr, Doyle Collapse

Goalies Marr and Dennis Doyle of Williams allowed seven goals in the last period Tuesday after taking a rough verbal beating, although Marr claims the heckling had nothing to do with the collapse.

But the hecklers' favorite this season has been Harry Batchelder of Brown, Batchelder, like Bagnall, has spent a lot of time on the bench after playing at Watson. Batchelder's endearing trait was his complete absorption in the heckler's taunts. In the trade, he is known as a "shaper," a goalie who makes unnecessary saves and motions, playing with an artistic flourish in an effort to please the crowd.

Crimson captain Charlie Flynn says that "if you let in a bad goal and listen to the crowd, you'll let in another." Flynn himself ignores hecklers to the point where they can't tell whether or not he hears them. Being ignored is the fatal weakness of the heckler.

Though it may be bad sportsmanship--and most hecklers will admit it--goaliebaiting is a psychological art. Playing a good game in the goal depends almost as much on mental attitude as on physical ability.

Goalie Must Be Shaper

The art consists of knowing when a goalie has allowed a bad goal, then of telling him how and why. The uninitiated call every save a lucky one--"horseshoes" is the term--and every goal a bad one. But the really effective heckler will acknowledge a good save: it shows the goalie he knows what he is talking about.

The given goalie of course has to be a shaper of sorts, encouraging his hecklers by responding--even a smile shows he is listening. Flynn has said that the answer is not to listen but to concentrate on the game, adding that "if a goalie is any good, heckling has no effect at all."