A new coach and the toughest schedule of fall sports makes pregame predictions for the Varsity soccer team an unusually risky proposition. J. Bruce Munro, the new coach, avoids forecasts 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 half years, mostly as a captain in the South Pacific.
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.
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