The Washington times., 1920-10-31

II Is a fact that. excepting only the
position of center, IL would be easy
to pick an eleven OF players who in
the regular course of things would
have been available this year, and
which should be quite as strong as
the present Naval Academy team.
AS to center. it might be fair to In
clude Sanborn. a valuable substitute
center OF last season. but who is not
playing this year, for some reason.
Sanborn was a member of the cham
pion Olympic crew. and was delayed
in reporting. so that he Is not with
the squad.
This eleven might have lined up az
follows: Left end. Woodward or
Graves; left tackle. Murray; left
guard. Denfeld: center, Sanborn;
right guard, Newly or Niemeyer;
right tackle. Owsley: right end.
Lowe lor Snively; backs. Afford
Clark. Rodes, Benoist. Haase, Butler
and Flood.
THEY ARE GRADUATED.
Graves, Clark. Benoist. Haase and
Rodes are included in this list, though
they have graduated. because their
course was shortened by a year. and
had this not been the case they would
have had another year OF football.
These four belonged to the upper
half. enthusiastically, of the third class
OF last year, and were graduated
year ahead of the lower half. the
first classmen Of the present year.
Clark and Benoist started as backs
IN the Army game last year, and
Rodes and Hasse were also used In
most of the important games. Afford
md Flood resigned. and Butler also
resigned, his eyesight being below
the standard. A splendid backfeld
could have been picked from this
squad.
Afford could not be used last year.
as he hurt his knee early in the sea
son. However. he was able to go
through season of lacrosse last
spring, and appeared to have COM
pletely recovered. He was expected
to be the Nays best back this year.
LOSES NO LINEMAN.
No regular line man was lost by
graduation last year. Graves, regular
left end of the previous season. hav-
ing been supplanted by Woodward.
Shortly after the season ended II was
announced that Murray. left tackle.
and Denfeld, left guard, were un-
able to meet scholastic tests, and
WOulQ nave 10 TtSIGU thN <tSdo-
any. The blow to Naval football pros
poets was a hard one, as it was ad-
mitted that these two were the stars
of the team last year.
Then woodward resigned and
entered Massachusetts, institute Of
Technology. Thus the whole left
side Of the line vanished.
Newly and Niemeyer were excel
lent change guards, and were expect
ed to be useful members Of the squad
this year. Newly has resigned, how
ever, and an old injury to the shoulder
has kept Niemeyer from the game this
year. Nilsson, the heavyweight boxer:
Wallace and Richards. good change
guards, are also absent from the
squad.
Owsley, a Plebe last year. was a
promising athlete, both as football
player and weight thrower, but he
decided that he would not stay in the
navy. and has entered Princeton.
Snively and Lowe, two very good
ends, both with every prospect OF
making the team regularly. were also
among the number Of those who re-
signed.
LINE NOW POWERFUL.
These losses to the squad, which
were outside of the expected, formed
the first serious blow to Naval Acad-
envy prospects. and they were still
further hurt by the delay in the re-
turn of the Olympic squad. with most
of the line candidates still available.
Early setbacks are being overcome.
however, and the line Is now one lof
the best the navy has ever had. Its
showing against Princeton indicates
that it can hold its own against any
college team in the country this sea-
son.
The feeling is very general that the
development Of one really high-grade