A Multi-Lingual Soccer Team

LARRY GEIGER is a slender, dark-haired junior from Harrison, N. Y., who is a very considerate person. When he was a senior at Harrison High, his English teacher suddenly was named coach of the brand new soccer team. He appealed to all boys in senior English to try out for the fledgling team and considerate Geiger reported.

"I played wing for the first four games and managed one assist. I really was an awful wing. Then at halftime of our fifth game, while we were losing our fifth straight, our goalie quit. The coach looked around with a sorrowful expression and I volunteered. Two minutes after the second half began the other team received a penalty kick against us. The fellow kicked the ball right at me. I stopped it in self defense. Still it made a big impression on our coach and I was a goalie after that," recalled Geiger recently.

Geiger is that type of fellow. He rarely says no to a request. He had been a second baseman for three years at Harrison High but when the baseball team found itself starting his senior season without a catcher, Larry put on the mask and pads. He went on the southern trip with the Dartmouth baseball team last spring as a reserve catcher and correspondent for the Valley News in West Lebanon. On the trip Geiger got to bat once and struck out. He spent most of the bus rides figuring box scores and typing stories, then late at night would try to locate a Western Union office that was open while the rest of the squad was getting to bed. But he returned to Hanover as enthusiastic and good-natured as ever and his coverage in the Valley News last season was excellent.

Geiger, although he tries to deprecate his efforts, is doing the same type of first-class job as goaltender with the Dartmouth soccer team. Under Coach Whitey Burnham the Big Green always has had a reputation as a strong defensive unit. Geiger carries on the tradition of AllAmerica goalie Dave Smoyer '63. He is quick, he has good reflexes, and his New York-accented voice yelps continual advice and encouragement to his teammates.

The vocal content of this Dartmouth soccer team can be confusing to opponents and the officials. Consider Victor Garcia, the promising junior fullback from Asuncion, Paraguay. Two years ago in a freshman game Garcia scored in a manner which looked as though he threw the ball illegally. The referee missed the play but the opposing goaltender did not. He complained loudly ... in English. The harassed official appealed to Garcia. Had he thrown the ball into the goal? Victor answered in a flood of Spanish and the referee dropped the entire matter. referee dropped the entire matter.

Then there is Garcia's closest friend, a forward from Eritrea, Ethiopia, named Tequabo lasu. Tequabo answers Garcia's Spanish in Italian and they get along beautifully. There is one major difference between them, however. Garcia is dubious about returning to his native Paraguay because of his liberal leanings and the possibility that he never would be allowed abroad again. Tequabo can't wait to get home to Ethiopia. He has a wife and son there whom he hasn't seen for a year.

There are two squad members who speak in clipped British accents. They are halfbacks Bruce Petrie from London and Howard Dobbs from Dorset. Actually Dobbs was a member of the Dartmouth rugby team who merely came out to run around with the soccer squad and get in shape for rugby. When Burnham saw his moves, he moved Dobbs and his British accent into the soccer dressing room.

But the most enjoyable accent on the squad belongs to a tall fullback from Essex Junction, Vermont, named Bill Duval. Bill plays the floater position in soccer which is similar to the "Monster' in a football defense. He can roam wherever the ball is and usually comes up with the key play just before the opposition gets in on goaltender Geiger.

This could be the best soccer team in Coach Burnham's four seasons at Dartmouth. Lack of scoring punch cost it an early-season game with Princeton but there are signs of improvement in this department. The defense, built around goaltender Geiger and four tall fullbacks in Duval, Hank Amon of Reading, Mass., Pete Barber of Merion, Pa., and Chip Harvey of Media, Pa., is very solid.

Geiger, at least, is optimistic. "I think I've made a move that will inspire confidence," he revealed recently. "I've switched to contact lenses during our games. Too many people laugh when they see a goalie wearing glasses."

Goalie Larry Geiger '66