Ski Team Outlook Good, If There's Any Snow
PROSPECTS for the Big Green varsity ski team are the brightest they've been in recent years. Coach Walter Prager has five returning lettermen, five other veterans from last season's squad, and several promising newcomers around whom to fashion the 1950-51 squad.
With no snow as yet on the plain of Hanover and the weatherman making no immediate predictions for the white stuff, the team members are busy with conditioning exercises and are keeping their fingers crossed on the snow situation. Officially the Big Green skiers swing into action on December 30-31 when they compete in the Lyndon Ski Club's four-event meet at Lyndonville, Vermont. Eleven team meets are listed on the Dartmouth winter schedule, while members of the team will compete as individuals in some fifteen additional meets.
Leading the Big Green this season as co-captains are Wes Blake from Weston, Mass. (whose Dad, incidentally, was captain of the 1924 Dartmouth ski team), and Colin Stewart, a Hanover skier. Other returning lettermen include Brooks Dodge of Gorham, N. H., Dave Lawrence of Chantilly, France, and Charlie Tremblay from Keene, N. H.
Members of last winter's Dartmouth squad who are expected to bolster the present team include Fred Barstow of Massena, N. Y., John Boardman of Hanover, Jim Branch of Olean, N. Y., Jim Cooke of Swampscott, Mass., and Bill Spalding of Whitefield, N. H. Two sophomores whom Prager is counting upon to help fill the gaps left by the graduation of such men as Tor Arneberg, Red Austin, Pat Brewster and John Caldwell, are Wally Ashnault of North Conway, N. H., and Bill Beck from Kingston, R. I., both top four-event competitors.
Although the current crop of skiers will have to go some to duplicate last winter's record, which shows first places in the Dartmouth and McGill Carnivals, a second place in the Middlebury Carnival and another first at the National Intercollegiates, Coach Prager is confident that his present aggregation can duplicate if not better this showing.
Co-captains Wes Blake and Colin Stewart are both rated highly in their specialties, Blake in the cross-country and Stew- art in all four events. Last winter Blake placed first in the cross-country races at the Dartmouth Carnival. Stewart, who was an Army ski instructor in Germany and a member of the 1948 Olympic Team, is considered one of the top four-event competitors in the nation.
Two members of the Big Green who were away last season competing for the F.I.S. Team will return to action for Dartmouth this winter. They are Brooks Dodge and Dave Lawrence. Dodge, a 20-year old junior, was nosed out by Toni Matt by 0.3 seconds at the Giant Slalom in Ogden, Utah for the Eccles Cup. Last summer, while 011 a South American tour, Brooks placed second in the downhill, slalom and combined at the Argentine National Championships, duplicated this performance at the Kandahar of the Andes, and then, at the Chilean Championships, garnered a first in the Giant Slalom and a second in the slalom, downhill and combined. Lawrence, who is another top contender for Dartmouth in the downhill and slalom events, took fifth place in the Eccles Cup Giant Slalom and won first place in the Sugar Slalom in April.
Top contender for Dartmouth in the Nordic events is Charlie Tremblay, 20 year-old junior from Keene, N. H. Last winter he placed first in both jumping and cross-country at the State of Maine Meet, and, at the National Intercollegiates, took a sixth in the jump and an eleventh place in the cross-country race. Also competing in the jumping and cross-country events is John Boardman, former Hanover High School star and three-year veteran on the Dartmouth team.
Both Ashnault and Beck, sophomore four-event men, have plenty of skiing background. As a member of the Dartmouth freshman team, Ashnault placed fifth in the slalom and ninth in the downhill at the U.S.EA.S.A. Meet last winter, while in the same meet Beck took a second place in both downhill and slalom. Fred Barstow, from Massena, N. Y., is another skier whom Prager is counting upon. Former Kimball Union stars include Jim Branch of Olean, N. Y., who rates as a leading contender in the downhill and slalom, and Jim Cooke, a junior from Swampscott, Mass., who specializes in the cross-country and jumping events. Another strong competitor in the jump is Bill Spalding.
With these men as the nucleus for the team and with other promising candidates yet to be heard from, it looks as though Coach Walter Prager and Assistant Coach "Ja" Densmore could afford to wax optimistic about the chances for a successful season. All they have to do now is see to it that Old Man Winter deposits enough snow for the team members to get into action.
The team schedule:
Dec. 30-31, Lyndon Ski Club Meet, Lyndonville, Vt.; Jan. 6-7, Dartmouth-Lebanon Outing Club dual meet; Jan. 13, Hanover Crosscountry Race; Feb. 9-10, Dartmouth Winter Carnival; Feb. 16-17, McGill Winter Carnival; Feb. 16-17, Norwich Winter Carnival; Feb. 23-24, Middlebury Winter Carnival; Feb. 25, Harvard Bromley Invitation Slalom, Manchester, Vt.; March 3-4, Hochebirge Team Race, Franconia, N. H.; March 10-11, A.M.C. Downhill Race, Pinkham Notch, N. H.; March 18, Eastern Slopes Team Slalom, North Conway, N. H.
CO-CAPTAINS COLIN STEWART (LEFT) AND WES BLAKE (RIGHT) WITH COACH PRAGER
BROOKS DODGE, member of last winter's F.I.S. team and a top four-event competitor, returns to action for the Big Green ski team this season.
CHARLIE TREMBLAY, rated one of the best col- lege jumpers, again leads in the Nordic events.
