Gridders Boost Rugby

Today's Daily Dartmouth has a story about the Big Green rugby team's 40-20 win over Ohio State in the national Sweet 16 and subsequent loss to No. 2 Penn State that denied a trip to the Final Four. The story mentions that former defensive end Anthony Gargiulo had a try, but it also mentions that fellow senior Mark Goodson bookended the day's scoring with a try to open play and another to close it. Goodson was a junior varsity quarterback. Former tight end Joe Killefer is a stalwart on the Dartmouth squad and former corner back Mike Ribero, like Gargiulo and Killefer, was an All-Ivy pick in his first season playing the sport.

Several Ivy school papers have stories today about the league's draft chances. The Harvard Crimson notes that with quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick going to the Rams last year and Clifton Dawson on the radar screen a year from now, draft watching will be a little less fun in Cambridge this weekend. ... The Columbia Spectator offers some opinions on Cornell offensive lineman Kevin Boothe (a possible first-day pick), Brown tailback Nick Hartigan (a possible late-round choice) and Princeton defensive back Jay McCareins (a darkhorse to go late). ... Even the Daily Dartmouth has a column that touches on the draft, although it does not have an Ivy angle.

Speaking of Dawson, the Harvard Crimson has an informative followup on his selection in the CFL draft, explaining why he was drafted as a junior and what it means.

Rabid Dartmouth fans and players from the late '80s probably remember Rob McGovern, a former Holy Cross captain and linebacker who went on to play four years in the NFL. Check out this story on the Holy Cross football site for an interesting look at what former the Crusader is doing these days.

Finally, Princeton hired a new sprint football coach. (Sprint has replaced the title Lightweight in these PC days.) Normally that would be of only moderate interest given the Dartmouth doesn't play Sprint football, but the new coach's comments in a story in the Daily Princetonian were interesting. Said coach Thomas Cocuzza -- who worked under his father at New Jersey's Kean University (a Division III school once known as Newark State):

"I came from a state university where the kids would be unbelievable competitors and win at all costs [on the field] and then you would get their grades and they would have a 1.5 [GPA] and they didn't care. I could never understand how you could be a competitor on the field and not in the classroom. [At Princeton], it is almost the opposite. I want these players to take their competitiveness in the classroom and bring that out to the field."