SPORTS BRIEFS

Author: Zamir Ahmed

Raeder earns POTW honors

The Middlebury men's hockey team's first-year goaltender Doug Raeder was named NESCAC Player of the Week for men's hockey for his work during the week of Dec. 26 to Jan. 2. Raeder guided the Panthers to two wins in the Middlebury College Holiday Classic as the team took home the trophy and remained undefeated on the year.

In the opening round game of the tournament on Dec. 31, Raeder stopped 27 of 28 shots against Babson College as the Panthers cruised to a 6-1 victory. On Jan. 1, the Panthers began the new year with a 4-1 win over Amherst College in the finals as Raeder made 20 stops on the day to earn tournament MVP honors.

Raeder was not the only star for the Panthers at the Holiday Classic. Defenseman Brett Shirreffs '07 and forward Scott Bartlett '08 were both named to the tournament All-Conference Team for their impressive offensive efforts. Shirreffs broke a 1-1 tie in the finals against Amherst with a power-play goal to give Middlebury a lead it would not relinquish and keyed a defense that gave up only two goals during the tournament. For the year, he has two goals and four assists in 11 games. Bartlett scored a goal in each of the Panthers' games to earn tournament honors. He currently has three goals and five assists on the season.

On the year, Raeder owns a 5-0-1 record and sits in second in the NESCAC with a 1.83 goals-against-average, behind only teammate Ross Cherry '08. Raeder is also fourth in the league with a save percentage of .921. The Panthers currently sit atop the NESCAC with a 7-0 league record and a 11-0-1 record overall. The team will be challenged to stay atop the standings this weekend when it takes on Colby on Jan. 13 and Bowdoin on Jan. 14 at Kenyon Arena.





The future of Midd sports

On Jan.4, the Middlebury College Planning Steering Committee and the President's Staff released a draft of 82 recommendations they plan to make to the College at the end of the spring semester entitled "Knowledge Without Boundaries: The Middlebury College Strategic Plan." The draft lays out proposals for the development of the College in the near future, focusing on the human dimension of the community. While focusing mainly on the academic and student life, the draft does put forth two suggestions for the development of Middlebury's intercollegiate athletic department.

The first recommendation from the committee proposes that the College continue to lead the development of a strong relationship between athletics and academic study. The draft recommends the continuation of collaborations between the NESCAC colleges that examine the interplay between athletics and academics. These collaborations have led to recommendations to NESCAC presidents and have resulted in changes in athletic policy at a number of colleges and universities. These collaborations are part of the College's principles that athletes should be at the same academic level as their peers and should have every chance to participate in other areas of college life.

The second recommendation in the draft plan calls for an increased interaction between coaches and other faculty members to create a dialogue about the balance of athletics and academics within the College community. Currently, the College has in place the Faculty Affiliate Program that recruits faculty members to volunteer to spend time with athletic teams. The program is designed to foster communication between students and staff about the relationship between athletics and academics, yet no such program exists that deals with communication between coaches and the rest of the College staff. The draft proposes that three coaches and three faculty members meet once a semester to open a dialogue concerning issues such as recruiting, scheduling of practices and athletic discipline. The goal of these meetings would be to create a model for the ideal student-athlete at Middlebury.

The recommendations made by the committee would help Middlebury remain one of the national leaders in the development of the scholar-athlete as an important member of the college community. Middlebury has already made important strides in dealing with the relationship between athletics and academics and the plan set forth by the Planning Committee, when finalized, would continue this process.