Out of the Shadows

WHEN Tom Ryan was a freshman, soccer wasn't too popular on the Dartmouth campus. The two hours a day he spent in Leverone Field House bouncing a soccer ball off his right foot, left foot, head, and thighs often drew curious glances from the other Leverone patrons.; "It's less so now than when I was a freshman," said the senior from St. Louis. "Now that soccer interest is booming on campus, I've had total strangers stop me on the Green to ask about upcoming games. That never happened during my freshman year."

Ryan, or "T.R." as he is known on campus, has been co-captain of the Dartmouth soccer team during two consecutive sevenvictory seasons in which the Big Green has made it to the first round of the NCAA championships. Soccer is a year-round endeavor for the five-foot 11 inch, 170-pound player. "For me it's fun and not work. As soon as the season is over I don't mind playing the next day. I play soccer religiously for two hours every day during the off-season," said Ryan. "I look at the off-season as a time when you get a chance to improve. For example, I had a good freshman year [he started every game after the fourth contest of his freshman year], but I didn't want to play the same way as a senior. There is so much to improve on I could spend eight hours a day in Leverone."

Ryan's individual high point of the season came against Penn when he scored the tying goal with 15 seconds left in the match. Coming up the middle, he called to sophomore Chris Morrison for the ball. "Without seeing me, he laid it back to me and I hit it as hard as I could. I didn't know at the time there were only 15 seconds left. If I had it probably would have gone over the net." In fact, the ball went directly over the goalie's head, just under the crossbar to tie the score at 2-2.

Another high spot of the season was Dartmouth's 3-2 victory at Connecticut. "When I was a freshman, I didn't think we'd ever win down there," Ryan said. UConn avenged that early season loss in November, however, defeating Dartmouth 4-0 in the NCAA qualifying game in Hanover. The defeat was one of five suffered by the Big Green. Dartmouth, which was ranked as high as 11th nationally during the season, also played three ties.

Coach Griffith assigned Ryan to marking, or guarding the other team's top forward. "He's a very good defender and he can also go up on attack on the other team's goal," said Griffith of his cocaptain, who was named second-team all-Ivy and honorable mention all-New England in 1976 and 1977. "He's also displayed strong leadership, both on and off the field."

Ryan said that he would try out for a professional team if he were drafted and will probably play in some league next fall. He will also be going to law school and would like to coach soccer. "Soccer has given me so much, I'd like to give something back to the game," he said.