King Winter's Right Hand Man
WALTER PRAGER ARRIVES VIA EUROPA AND D. O. C. BEACHWAGONTO SUCCEED OTTO SCHNIEBS, WINTER SPORTS COACH
A MIGHTY infectious smile and "Very fine" sums up Walter Prager's answer to the inevitable "Well, how do you like the place so far?" Prager is the 25-year-old Swiss skier who arrived in town on October 16 to take over the job vacated last spring by the resignation of Otto Schniebs after Otto had brought his varsity ski team through six most successful seasons and had helped materially to make the word "ski" common currency in New England, instead of the esoteric term it had previously been.
Lean, tanned, and guaranteed to make the feminine element more than ever enthusiastic about the snow-sport, Prager arrived in town in company of Dan Hatch, Dick Durrance, Ted Hunter, Fran Fenn, manager of the ski team, and Warren Chivers, this year's ski team captain. On top of the D. O. C. beach-wagon in which the party had made the trip up from New York and the dock of the S.S. Europa, on which Prager made the crossing, were seven pair of skis.
And integrally a part of those seven pair of skis is an amazing record of victories in major winter sports competition which Prager has built up over the past seven years, the length of time in which he has engaged in competitive skiing.
Outstanding on the list is his Golden A-K, awarded to those skiers who place in the first three for three years in the Arlberg-Kandahar combined slalom and downhill classic. Only four other skiers hold the Golden A-K. To five-year winners of one of the first three places goes the Diamond A-K. Prager stands at present within one leg of this most coveted of individual skiing awards, for on his book is not three, but four legs towards the diamond insignia. Half a second's difference in last year's A-K slalom would have given him the margin necessary to win, so close were the competitors in that event. But losing the Diamond A-K although, "very hard" he says, is all in the breaks of the game, and he remains cheerful about it.
In addition to his success in the Arlberg race, Prager has twice won the Parsenn Derby, is five times winner of the Grison combined jumping and cross-country championship, and holds many minor titles and records. His amazing record, moreover, has been amassed in what amounts to little more than five years of racing, for in 1933 a broken ankle kept him out for most of the season, and in 1934 bad luck in the shape of a broken leg made any racing at all out of the question. However, though competitive records are interesting and impressive, it is primarily a coach and a teacher that Dartmouth was seeking when it canvassed the American and European ski fields in search of a replacement for Otto. And here again, Prager measures up to the best in allaround fitness for the job. For two years he was a member of the teaching staff of the Davos (Switzerland)
ski-school. In addition to that experience, Prager has taught in Murren, has given extensive private instruction, and has served as coach and trainer for the cross-country team of the Swiss Ski Association. In the course of his career as ski-instructor, Prager has worked with skiers of ail degrees of ability from the expert right down to the dubbiest dub of the lot. He smiles when you ask him about that and says, "It is all kinds you get, yes? I like them all." Prager is not an advocate of the strict Arlberg school of ski technique. He criticizes it on the grounds of its offering too narrow a scope—too little variety and flexibility. He plans, instead, to urge the use of a modified crouch with emphasis on "closed ski" turns in place of the stembogen which is the basis of the Arlberg school.
"It is really too early to tell much of my plans," he said when asked how he intended to handle the team. He went on to explain that he didn't have enough acquaintance with the terrain or the boys or the snow-conditions to have more than the most tentative program mapped out. He promised, however, a continuation of preseason training and conditioning such as has during the past several years brought the ski squad into the snow season in excellent physical shape.
Now, lest anyone accuse me of putting too many words into his mouth, let me hasten to kill a rumor. The story went the round of Hanover that Prager knew no English. I assure all comers that he does know English. True, his command of the language is not yet fluent, and there are traces of an accent. But some months in England several years ago, English lessons all during the past summer, and a program of speaking only with Americans on the boat coming over, have brought him to Hanover well able to understand and to make himself understood.
WILL GIVE PRIVATE LESSONS
Of interest to all alumni who like the feel of a snowy hill sweeping out from under their skis, is the announcement that Prager will be available for private and group instruction at various times during the coming winter. Advance arrangements should be made through the Hanover Inn or the Outing Club Office. Any week day up until three o'clock can be reserved by private groups or individuals desiring instruction. And the early part of Christmas vacation—that is before he accompanys the team to Lake Placid—will be available, as will all of the spring holidays—a time when the Moosilauke region offers excellent snow coupled with a warmth in the air that makes of skiing a sport quite different from the frigid mid-winter exertion which some people insist on thinking it is.
That Prager has bitten off a big mouthful in undertaking to carry on the instruction of a team with so excellent a record as has Dartmouth's ski-team, everyone will agree. That he can take that mouthful and do a good job of chewing it up fine, is the opinion of everyone who has so far studied his record and met the man. His personality is certainly an appealing one. His record in competition in all four departments of the ski-game—slalom, downhill, langlauf (cross-country) and jumping—leaves little to be desired. And his experience as a coach and ski-instructor promise well indeed.
The Outing Club looks forward with confidence to Prager's making a success in his new position and with pleasure to the prospect of having so likeable a chap in our midst for the six months of his stay in this country.
"THE SWISS CANNONBALL" Dartmouth's New Ski Coach
