Varsity Lacrosse Team Practices For Spring With Only One Goalie

Some 20 to 50 times in a lacrosse game, the attackers fire a little ball toward the defenders' goal. The Crimson lacrosse team this spring is going to have to reckon with this fact, because it does not have a single experienced goalie.

Ormond Hammond and Pete Fine from last year's 3-10 team have graduated and 1965's freshman goalie Bob Higgins has dropped out of the "competition." That's all there are from a year ago; there ain't no more.

From three years ago, however, there is an erstwhile freshman goalie named Ron Wilson who had given up the game until he got wind of Coach Bruce Monro's plight. He is literally all that stands between Harvard opponents and an open net.

Because practices have been confined for six weeks to the limited facilities of Briggs Cage, Munro has no idea yet how good Wilson will be. The winningest coach in Harvard lax history will use his 17 years' experience and the next twelve days on the field to renovate him for the start of the Southern trip, which begins at Hofstra April 4 and will continue with Rutgers, Washington State and Loyola Colleges of Baltimore, and Adelphi. The Crimson will then come home to face M.I.T. in preparation for improving their tied-for-last finish in the seven-team Ivy race (Columbia does not participate).

Better, but Not Good

Prospects point to a slightly better team than the 1965 squad, though improved competition rules out all possibility for a first-division finish.

Larry Palmer, all-Ivy first team as a sophomore a year ago, heads one very solid midfield. He will be joined by senior Dexter Newton, out with a broken collarbone last year after an outstanding sophomore campaign, and senior Jan Bollinger, one of 13 returning lettermen.

Wally Grant and Harry Van Oudenallen, of pigskin repute, and Oliver Everett made up a second midfield. Munro is trying junior Craig Stapleton with sophomore Jim Kilkowski and Terry Vogt for a third unit.

The defense, what little there is of it, should be adequate. Dave Davis--all six feet three inches and 225 pounds of him and Captain Dan Calderwood have shown reasonable speed, but there's very little behind them. Rick Loomis, a junior, will be the third starter and Tommy Weiss will be in the picture somewhere.

It has been four years since the heyday of Grady Watts, who once scored 99 points in a single season and 11 in one game--both Harvard records--and there hasn't been a really good attack man since. Monro is counting on Ted Leary, last year's top scorer with 12 goals and 14 assists, and juniors Keith Hutchinson and Steve Neubert. Dick Oehrie, a sophomore, has a good shot at the crease attack position.

Munro will continue to experiment this week, switching midfielders and attack men around. He may even try sophomore Fife Symington, a defenseman, who has never played goalie before, in the net, because if Ron Wilson ever gets hurt or penalized in a game, Munro is going to have himself a problem.