Attack Conscious

THE Dartmouth soccer team scored only 19 goals in 15 games last autumn, yet that was enough to give the Green its first NCAA soccer championship bid in 13 years. And coach Tom Griffith, because of his efforts, was named coach-of-the-year in the New England Intercollegiate Soccer League's Division One. The team's 7-6-2 record was the second' straight winning season after an 11-year losing drought.

Griffith hopes to improve on that mark by scoring more goals. "Our number one priority was recruiting forwards," says Griffith, now in his fifth season at Dartmouth. "Fortunately, we landed two or three high school forwards with good careers. The question is can they go right to the varsity? We've also been emphasizing the scoring more in practices and scrimmages. We want the midfielders and backs to be more attack conscious. And we've also put more emphasis on the actual technique of shooting."

Griffith concedes that on paper the 1978 edition of the soccer team is probably the best that Dartmouth has fielded in four years. The squad features solid depth at all positions, and only one senior, sweeper back Kent Pierce, was lost to the team through graduation. "Anytime you have a team like we do - with a lot of returning lettermen - you have high expectations. But there's no guarantee you're going to do as well as last year."

"The Ivy League, in my opinion, is the best soccer league in the country," continues Griffith. "It is extremely competitive as indicated by our seventh-place finish last year even though we placed fourth in New England." All eight Ivy teams had winning records, and five of the eight teams went to the NCAAs. Brown, which ousted Dartmouth, 2-1, in the NCAAs at Providence, finished fourth in the country but was tied for second with Princeton in the Ivy League. Cornell took the Ivy title.

Griffith will carry 25 to 26 players on the varsity team, and another 30 players will be on the junior varsity. In the past, as many as 120 have tried out for the jayvees, which last year was an all-freshman squad. Griffith will have a first this year: the senior players come from the first class he recruited at Dartmouth. "This is the first time I've been at a school for five years. It'll be good fun working with those guys again. We have great guys on the team, good people who are incredibly hard workers during the scrimmages and the games."

The team is co-captained by Tom Ryan and Dave Wilson, who will anchor the defense along with Leo Markulla. Ryan was a second-team all-Ivy selection. Seniors Lyman Missimer and Scott Blackmun will fight it out for goalkeeper. Missimer was the team's most valuable player and first-team all-Ivy last year. Front line scorers will be Mark Schneider, Brian Hitchcock, and Steve Brooks. The top midfielders, who were injured last season, are Paul Mott and Tim Ehrsam.