Two years ago, when Hemenway Gymnasium was a secret Navy experimentation center, the uncoached Varsity squash team stood at the bottom of the Intercollegiate league, losing every single match played. Last year, Coach Jack Barnaby returned, and in three short months turned out a team that defeated every league opponent with the exception of Yale.
Today, if you go over to the reconverted Hemenway gym, you will probably find more action than any other place in College, for Barnaby is putting a huge squad of hopefuls through intensive and lengthy drills every afternoon in preparation for the gruelling season which opens next week. His agenda includes at least two outside matches weekly, and, sandwiched in between, test matches among his own team to determine seeding.
Although his players are hampered by the squash coach's traditional bugaboo of inexperience, Barnaby has a large part of his 1946 Varsity back, and feels he has cause for optimism, Captain Adam Foster returns to grace the number one spot, while right behind him are Bill Wightman and George Stevens, playing two and three respectively. Other veterans with a year's Varsity experience behind them are such dependables as Scotty Stewart, Lane McGovern, Milt Heath, and Jim McKittrick, while Foster's brothers Hugh and Henry have both joined him as sure starters. The former was number one on the Freshmen last year, while the latter is a returning veteran.
This was substantially the team that waltzed through all league opposition with the exception of Yale last year, and as Barnaby considers experience the essence of a good squash player, he has high hopes for the season ahead. "We should be able to give anybody plenty of trouble," he summarizes.
The Freshmen are starting with only one standout, former Middlesex star Joe Clark, but the picture there is not as bleak as it sounds, for Coach Corey Winn is used to moulding his squads from players new to the game, and feels he has plenty of "potentialities" among his candidates.
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