The Lavery Almanac
FALL is football, winter is hockey, and spring is baseball for Peter Lavery. "It's been that way since I was a little squirt," said the 5-foot 10-inch, 180-pound sophomore from Arlington, Massachusetts. Lavery is a halfback and kick-returner on the football team, a wing on the hockey team, and a third baseman-out-fielder on the baseball team. As a freshman, he earned varsity letters in hockey and baseball. He's a likely letterwinner in football and could earn 11 varsity letters during his Dartmouth career.
Lavery concedes that the transition from one sport to another can be difficult. "Going from freshman football to hockey was a tough time," he admitted. He was the leading rusher and scorer as co-captain of the Pea Green squad. He gained 294 yards on 68 carries and scored eight touchdowns. He returned two kickoffs for touchdowns, and two of his seven punt returns went for touchdowns. He also had an 84-yard touchdown run on his first play of the season. "I joined the hockey team five weeks after everyone else was skating," Lavery explained. "During the first two weeks I wondered whether I was good enough to play. But during the transition the coaches had faith and confidence that I could play and they kept encouraging me when I was having some troubles. I'm glad I did give it a shot. I would have been unhappy if I'd packed in the hockey."
After the final freshman football game, Lavery started out with the jayvee hockey team and worked his way up to the varsity. He got into 15 varsity games and scored goals in the key 6-5 victory over Boston College and the 7-4 triumph over Princeton. The Dartmouth skaters won 19 games, lost 11, and tied one en route to a third place finish in the N.C.A.A. championships at Providence. "The hockey tournament was quite a thirll," said Lavery. "And to play before 5,000 people at Thompson Arena sends chills up and down your spine." The hockey team's postseason play delayed Lavery's switch to baseball, so he played a half-dozen games for the jayvee nine before moving up to the varsity. He appeared in 12 of the 28 varsity games and was the top hitter on the team, banging out 18 hits in 43 appearances for a .419 average. He hit two triples and had nine runs batted in.
Lavery doesn't have a favorite sport. "When football season comes around, I love to play football; when it's hockey season I like to play hockey; and it's the same with baseball," he said.
The Lavery family has more than a passing proficiency in athletics. His father had his football career ended by a broken leg at Holy Cross but then spent some time in the Cleveland Indians minor league organization. He is the baseball coach at Arlington High. His mother was a skater and Softball and field hockey player. "My sister Mary - she's the oldest of the family is a real good athlete herself. In 1974, she was on the Softball team that won the Eastern Massachusetts championship," Lavery said. Older brother Michael is a junior and three-sport athlete at Amherst. Younger brother Patrick is a safety on the Dartmouth freshman team and also will participate in winter track and baseball. Brother Jimmy is a junior at Phillips Exeter Academy and another three-sport athlete.
Peter was the recipient of many honors at Arlington High. The Boston Herald named him the Eastern Massachusetts athlete-of-the-year during his senior year. The Boston Globe named him to its allscholastic team and cited him as the Division One player-of-the-year in football. His football team was the Greater Boston League champion during his senior year. The hockey team won championships during his sophomore, junior, and senior years, and the baseball team won championships during his junior and senior years. Lavery played four sports and won 12 letters during high school, competing in both track and baseball in the spring. "I ran the 220 in track and was the class A state champion during my junior year and finished second in my senior year," Lavery explained. "Track was sort of a fun thing. I didn't train too much because the other three days of the week I was playing baseball. I didn't even know how to use starting blocks."
On top of everything else, Lavery won national honors for his scholastic achievements in high school. "My parents stressed academics before sports," he said. "I appreciate my parents putting sports and academics in perspective. Some of my friends didn't, and when senior year rolled around they didn't have any place to go to college." Playing three sports limits Lavery's studying time, but the probable history major has maintained a B average. "I'm forced to budget my time," he explained. "If you've got practice from 4:00 to 6:00 every day, you can't study then so you have to study during other parts of the day or night. You're not able to fool around too much. But I feel I should play while I have the opportunity. College is a combination of things. You've got to put some work in academically. Yet, playing sports is an experience I'm not going to learn in the classroom."
Fall, winter, spring: Lavery's changinguniforms tell the seasons of the year.
