Welcome to the New Regime

Here's to a new beginning, y'all.

Ooooh--a Georgian (that would be me), a mild-mannered Bronx native (Dave Griffel) and a Kansan (our boss, Sean Wissman) take over production of the Crimson sports section today, a quality trifecta of the good, the bad and the ugly.

Not that many of you will probably notice any difference, at least for a while. Maybe there will be an unwelcome excess of geographical jokes for a while (A friend of mine just got caught smuggling books into Kansas; they had to let him go, though, nobody could prove they were books), but I'm sure we'll become mature about it by the time we master the how-to parts of our assignment.

Ah, page production. I less-than-fondly look back upon the only solo attack I've made at the art of page layout up until this point, and let me tell you, figuring out where this or that belongs on your average 14x21 page of newspaper and how to put it there is about as tough to me as hitting a one-iron. Let's just say we've all got plenty to learn.

That metaphor, by the way, about the one-iron...you're dealing with a couple of guys well-versed in some of the sports we'll be covering. Howard Cosell once wrote a book called "I Never Played The Game," but we hope to prove that journalism and personal experience at a higher level than sandlot football can mesh on the sports page. Sean played high school basketball, football and baseball, and David likewise dabbled in varsity baseball and soccer.

As for myself? Although I'll play just about anything, golf kept my attention long enough to earn me a spot here on the Harvard varsity squad. It's an unusual situation, unique as far as I know, that a Crimson sports editor also has had to relate to the Harvard Athletic Department as one of its athletes.

And junior varsity hockey Coach Kevin Hampe has been kind enough to allow me to moonlight as a practice goaltender, giving me invaluable knowledge about the art of ice hockey that a lifelong Southerner might be hard-pressed to come by. I'll take a few pucks on the schnozz, I suppose, if it helps me function more effectively as a men's hockey writer. (I certainly watch Aaron Israel and Tripp Tracy with a more analytical eye these days.)

Of course, we're all fans at heart. Dave loves the (to me, evil) Big Apple quartet of Rangers, Giants, Yankees and Knicks, and Sean loves his K-State Wildcats, KU Jayhawks and K.C. Chiefs. Avid back-page browsers will note my undying devotion to baseball's Braves, and civic pride makes me a little giddy regarding the upcoming centennial Olympiad.

Such homeward allusions may dot our prose from time to time--so be it. Me, I know the Braves' pitchers and catchers report to West Palm Beach on February 17, and I can't wait. But the Harvard men's hockey team visits Princeton February 4, and such events must, by definition, be my focus this year.

It's not as though we're beginning the job of covering Harvard sports anew, but it's fair to say that our command unit of three may present a little different slant on things, without the likes of John Trainer's elegant cynicism to goad us on. We hope to present more games in a greater variety of Harvard sports to you, and maybe we'll even slice in a bit of the sporting "Real World" from time to time a la the news department. Right now, we're just going to take it day by day, game by game, and see if we can make any sense of the 140 Harvard sporting events scheduled for the month of February.

On a personal note, I have come to realize that, whether on television or in print, many people regard their news as news, indiscernible in their forms or presentation styles. Good columns and features may stand out as testament to a writer's craft, but often the writer stands silently behind his or her game or featured athlete like the umpire hoping to be complemented with silence, his task performed with neither flair nor error.

Which is OK by me. My job is to present the moments of the 1994 Harvard sports scene for you, the readers, not to turn the spotlight around on myself, the columnist-writer-golfer-fan. I may contribute a first-hand golf team report during the year, but only in search of a new slant on sports journalism. And hopefully, when all is said and done after reading period of January 1995, y'all will be able to say you enjoyed our ride as much as I will have.

Darren M. Kilfara is an Assistant Sports Editor of The Crimson.