Radcliffe Sports: Success on a Limited Budget

The times are changing for Radcliffe athletics. No longer disjoined from the Harvard Athletic Department, Radcliffe sports are now beginning to come into their own. Under the direction of Mary Paget, assistant to Harvard Director of Athletics Robert B. Watson '37, Radcliffe can look forward to its best spring ever. This year Radcliffe, for the first time, will field three varsity teams--in crew, lacrosse, and tennis.

Currently, Radcliffe's crew team is the national champion in the heavyweight division. This year Coach John Baker plans to expand his varsity to include two heavyweight boats and two lightweight boats. Last year there was one boat in each category. The Radcliffe rowers have been working out since September, but the varsity boats have not yet been set.

Baker is now holding seat-races to determine who will make the varsity boats. "It's going to be furious. I'm amazed at the amount of talent. But I'm not going to anticipate anything. Let them anticipate. My job is teaching," he says.

Despite Baker's caution, Radcliffe should be able to anticipate a successful season. The returnees from last year's championship varsity include Captain Connie Cervilla, Stroke Wiki Royden, Jenny Getsinger, Anne Robinson, Alison Hill and coxswain Nancy Hadley--though none of the returnees are assured of making this year's boats. With a victory behind them in last fall's Head of the Charles, Radcliffe crew should be in great shape.

Another factor that will undoubtedly help the crew is the financial one. For the first time Radcliffe will have a traveling budget, which will enable the team to compete in away races, as well as at home. Last year the crew had to provide all it's own traveling money. An increase in revenue has also enabled Radcliffe to purchase an ergometer, and a new shell.

Though Radcliffe certainly looks strong on paper, Baker anticipates a rugged season. "It's going to be difficult to tell who's going to be strong. Nobody would have guessed about Radcliffe last year. Based on the Head of the Charles there are going to be some very competent crews--Connecticut College, Williams and Princeton, and Yale. There are going to be a lot of competent crews."

If Radcliffe can get past it's opposition it has a good chance of doing well in the Eastern Sprints, May 12. Then there would be a good chance of going to Oakland, Cal., to defend the National title. But Baker notes, "Here we have a funding problem. Because our budget wouldn't cover that, and we would have to raise the money ourselves if we wanted to go." It would help us raise the money if we did well in the sprints. I think we would really like to go out there and defend our title.

Crew is certainly the most famous of the Radcliffe varsity sports, but the other teams are now coming on strong. Lacrosse will be a varsity sport for the first time this season. There is a new lacrosse coach, Molly Quimby, who started as a player for Milton, and has come to Radcliffe in a semi-professional capacity.

The team she is working with is composed of about twenty-five players, half of whom are experienced. These include Laura Johnson, Laura Lennihan, Laurie Benton, all on defense, and Barbara Matson as goalie. These players help provide a basic core group from which Quimby can work. Johnson notes, "Lacrosse is basically an east-coast prep school sport. The core group is composed of people who have played in prep school. The rest are mostly beginners, but they're picking it up fast. The team is really just beginning, but our coach is great."

The lacrosse team has been working out for about 2 hours a day, four days a week for the past month at the Radcliffe Quad. Johnson adds, "Playing at the Quad is ridiculous. There are pipes and pot holes all over the place and the ball is always going out into the street. We're supposed to play at Watson fields (since the merger), but they are fixing all the men's fields before they fix ours. At least that's certainly the impression they're giving. It's really annoying."

Lennihan agrees that the practice conditions are not all they should be. "I think we should just go down to Watson fields and play anyway. The field is not really in such bad condition--I mean they told us it wouldn't be ready to be played on until after vacation, but I really think we should just go use it now. It certainly would be better than the Quad."

Practice is important because for the first time Radcliffe will have a genuine inter-collegiate schedule. This year the squad will play 8 games, against such opponents as Yale, Pine Manor and Brown. Lennihan says "Last year we didn't have any real games. Or a real coach. There was just a men's coach who didn't know anything about women's lacrosse. We didn't do anything but mess around. So this year I really don't know what to expect." But with an experienced core group and a basic depth of team strength, Radcliffe should be able to make a good showing in it's first varsity lacrosse season.

Tennis is another fledgling varsity sport for Radcliffe. This will not be it's first varsity season, but it will be it's first with a decent budget, and it's first with Coach Betty Lincoln.

The top four spots on the team will go to varsity returnees Jill Robertson and Lissa Muscatine, co-captains, and freshmen Denise Thal and Suki Magraw. The other 2 spots are being contested for by Maude Wood, Kathy Agoos, and Rita Fuanaro. With such depth, Radcliffe should be able to look forward to a successful season against such opponents as Wellesley, Wheaton, Pine Manor and other New England schools. The team should also be helped out by a spring trip over vacation that will include matches with University of North Carolina, Duke and Mary Baldwin.

Robertson says, "This is really the best deal we've gotten yet, thanks to Jean Evans and Mary Paget, who managed to dig out enough money to pay for a lot of the trip. That has never happened before. We have to pay for the food, but the rest is being paid for. Two years ago we went on a spring trip but it was paid for by the students, entirely. Last year we never got organized in time to go. This year the impetus came from the Radcliffe Athletic Office. It's really good."

Which seems to be the general consensus of the attitude of the Radcliffe varsity spring sports teams. In objective terms there is a long way to go until Radcliffe has the resources and the support that Harvard teams have always been able to rely on, but relatively, things are changing