Maine RB Considering His Options

Surfing for information on potential recruit Jared Turcotte, the 225-ish pound running back from Maine who was that state's Sports Illustrated and Gatorade Player of the Year, a story popped up mentioning several schools -- but not Dartmouth and Harvard, two mentioned prominently in previous stories.

From the Portland Press Herald: "Turcotte is considering Maine, Bucknell, Holy Cross, Brown, Bowdoin and a few other schools ..." The story mentions these 2006 statistics: 1,813 yards rushing, 23 touchdowns and almost 8 yards per carry. For his career: 4,562 yards rushing. ...

From the Lewiston (Maine) Sun Journal: "Turcotte plans to continue playing football in college and has drawn attention from numerous Division I, I-A, Ivy League and NESCAC schools. He plans to make a decision by the time National Letter of Intent season opens in February." The Lewiston paper lists him at 6-1, 220 and notes that, in addition to his running, he caught four TD passes, threw one, had 113 tackles, returned an interception for a TD, recovered a fumble for touchdown and returned punts and kicks. No word on whether he cleaned the stands and mowed the lawn in addition to taking care of the team's punting and kickoff duties.

A Minnesota high school quarterback has Dartmouth, Harvard and Columbia among his suitors according to a brief mention in this story.

Dartmouth lost a potential recruit to PSU. No, not Penn State. And not New Hampshire's Plymouth State. Portland State University in Oregon. According to this story, the 6-foot-180 quarterback offered by Idaho had considered Dartmouth along with Cornell and Colgate. Washington and Oregon State invited him to walk on.

Enough non-news about recruiting. Here are a couple of excerpts from a tremendously revealing story:

With the accent on de-emphasis, some Ivy alumni find the results deplorable.

and ...

Yet Ivy League administrators are happy. With uniform admission standards, they turn up with teams of roughly equal strength that beat each other with unpredictable irregularity, making up in excitement what they may lack in consistent skill. They even produce a few topflight football players.

Sound familiar? If you scan the message boards and listen to alums, you'll hear this stuff every day. But here's a surprise: The excerpts above appeared in a Dec. 1, 1958, issue of Time Magazine. Some things never change. Find the full story here.

And finally, that certain Hanover High School freshman who was running her first 1500 meters yesterday at Levenone Field House exploded past the leader on the back straightaway of the last lap and won her heat handily -- with a big smile on her face. Here's the kicker: She ran 1500 meters and missed qualifying for the state championships by 0.33 seconds! She'll get another chance next week.

Check back later today (or early this evening) for a Green Alert special. ...