Coaches' Corner . . .
EDDIE JEREMIAH: Why kid the Alumni? Let's face it, hockey at Dartmouth is in bad shape. Believe it or not, only fourteen candidates reported for freshman hockey this year and, between you and me, seven of them could have been cut on the way they laced their skates. Of the remaining seven, three were goalies. In our January 10 Kimball Union game, poor Ab Oakes, freshman coach, dressed his third goalie in. regular hockey equipment, but with goalie skates no less, so that he could be used as a reserve forward. How ridiculous can Dartmouth hockey get?
With such a distressing "smoke signal" I sincerely hope that our proud Indian alumni will try to help improve the picture.
As for the varsity hockey team, it is a scrappy, interesting team with insufficient depth of quality material. Goal-tending is still a problem. My defense pair of Captain Tom Cranna, with a real bad shoulder, and converted forward Warren Loomis are the mainstays. My first line of Jack Phelan-John Carpenter-Dave Leighton is good and has scored 80% of our goals. The rest of the forwards are only average. In our first seven games, we have scored 32 goals (4.6 average) and have allowed 42 goals (6.0 average) and, as you can readily figure, such averages will not win many games.
As of this writing our record is three wins and four losses (Bowdoin 6-7 overtime, Colby 0-11, Norwich 6-5, Middlebury 7-3, Boston College 3-6, Yale 6-5 overtime, and Cornell 4-5). The most spectacular win was over Yale when we scored two goals in the last three minutes to tie up the game with our goalie off and then won it in the first minute of the overtime on a shot by Jack Phelan (son of Jack Phelan '28).
AL MERRILL: In skiing, as with every sport, the coach is asked to speculate as to the season's outcome before competitive emergence into the season. Usually this column is written before our men have been on snow. Not so this year, as we have had the opportunity of observing them for several weeks in practice and in two individual (Nordic) competitive events. We may, therefore, be able to make a more reliable evaluation than in previous years.
It is obvious we face a major rebuilding job. We feel the loss of our 1960-61 co-captains, Art Bookstrom and Jim DeLong, both of whom left outstanding records besides being named to the NCAA Ail-American team or honorable mention for three years. Also lost by graduation were Dick Nordhaus, another outstanding four-event competitor, and Skip Bean, a top Nordic competitor. Depth in the senior class is decidedly lacking with only two '62s on the squad: Dick Breen and Bill Bassett, both Nordic men.
Team captain Jim Page, a junior, is currently training with the United States Nordic Training Squad at Lake Placid. If he does not make the U. S. Team, he will be aboard to lead the 1962 Dartmouth ski team. Jim won honorable mention on the NCAA All-American Team in 1961 after turning in outstanding performances in the NCAA Championships with a third in cross country, a tenth in jumping, and a fourth in Nordic combined. Besides Page, the junior class has five other returning lettermen: Buster Welch, Fred Jones, Ralph Lackenmaier, David Halsted, and John Dickey, all of whom gained valuable experience as sophomores.
The sophomore class is well represented with Jim Jacobson, captain of last years freshman team, and winner of the Donald J. Cooke Award for outstanding competence in four events. Experience among the sophomores is noticeable in Jacobson, Bob Hiller and Pat Terenzini who have skied in the National Junior Championships.
We are not as well balanced as we should be. The Alpine team appears to have depth and potential with little difference among the top ten candidates. The Nordic picture does not have depth at this time. The fine showing of sophomores Ed Williams, Bill McGregor, and Mike Parker indicates that we will soon develop depth in cross country. The jumping picture remains somewhat shallow with Breen, Bassett, Jacobson, Frank Hannah, and Page apparently the ones to carry the burden.
From the foregoing, it is obvious the '62 team will be a rebuilt unit made up mainly of sophomores and juniors. We have a great deal of work to do before the first team competition at the Williams Carnival, February 2-3.
