The closure of Linsey Pool is an absolute shame. Not that it was a great facility or that closing it was a bad idea, it wasn’t but that it has come to this. The pool was dimly lit, the hours of operation were never convenient (for me anyway), required walking across a gym while games were going on and then having to guess which staircase led to the narrow locker rooms. And I swear to god the water never looked right. Well now after many years of quick fixes, Linsey Pool is out of commission, possibly permanently.
It is quite frankly a shame that is has taken the possibility of one million dollars in repairs to actually look into a long term plan regarding the pool because for too long, certain parts of the athletic center have been allowed to degrade into substandard shape. It took a student ballot measure (by bare majority) to finally launch a badly renovation of the weight room which quite frankly has all the charm of a Chernobyl spa. The real losers in this though are the swim team. There are some good swimmers on there but unfortunately, they now have to practice at odd hours and wave bye bye to the concept of home field, I mean home pool advantage. I wish the best of look to the swimming squad.
– Zachary Aronow
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Men and women’s soccer wrap their seasons on the road at New York University on November 8 and once again, both teams are striving to reach mediocrity. The women’s team has been decent this year. Steller defense once again being a hallmark of Coach Dallamora’s group but men’s soccer this year has been disappointing to say the least. There is no other way around it, the men’s soccer team needs to beat NYU, the only other UAA team in a sorrier state than the Judges and that’s just to avoid another year of picking up no wins against UAA opponents.
The season had started out with such promise too. The Judges jumped to a 6-1 record and then proceeded to go through nearly a month before picking up their next win. The Coach Coven’s squad comes to play, they can surprise. The Judges were able to force draws against top opponents in Case Western Reserve and Chicago and of course I still remember two years ago when the Judges upset Babson in the ECAC playoffs and went on to claim the championship. With talented players like Ben Premo ’09 and Patrick Metelus ’10, the Judges should be and they are capable of greater than unwatchable mediocrity.
Turn around is possible. One only needs to look at the basketball program and remember that it was not that long ago that Brandeis basketball was a UAA afterthought. Obviously though, it’s on Coach Coven and for that matter, Coach Dallamora to either find the players that fit their schemes or change their schemes to fit the players and in turn raise Brandeis soccer to the caliber of competition that should be expected in the UAA.
– Zachary Aronow
