Every winter, as the Ivy League squash season draws to a close, one fact remains the same. The Crimson may be found close to the head of the list and generally at the very top, and this year will provide no exception. The evils of graduation are ever present, great players come and go, but coach Jack Barnaby's squads win with an almost frightening consistency.

Looking back over the long list of Harvard players who have gone on to high rankings in national and international competition, one might be tempted to trace Barnaby's successes to his ability to turn out brilliant individual performers such as Charlie Ufford, Ben Heckscher, and Larry Sears, to use some of the more recent examples.

A quick look at the situation in this year's Ivy and Eastern Leagues, however, shows quickly that this is not the case. This winter the outstanding players will be at Princeton (Steve Vehslage), Dartmouth (Dick Hoehn), and Yale (Sonny Howe), but of these teams only Yale will offer much of a threat to the Crimson.

Barnaby's--and Harvard's--secret is depth. Whether his team has an individual standout or not, Barnaby relies on being able to use nine strong players. When he is partly successful, the Crimson finishes third or fourth in the League. When he is successful, which is most of the time, his team is in the battle for first place--usually with Yale. Often there is no battle at all.

This season, however, looks like one of those battle years. Barnaby has a fairly strong team, with captain Charlie Hamm and Gerry Emmet at the top and a rapidly improving Tim Gallwey right below them. Then follows a host of tried veterans and men who have worked their way up to the varsity ranks over the past few years, Pete Lund, Tony Lake, Charlie Poletti, Fred Vinton, and Kent Allen.

This lineup will be too much for most of the Crimson's opposition, but Yale will once again be the stumbling block to a championship team. So it will be a year like most others, with Yale providing the drama in this season's race.