Munro Draws Tough Slate In Debut as Soccer Coach

A new coach and the toughest schedule of the fall sports makes pregame predictions for the Varsity soccer team an unusually risky proposition. J. Bruce Munro, the new coach, avoids forcasts but assents to the problems of the schedule.

With Navy, Cornell and Springfield, last year's U.S. champs, added to the usual Ivy League opponents, the booters face eleven New England and Middle Atlantic teams, only two of which can be considered breathers.

To meet the above obstacles, Munro spent last week feeding his record turnout of pre-season players on double practices, which featured kicking, trapping and passing drills with the occasional scrimmage. Three of last year's first squad, which ended up with a creditable seven and two record, have graduated including a first-string halfback and fullback, but last fall's Freshmen had a couple of stars who were considered good bets to make the Varsity last year.

Lots of Booters

Thirty-three players came out on the first day of practice last Monday, but the number had swelled to 45 by Wednesday afternoon. Veteran field house observers were unable to remember when a preseason soccer practice had drawn more than 25 hopefuls.

The record number of candidates has posed problems, however, both for the coaching staff and for the managers who have issued repeated calls for more Freshman candidates.

Educated and trained in athletics at Springfield College, Munro brings with him a long record of successful soccer and a knowledge of the system used at Springfield, which is first game on the Crimson schedule.

After making the All-American soccer team, and the All-New England team, for Springfield in the fall of 1940, Munro was also picked for the All-New England lacrosse team in the spring. He then took his M.A. at Springfield acting as assistant soccer and lacrosse coach, before entering the Army where he spent the next four and a helf years, mostly as a captain in the South Pacific.

Freshman Start Today

Upon discharge late in 1946, he was appointed soccer, assistant basketball and tennis coach at Trinity College which position he held until reporting at Cambridge on September 1.

While the Varsity mills around on the fields next to the aged Business School stands, Freshman practice formally opens at 3 o'clock today on the adjoining field in back of the Business School under the direction of Andrew "Poley" Guyda. Scattered Yardlings drifted to the soccer playground yesterday and on Tuesday, and Guyda is anxious to start forming a team for his schedule which opens in two weeks.

The Varsity schedule:

Oct. 2 Springfield

9 Cornell at Ithaca

12 Amherst

15 Army at West Point

20 Tufts

23 Dartmouth at Hanover

30 Navy

Nov. 6 Princeton at Princeton

13 Brown

16 M.I.T. at M.I.T.

19 Yale