P.J. Halas '98 didn't always fit into size 11-and-a-half alf shoes. He wasn't always 6'1" or even 175 pounds. But ever since his days in the crib, he has been shooting sweet three-pointers from the outside.
In fact, Halas's dad, a pediatrician, hung a Nerf basketball hoop in his son's incubator to make sure that he followed the family collegiate sports tradition.
Indeed, the Halas family includes a genetic predisposition to sports greatness: a basketball coach at Clark and Columbia and baseball, football, basketball and rugby players at such universities as Harvard, Fairfield and Clark.
On top of his dad's encouragement, Halas and his brother Pat were "always pushing each other." In grammar school, the two brothers shared the New Jersey State Championship title for foul-shooting.
"It was an 'I want to be better than you' kind of thing that just made me work harder. But my dad always stopped it right before the fights," Halas explained.
Likewise, Halas remembers his 12-year old brother sprinting down off the bleachers after last year's triumphant upset of the UPenn as one of his greatest experiences in sports.
Halas picked up basketball playing the older kids in his grammar school. He entered a few tournaments here and there, and in sixth grade he decided that he was going to be just like the guys playing for his uncle at Clark and Columbia.
He started on the St. Girt High School team for two years and was the team captain his senior year.
Choosing the Big Green over the likes of Colgate, Holy Cross, Lehigh, Yale and Princeton, Halas knew substance when he saw it. He had been on a few recruiting trips, but found that other basketball teams weren't nearly as close as Dartmouth's.
"I came up here to see Dartmouth for the first time, stopped across from the Hanover Inn and saw the whole campus covered in snow," he described. "It was the first weekend in March. At that point, I just knew that I wanted to go here. I talked to the coaches and hung out with the guys for two days. Here seniors didn't look down on freshmen."
Halas' instincts were right, because his fellow basketball players have turned out to be lifelong friends.
"The guys on the team this year, seniors to freshmen, all of us got along really well. We hung out a lot," Halas said.
While Halas has found friends on the team, he has also experienced the incredible support of the Hanover community.
"People here care about the students, and they care for the students' parents too. They make it easier to be away from home, Halas said.
Another deciding factor in Halas's choice of Dartmouth was Coach Dave Faucher.
"He is one of the most intense guys I've ever met. I remember him sitting at breakfast before a game, with four jelly packets and a salt shaker, diagraming game strategy. His mind is always working on basketball," Halas said. "He is always there for you too. I'm not just another person here. I love how our team integrates and interacts."
Faucher also realizes the work load that his players deal with on a daily basis. According to Halas, Faucher knows that "academics come first here."
With his three-pointers, Halas fits right into a lineup of talented players.
"Halas is a great player who is a lot more than a great shooter. He is very smart player and an important asset to Dartmouth's success," team manager Trevor Keenan '98 said.
With such an impressive lineup, the team has big expectations for the coming years. Halas is especially looking forward to his senior year when the team will play big basketball schools Notre Dame and North Carolina.
"The program is up and coming. I'm lucky to have come in at ground level and be able to help build it up," Halas said.
On a more individual level, Halas sees himself "as a heavy player. I don't have a lot of athletic ability. Instead, I just have a lot of heart and want to succeed."
Faucher is less modest about Halas's skills. "P.J. is our best shooter and one of the top shooters in the Ivy League. He has a thorough knowledge of how to play and is a very important piece to our puzzle. He is also one of the nicest people I have ever met."
And despite his modesty, Halas does have goals for the coming season. "I'd like to work on my ball handling and agility and quickness. They are two things that need improvement and can always be fine tuned," he said.
Halas's practices seem to target these goals well. Playing for two or three hours a day during the summer doesn't hurt either.
Hard work has paid of for Halas in the past. While he contends that there have been some unpleasant experiences in basketball like playing frustrating games against Princeton, he also notes that playing "against one of best college teams," the University of North Carolina, in the Dean Dome is something that he'll never forget.
Halas seems to shine in such pressure-filled bug games. Halas's best game was arguable the one that put an end to Penn's Ivy-League winning streak this past season. "All my fraternity brothers were sitting in the front row, and they rushed the court," he said. "It was a great experience."
While Halas dominates basketball, he is also branching out to other sports. He recently shot an 86 on the golf course and counts taking his little brother surfing in the morning as his favorite thing to do back home in Sea Girt, N.J.
Followers of the old school, the Halas brothers take their longboards out and enjoy the calm, collected side of the sport. "I'm not a grunge guy. There are two different sides to surfing. You'll see the 12-year old kids with long hair and earrings. I'm not like that at all," Halas said.
A government major, Halas also has quite a few post-graduation plans: "I'd like to go over to Ireland and work and play basketball and come back and be a coach -- or a stockbroker."
