Whether it be tennis, field hockey, or intramural sports, Keene State athletics were a triumphant success in the Sept. 28, 1982 edition of The Equinox at Keene State College.
While tennis and field hockey were doing quite well, the same could not be said about the men’s soccer team at the time. After playing Plymouth State College, now Plymouth State University, and losing, KSC Head Coach Ron Butcher said he was unhappy with the team’s performance so far throughout the year.
Instead of getting excited when goals were scored, said Butcher, team members appeared smug and dissatisfied with their accomplishments.
In reference to the game, Butcher said, “We played very bad, downright lousy….To lose and play well is one thing, but to lose and be humiliated is another thing….We have players with the ability to win big games, but you can’t win games with an attitude of selfishness and big egos. That’s where Keene soccer is right now.”
After the game, Butcher relieved the team captains and reassigned roles based on previous games’ performances.
Oppositely, KSC women’s tennis team remained undefeated and the victories from the weekend had improved their record to 3-0.
Tennis Coach Buddy Walsh said he was “pleased by this team’s determination and noted that Keene State ‘dug deeper and pushed harder, when it counted, to come out on top,’” as stated in The Equinox in 1982.
Additionally, Walsh praised his athletes for their “hard serving, constant pressure and aggressive net play” during their performances.
Although Keene State doesn’t currently have a tennis team, there are tennis courts available for use on the Joyce Fields at the college.
The KSC field hockey team excelled as well, sweeping four games during the week and holding a record of 7-1.
In addition to a successful tennis and field hockey team, 1982 was the year KSC’s Intramural Sports program became so big that the on-campus facilities couldn’t handle it any longer and neither could the budget.
Intramural/Recreational Sports Director Paul Keenan said overgrowth was the biggest problem the program was facing at the time; with 1,800 intramural sports entries in 1981, he suspected approximately 2,000 in 1982.
Reason for the growth, he suspected, was because of the introduction of three new programs: softball, frisbee golf and a “Hot Shot” competition, which was created to replace one-on-one basketball.
To solve the overgrowth problem, the college purchased a 103-acre portion of land, what is now the Owl Athletic Complex, which was meant to remedy field scheduling issues, Keenan said.
Throughout the 2017 fall season, KSC athletics statistics can be found on keeneowls.com.
Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com