Lacrosse Team Takes To Outdoors

There are some mighty penetrating breezes sweeping over the Business School practice field these days as lacrosse coach Bruce Munro begins outdoor practice for his men, but Munro couldn't happier.

Several weeks of practice in the gloomy, not-swathed interior of the Cage at the unfortunate hours of 7 to 8 p.m. when a self-respecting lacrosseman's stomach is just beginning to assimilate supper, are enough to try any man's fortitude, especially if he's coach trying to get a line on a team he never met before.

Munro, who came from Trinity last fall to coach soccer and lacrosse, had been sweating out the indoor practice season with one eye on the 52-odd varsity and freshmen tryouts and the other eye on the barometer, waiting for a chance to get his hopefuls outdoors, where men are gazelles and there aren't any balls bouncing off the roof onto one's head.

Under Blue Skies

Last-Wednesday the Weather Bureau and the H.A.A. saw fit to cooperate and Munro led his band forth into the March gales to practice on the Busy School soccer field, bounded on the side by a sacred bit of yet-undried turf--the main part of the field--and on the other by a late spring artificial lake.

Munro isn't worried about the wind of the cold, however. The average lacrosse player is a pretty tough baby; a few gusts of March wind can scarcely affect someone who spends several hours a day enthusiastically clubbing fellow men with a four to six foot long stave, and being clubbed in return.

What is worrying him is the prospect of the Spring Trip--the terrifying, season-opening, four-game, vacation-time trip south to the Baltimore region--where lacrosse is really big-league--to play among others, Navy and Maryland. Last year Navy walloped the team, 13 to 3, and Maryland shut it out, 11 to 0.

"I'm aiming to win two out of four down there," Munro says, "but I won't rule out the possibility of beating Navy or Maryland."

Prospects Good

On paper, Munro has a top-notch team. Fourteen lettermen and a large contingent from last year's strong freshmen team must add up to something, especially with an All-American lacrosse player, and successful soccer coach, at their head, But this is on paper and Munro has seen very little of the team as yet.

With the help of Dick Merriman, second string All-American from Williams last year, who is the freshman coach and has been helping out with the varsity attack men, Munro has screened the varsity tryouts into "listed" and "non-listed" squads, preparatory to selecting the twenty men who will make the Spring trip.

He has been running the whole group through a calisthentics-and-wind-sprints program to put the players in shape; "you need better condition for lacrosse than for any other game," he claims.

And finally Munro has been nervously eyeing the team for weaknesses, shifting men to new positions before the lines begin to work as units. Already last year's captain Hans Estin has been moved from attack to midfield.

Lineups?

This is the way Coach Munro line up his team--very tentatively:

Attack--first string: Rick Hudner, high scorer up from the Freshmen; Lew Soule, who didn't play lacrosse last spring; and Dick. Bezanson, perennial high-scoring creasemen. Second string: Dick Post and Bill Plissner, from the Freshmen; and Charlie Gregg; lettermen last year.

Midfield--first string; Hans Estin, captain last year; Wilbur Davis, varsity starter last year; and Dave Waring, of the Freshmen. Second string: Ed Thayer, Bill Graham, and Bernie McGuire, all of the fruitful '51 team.

Defense--first string: Don Page, a varsity midfielder last year; Captain Bob Forsyth; and Dick Hansen, of the Freshmen. Second string: Sam Laurence and Ed Carroll, from last year; and John Talbot, a member of the '51 team.