Cutting Back

MARCH is the month when Big Green teams traditionally hit the road. More than 225 Dartmouth athletes left snow-covered Hanover during their midMarch vacation and headed for warmer climates to train for the upcoming spring sports season. Michael F. Walsh, who was named Dartmouth's 16th baseball coach in January, took a roster of 21 players to Florida on a seven-game spring training trip. Track coaches Carl Wallin and Vinananna accompanied 30 men and women to Florida, where they competed in the Tallahassee and the Florida relays. Also competing in Florida were eight women on CoacChris Clark Kerr's tennis team. The netwomen had five scheduled matches. Coach Josie Harper, also a newcomer, took her 20-member women's lacrosse team to Florida for training but no scheduled matches.

Two Big Green teams headed west fopre-spring preparation. Coach Bill Johnson's seven-member golf team flew to California, where they competed in one dual match and the Pacific Intercollegiate Championships. John Kenfield took eight tennis players with him for seven matches in California. The biggest group of athletes heading south belonged to the men's and women's crew teams. Dartmouth was represented by 109 rowers in training at Clinton, Tennessee. Coach Dud Hendrick's men's lacrosse team traveled to North Carolina for its initial training. The 25-man contingent was scheduled to open its season March 27 against Delaware.

Dartmouth athletes should be advised to enjoy their travels this spring. Future years will find the teams training closer to the Hanover campus. Among major cutbacks in 1983, according to Whitey Burnham, Dartmouth's assistant athletic director, will be restrictions in the spring-trip itinerary. In December athletic director Seaver Peters '54 announced that men's and women's gymnastics and sailing would be eliminated because of budget restrictions. Also announced, but not receiving as much publicity, was a cutback in travel appropriations.

Different sports teams pay for their trips in different ways. The baseball team's spring trip cost is paid through an endowment. Some teams have their entire costs paid by the College, others have their travel partially subsidized by the College, while alumni donations and other fundraising measures pick up the rest of the tab. The golf team's major expense to train in California was air travel. Once on the West Coast, team members generally have their accommodations and food provided by generous alumni. "It doesn't cost much money once they get to the coast," said Burnham. "The alumni are kind and generous and a tremendous help, no question about that."

Early in March Peters did a partial about-face on the issue of gymnastics and sailing. He said the sports would continue, but with club status. "We are pleased that arrangements have been reached that will allow gymnastics and sailing to continue at Dartmouth," said Peters. "Those arrangements will allow interested student-athletes to compete in both sports for the foreseeable future." The gymnastics teams will not receive any money from the Dartmouth College Athletic Council. Instead, the club will have to raise more than $5,000 annually from alumni, parents, and friends to keep the program active. The gymnastics equipment on the upper floor of Alumni Gymnasium, which is used for practices and meets, will not be maintained by the gymnastics club. The College will continue to support financially the sailing program while members of the Friends of Dartmouth Sailing raise $200,000 as permanent endowment for the sport. Art Allen '32 will coach the sailors, who will compete in 12 fall and 15 spring regattas. No decision has been made on who will coach the gymnasts, who are expected to compete in a minimum of eight meets. Because of the schedules, the sailors and gymnasts will be eligible to win letters and receive their "Varsity D" insignia.

The restriction on travel, however, remains unchanged. The baseball team will be unaffected by cutbacks because that sport has its trips paid for by endowment. How the cutbacks will affect each individual team have not been officially announced yet, but Burnham predicted that the track and tennis teams would probably be "severely restricted." Dartmouth's Leverone Field House has indoor track facilities and tennis courts that provide an adequate training site before outdoor facilities are ready. Burnham said the lacrosse teams probably wouldn't be allowed to go too far afield. Rather than training in North Carolina, Florida, or Maryland, he said the teams could practice on Long Island. "The crew will be restricted. Perhaps they could go to the Kent School in Connecticut where they can find open water," Burnham said. "These are only suggestions, but the budget dollars have been cut considerably." Burnham predicted that the travel budget restrictions will continue for the "foreseeable future."

New Hampshire's "spring" provides practice in shoveling mud off the base paths.