Racquetmen Seek Another Crown

First came the United States Championships three weeks ago in Philadelphia, and then there was the intercollegiate nine-man team championship, which the Crimson won last week with a 6-3 triumph against Yale, and now this weekend, there are the National Intercollegiate Squash and Racquet Association (NISRA) six-man team Championships at Williams College. Now, if all that sounds confusing, that's because it is.

All you really have to know, however, is this. Harvard is the national champion, period. The tournament this weekend, which the Crimson won last year, simply determines who had the six best players playing their best for a three-day period.

As Crimson coach Jack Barnaby, who'll be coaching the Harvard racquetmen for the last time this weekend, put it, "There's a lot of luck to this. The luck of the draw has a great deal to do with it, and, well, I really don't know what the hell is going to happen in this tournament. We could get wiped out, or we could win."

Barnaby's teams have won this tournament 10 times, including a year ago, but this time around, despite the fact that Harvard has already been crowned national champ, the Crimson is not a clear-cut favorite, due partly to the fact that Peter Havens, the number four player, has called it quits for the season due to an ankle injury.

As a result, Cass Sunstein has to move up a notch into the 'B' division (there are three divisions of two players from each school, and each school receives one point for every round that one of its players advance), where his chances for success are considerably less than in the 'C' division.

Also at stake this weekend is the individual intercollegiate championship, which goes to the winner of the 'A' division.

"We're not cocky," Barnaby said, "but we do have a strong entry."

All of which means that Barnaby, who has been doing this for 44 years, is also a bit uncertain as to what is going on, so don't feel too badly if you are.