Announcing the Five Days of Sportsmas

Final exam time at Harvard can be a stressful time for Harvard students, particularly those students who host a regular radio show on WHRB. In order to maintain quality air during this period but also give the student staff a chance to study for exams, WHRB has what is known as its Orgy season. An Orgy, a trademarked term of WHRB, is a block of programming (sometimes an expansion of WHRB's traditional programming) that takes up a large block of time- this can be anywhere from four hours to days worth of music all organized around a certain theme.

WHRB Sports is no exception to the Orgy period schedule. In the past, we've traditionally presented an extended edition of Crimson Sportstalk centered around a sporting event- last year, it was the men's and women's basketball doubleheader. When looking at the schedule, we recognized a new opportunity, a chance to broadcast five straight days of Sports. Thus, the Five Days of Sportsmas Orgy was born, as WHRB will bring you around 16 hours of Harvard Sports coverage like no one else can.

It all starts Tuesday night, December 7th at Lavietes Pavilion, when the Harvard Crimson take on Division III outfit WPI at 7pm. The rest of Sportsmas will feature men's and women's hockey and men's and women's basketball broadcasts as well. The full schedule is in the sidebar to the right as well as below the jump. We're still working on the final details but expect interviews with coaches, players and national figures both during and immediately after our broadcasts. We're looking forward to our most ambitious schedule in our tenure at WHRB Sports and we hope you are too. Thanks for listening and have a MERRY SPORTSMAS!

October-November Schedule Announcement

As the calendar turns from September to October, Harvard athletics, and thus WHRB's coverage of Crimson athletics, begins a transition from the fall season to the busy and exciting time when the fall season and winter season are both in full swing. As the student voice of Harvard football, and the home of Harvard hockey, there are some exciting games ahead on our calendar for the next two months. The month of October will have us broadcast six contests across two different sports, before yielding to a November that will feature fifteen games across four different sports, in addition to Crimson Sportstalk every Sunday at 1pm. Here are some of the highlights:


Friday, October 29th: Harvard women's hockey vs. Yale, 7pm.
Harvard's quest for an ECAC title and a return to the NCAA Tournament begins as the Crimson start their season at the Bright Hockey Center against their arch-rivals, the Yale Bulldogs. Harvard, led by the winningest Division I Coach, Katey Stone, take on a Yale team led by former Harvard assistant Joakim Flygh.
Friday, November 5th: Harvard men's hockey vs. Union, 7pm
The Crimson look to get their season off on the right foot as they take on the high flying Union Dutchmen at the Bright Hockey Center. Led by head coach Ted Donato '91, the underdog Crimson, picked 7th to finish in the ECAC by the coaches, will look to prove themselves against a preseason frontrunner for the Cleary Cup.
Saturday, November 13th: Harvard football at Pennsylvania, 1:30pm
The two favorites for the Ivy League title collide in Philadelphia and the Crimson will be looking for revenge against the toast-throwing Quakers, the only team to beat the Crimson in Ivy League play last year. If Harvard is to have any shot of being Ivy League champions, the Crimson will need a win at Franklin Field.
Wednesday, November 17th: Harvard Men's Basketball vs. Holy Cross, 7pm 
The season gets under way at Lavietes Pavilion as the Crimson take on Bay State rival Holy Cross. Harvard, fresh off a 20+-win season and its first postseason bid since 1946, will now be looking for an Ivy Championship and a trip to the NCAA tournament.
Saturday, November 20th: THE GAME, Harvard football vs. Yale, 12pm
Always circled on both Harvard and Yale fans' calendars every year, The 127th edition of The Game, held this year at Harvard Stadium, needs no introduction. Be sure to tune in for our special, hour long pregame show at 11am, and stick around as Tim Murphy's Johnnies seek their fourth straight win over the rival Elis.
Tuesday, November 23rd: Harvard women's basketball at Boston University, 7pm.
Harvard women's basketball, a WNIT participant last year, has an early season trip to face local rival Boston University. Last season, the Crimson defeated all four Bay Area opponents, including Boston University, for the first time in school history.
Sunday, November 28th: Harvard men's basketball vs. Colorado, 2pm
It's sure to be a big game with a BCS school making the rare visit to Cambridge, as the Colorado Buffaloes wrap up their potential final season in the Big XII before heading to the Pac-10 conference. Harvard will be looking to earn a "signature win" at home, hoping to impress both the Crimson Crazies and the tournament selection committee. The Crimson, 1-1 vs. BCS schools last year, last hosted a BCS school in December of 2007, when Tommy Amaker's former program, the Michigan Wolverines, paid a visit, with Harvard getting a 62-51 win.

Below the jump, we present our full October-November schedule.

Programming Notes: May 4th, 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.

As classes end and finals begin at Harvard, it is the tradition of Harvard Radio to present their Orgy season, blocks of programming devoted to one theme. WHRB Sports contributes to this with our own Crimson Sports Orgy, presented every year during the winter and spring. In the winter, we featured a Harvard basketball doubleheader. In the spring, however, without a sport to frame the program around, we instead will provide four hours of original content from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Some of the features of our Crimson Sports Orgy (all times approximate):
- Harvard Headlines (11:00 a.m.)
Just like on Crimson Sportstalk, we will take a look around all of Harvard's varsity sports to see how they did this past week.
- An Interview with Harvard Athletics Director Bob Scalise (11:10 a.m.)
Get a chance to hear a State of the Crimson interview, as Harvard Athletics Director Bob Scalise chatted with WHRB about various topics in the world of Harvard athletics.
- Season Wrap-ups (11:30 a.m.)
As the spring season comes to an end, we will take a look at the seasons for the men's and women's lacrosse teams, the baseball team, and the softball team.
- 2010 Awards Show (12:00 p.m.)
A new and exciting feature to the WHRB Sports Orgy, we will present 15 Awards ranging across various categories of Harvard sports. Categories include Male and Female Players of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Coach of the Year, and Team of the Year.
- Season Previews (12:45 p.m.)
The department eagerly awaits, along with all other Harvard sports fans, the beginning of the 2010 fall and the 2010-11 winter seasons. We'll have a look at football, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's hockey, and men's and women's basketball.
- Harvard Alumni in the NFL (1:50 p.m.)
This segment features several beat writers for professional football teams with recent Harvard alumni on them, as we look to see how past Crimson players fare in the pros.
- Kicking a Touchdown (2:00 p.m.)
Kicking a Touchdown, our football halftime show which debuted this year, will have its last episode of the season. The show will be a nice send-off for Senior Patrick Long, Kicker for the Harvard football team, and serve as a transition as we introduce next year's host.
- Sports Talk Radio (2:20 p.m.)
Our two graduating department members, football play by play man Alasdair Wilkins, and men's hockey play by play man Tom Brennan will jump into the booth and discuss some of the lighter topics surrounding Harvard sports. Topics could range from black jerseys for various teams, what team would be a good fit for ECAC Hockey, or looking at if the Ivy League should join in the talks of expanding conferences.

Then starting at 3 p.m., our Crimson Sports Orgy will transition over to the critically-acclaimed men's hockey intermission feature, Top Shelf, as we become the only show bold enough to bring the players off the ice and into drive time. Featuring this year's co-hosts, Senior Alex Biega, Junior Kyle Richter, and WHRB's Tom Brennan, Top Shelf is now in it's 7th season. Tune in to hear about Alex's recent vacation to Mexico, meet Al and Kyle's roommate, and find out about the future both of Top Shelf and our soon-to-be-graduating hosts, Alex and Tom. Don't forget to stay tuned in to the end for an emotional "Stick Salutes" as Alex and Tom give their final farewells as Top Shelf regulars.

Reminder: Sportstalk Today at 1PM

Another Sunday afternoon means it is time for another Crimson Sportstalk on 95.3 FM and WHRB.

We'll have recaps of all the week's action with our Harvard Headlines, including a look at the women's soccer game that gave them the outright Ivy League Title, and the women's hockey team, which earned its 500th win in program history this weekend.

Scott Reed will stop by to talk with us and give us a season preview of the men's basketball season which gets underway next week. We'll also have an interview with Coach Tommy Amaker.

Scott will also be there to talk with us about the Harvard-Columbia football game, and give us a look ahead to next week's de facto championship game versus Penn.

And Tom Brennan will be there as well to talk about the men's hockey team's weekend at Colgate and Cornell.

It can all be heard live on 95.3 FM and online at WHRB.org starrting at 1PM.

New York State of Mind for Harvard Crimson

This weekend, it's all about New York for Harvard as a bunch of sports are in action against New York area opponents.

On Friday afternoon, the women's field hockey team closes out their season on the road against Columbia in New York

On Friday night, in a game that can be heard on WHRB, the men's hockey team travels up to Hamilton, NY to face the Colgate Raiders, before a Saturday road game in Ithaca, NY against arch-rival #5 Cornell, which can also be heard on WHRB.

The #10 women's hockey team is also in action against New York teams, this time at the Bright Hockey Center, as they face the #2 Clarkson Golden Knights on Friday and the #7 St. Lawrence Saints on Saturday. A win this weekend will give the Crimson their 500th in program history.

On Saturday, it will be Harvard vs. Columbia down in New York City in a variety of sports. The first game on Saturday can be heard here on WHRB, as the football team looks to remain unbeaten in Ivy League play. Then at 4 PM, the #11 men's soccer team will look to add to their Ivy League record with their last road constest of the regular season. Then at 7 PM, The women's soccer team will be looking to clinch sole possession of the Ivy League title after clinching a share of the title last week against Dartmouth.

Of course, we'll have a recap of this New York heavy weekend on Sunday on Crimson Sportstalk.

Reminder- Sportstalk Today at 1pm

Another Sunday, so it's time for another Crimson Sportstalk on WHRB.

Today's our big hockey preview show as our men's hockey booth looks back at the exhibition from Friday night as well as ahead to the first ECAC clash next week against Dartmouth.

We'll also have an interview with coach Ted Donato.

Other Highlights: Alasdair Wilkins will be in to talk with us about yesterday's convincing win for the Crimson against the Princeton Tigers on the gridiron.
We will have another installment of our national media interview series.
And of course, Harvard Headlines, wrapping up all of this week's action in the fall sports.

That's all today at 1pm on 95.3 FM WHRB and online at WHRB.org.

Weekend observations: Clarkson/St. Lawrence

Welcome to the WHRB Sports Blog, Harvard hockey fans. I hope to regularly update this space with commentary and observations about the team, post coach and player interviews, and keep you updated about upcoming hockey broadcasts on WHRB 95.3 FM.

That said, a few notes about this past weekend's games against Clarkson and St. Lawrence: 

If I had said that Jack Christian would be Harvard's leading goal scorer after 2 games, most would have been seriously alarmed about the potency of the Crimson offense. Yet the Crimson delivered a third period offensive explosion against St. Lawrence, netting 4 goals en route to a 6-1 victory. Half of the Crimson's goals were scored by players who had never scored before--Jack Christian (2) and Dave McDonald, the top defensive defensemen on the team. 

All things considered, I thought Harvard showed a lot of promise this weekend against two of the better teams in the conference. Clarkson is without question a superb team, while SLU appears to have some early-season kinks to resolve after being swept at home and falling to 0-3 in ECAC play. It was not surprising to see them fall out of the USCHO Top 20, while Clarkson moved up to #8 after picking up 4 points on home ice.

Harvard responded well after early nerves against Clarkson resulted in a goal at 1:00 of the first period, but simply couldn't penetrate the Clarkson zone for the last 10:00 of the third period. Possibly a conditioning issue (first game of the year) but credit Clarkson for stepping up and shutting down the Crimson attack.

SLU was a different story. Plenty of scoring chances in a fast-paced first period, with Christian lighting the lamp on a centering feed from Paul Dufault. Harvard gave SLU lots of chances to get back into the game with a string of penalties to begin the 2nd but the Harvard PK was stifling as it was the entire weekend. Fraser blocked a ton of shots on the PK. Obviously Harvard poured it on in the 3rd, with Christian scoring a ENG and McDonald scoring in the waning moments. SLU goaltender Petizian was shaky all night. Alex Biega fired a shot from the red line that hit the crossbar. Petizian clearly didn't have his best game and, in fairness, should have stopped some of the goals he surrendered.  

Story of the weekend was Richter's play in net. Many observers had questions about Harvard's goaltending situation, after a senior goaltender graduated for the third consecutive year. Personally I thought this was somewhat overdone, as it was Richter who played a large role in resurrecting Harvard's 2006-2007 season after its 3-9 start. Sure, his numbers weren't staggering (7-8, 2.84 GAA, .903 sv pct) but remember that his difficult starts against Yale and Brown (5-1 loss and 6-6, respectively) contributed significantly to his stats. Also, Richter has a knack for making big stops that can spark the team. He had some problems controlling his rebounds but made some first-rate saves to keep Harvard in the game against Clarkson and preserve its lead against SLU. I expect Richter to be strong in net this year. 

Defense was strong, especially compared to last year's early season defensive effort. Losing Reese obviously hurts on the offensive side but he was in my estimation Harvard's top shut-down defenseman last year. I expected the D to need some time to establish a groove but they looked solid to me. I expect Alex Biega and Morin to be better in their own zones this year. Biega, as an aside, also appeared more comfortable quarterbacking the PP, and he has a vicious shot from the point. 

More to come later on this weekend's home games vs. #16 RPI and Union...