Lacrosse: Munro's Last Stand

Like now-retired New York Jet head man Weeb Ewbank, Harvard varsity lacrosse coach Bruce Munro is learning that not all illustrious coaching careers end in a blaze of glory. Munro, retiring at the end of this season after 26 years at Harvard, at best will field another scrappy unit that will have to fight to keep itself out of the Ivy League cellar.

Munro, who also doubles as head soccer coach, has won 170 contests, lost 163 and tied seven. This season, then, will also be an attempt to retire with a .500 or better career coaching mark.

To break even in the career won-loss column, the team will have to keep from duplicating last year's 3-10, 2-4 Ivy ecord. It'll be a difficult task with a young squad that numbers seventeen sophomores up from the frosh team.

Last season's defensive team remains intact and Munro hopes its heroics will be sufficient to deter opposing offenses until his green attackmen and midfielders develop some strong scoring punch.

Munro thinks his success or failure will depend on the enthusiastic second-year men. "How they go is how we go. There aren't a lot of holdovers but there are more people out than last year," he said. He has fifty-five men on a team that numbered 31 last year.

There's some good talent from the 6-2 Yardling group. Leading scorer and tri-captain Kevin McCall is a strong candidate to fill the gap created by the loss of last year's captain, John Haggerty, an All-Ivy attackman and the team's leading scorer with 17 goals and five assists.

John Kennedy, the second highest point scorer on the Yardlings, splits his time between two positions, goalie and attackman. Another tri-captain, Greg Jackmauh, finished third in scoring honors and could help the midfield unit. The third tri-captain, Mike Belmont, was a tough freshman defender. He earned the dubious honor of being the team's penalty leader. The refs blew the whistle on him 13 times.

Only six lettermen return from last year's squad. Defenseman and co-captain Charlie Kittredge, who Munro rates "as one of the best lacrosse players in the country," last year repeated his All-American, All-Ivy feats that he first accomplished three seasons ago before taking a year off from school. Senior John Taliaferro and juniors Carter McDowell and Tom Scott will round out the defensive team.

Senior co-captain Andy Anderson remains from the midfield team that was wrecked by graduation.

Munro has conceded the top three places in the Ivies, in no predicted order, to Penn, Cornell and last year's undefeated champion Brown. He is hopeful of finishing fourth again, but fears dark horse contender Princeton.

"We're quite a bit better than last year," Munro said." But you have to consider that we play teams of a very high level of competition. One reason Munro thinks they can improve is the return of junior Leroy Thompson to the goalie spot, where he had a standout freshman season.

"I'd like to finish in the top four," Munro said. "I honestly think we can do it." It may still be done, but an important three-game spring vacation road trip to Rutgers, Navy and Adelphi has been cancelled which means the untested rookies get welcomed to varsity intercollegiate competition by a rowdy bunch of hosts at Penn on April 12. The pace won't ease up any after the opener, either. Three of the following five opponents are Brown, Cornell, and Princeton, which will probably make Munro's parting season a pretty harrowing experience.