Yardling Squads Plunge Into Winter Season Today

Yardling athletic teams in hockey and squads both boast strong talent and expect winning the years, and the fresh basketball team shoots to hustle its way to Ivy League prominence despite unpredictability credentials, as the Class of '76 today dives into its first winter sports season at Harvard.

BASKETBALL

The Yardling cadgers, despite having only one man over 6 ft. 5 in. along with a lack of overall natural shooting talent, will still dazzle its followers, coach John Harvey promised.

"We are really aggressive, maybe too aggressive because we foul too much," he said. "But this squad won't lack action -- we're going to use a pressing full-court man-to-man defense. Then when we get the ball, we'll fast-break."

"When we can't fast-break, we'll settle into a three guard offense with Steve Carter as the point man, and we'll attack enemy defenses with lots of movement of both the players and the ball," Harvey explained.

Although Harvey declined to reveal a starting line-up for today's clash with MIT, he cited forwards Scott Lewis, Bill Carey, and Muff Hannemann for their play in practice, as well as guards Carter, Jon Adams, and Kevin McLaughtin.

HOCKEY

Harvard's frosh skaters look extremely solid at they glide to Union today for their first half against the UMass B's.

"We're going to move the puck around pretty well this year," predicted coach Tim Taylor. "The keynote there is speed, and we've also got it in the wings. We've also got good size, good, hockey sense, three well-balanced lines, and a rare amount of talent at the center ice position with Kevin Burke, Kevin Carr and Whizzie Wyatt."

"Our main question mark now is our defense, where we're pretty green, but if we can get good, support from our goalies, who'll be either Johnny Harris or Jimmy Murray, we should be able to control the puck most of the time," Taylor said.

There aren't as many players this season as there were on last year's only twice defeated frosh team, but Taylor feels his depth is adequate to provide a winning record.

"Although we don't have last year's large numbers, we do have the talent in the right places. I definitely look for a very successful season," Taylor concluded.

SQUASH

In tune with freshman hockey, the Yardling squash team looks to make its annual assault on opposing teams this winter.

"Potentially, this could be one of my finest squads," said Corey Wynn, who has coached the frosh racquetmen the past 26 years. "We have unusual experience this season -- normally I get about six players who have had match experience, but this year there are 12 who've played organized squash before."

The top three man who form the nucleus of the team are abnormally strong and evenly matched in ability, according to Wyan. "Any of them could easily be number one for us, and that's odd -- you usually just have one top guy or possibly two, but hardly ever do you get three men so close at the top."

After three weeks of practice, Peter Havens anchors the first position, followed by Jeff Wiegand, brother of varsity racquetman Andy Wiegand, and Cass Sunstein, who last year but a Middies Academy record by winning 40 individual matches and losing just 3.

Rounding out the top ten are John Sedgwick, Dave Chase, Tim Berkowitz, John David George Colony, Dave Evans, and Craig McKardly.

The Yardling squad plays Andover at 2 p.m. today at Hemenway Gym.