Cheering For Chad

To be perfectly honest, there are days when it's a bit of a stretch to keep the Cal Ripken thing going and find something worthy of posting on the blog. Today is not one of those days ;-)

The best news over the weekend came out of North Carolina where junior Chad Gaudet not only played but started for the Dartmouth lacrosse team in a pair of tough losses to Duke and UNC. He collected four ground balls, won one faceoff and was penalized once in his first lacrosse games since high school. (See Dartmouth lacrosse statistics)

Gaudet, you'll recall, was the promising tailback who suffered a terrible knee injury on the first carry of his sophomore season against Colgate two seasons back. He missed the rest of the 2005 campaign and all of last season as he rehabbed the knee. Word is that he's eager to get back on the gridiron and while there are no guarantees, his hard work and determination to fight his way back from what many thought was a career-ending injury should be an inspiration to everyone on the team.

Not coincidentally, I'd think, Gaudet is wearing No. 45 in lacrosse, the same number he wore when he ran for 349 yards in just a little over four games as a freshman football player.

Former Dartmouth tight end Casey Cramer, who spent last season with the Tennessee Titans, is a "restricted free agent," according to this story. Um, and what might that mean? I'm glad you asked. From the NFL web site:

Restricted free agents are players who have completed three accrued seasons of service and whose contracts have expired. They have received qualifying offers from their old clubs and are free to negotiate with any club until April 21, at which time their rights revert to their original club. If a player accepts an offer from a new club, the old club will have the right to match the offer and retain the player. If the old club elects not to match the offer, it may receive draft-choice compensation depending on the level of the qualifying offer made to the player.

As had been rumored on several message boards, the Penn athletics web site says the school has not renewed the contract of Shawn Halloran after just one year as the Quakers' offensive coordinator. (The AP transactions line was more succinct reading, "Pennsylvania: Fired offensive coordinator Shawn Halloran.") Sounds as if Penn means business after a couple of down years by Quaker standards. ... The former Boston College quarterback's hiring almost exactly a year ago was heralded this way.

It's a little late for a schedule change, but if Dartmouth r-e-a-l-l-y wants to break up the Colgate-UNH-Holy Cross trinity, Hawaii is eagerly looking for a game against a I-AA (oops, FCS) opponent. From yesterday's Honolulu Advertiser:

"The Warriors, who can play up to 13 games this year, have three vacancies remaining, at least one of which is likely to be against a Division I-AA school."

(Anyone interested in being the official Green Alert Goes To Hawaii sponsor should such a game ever come about, feel free to contact me. (That's supposed to be funny.) The Green Alert budget could handle riding the Greyhound to Montana, but the Big Island would be a stretch ;-)

If you are wondering what former Dartmouth wide receiver (and onetime Cincinnati Bengals coach) David Shula is up to these days, he's working for his dad. And if you are wondering what Don Shula is up to, check out this link in the Providence Journal sent along by a friend. Hint: If you want to get a good steak when you go to the Brown game next fall, the Shulas can help you out.

For a sense of how UNH receiver David Ball was received at the NFL Combine, check out this CBS Sportsline story by Dartmouth alum Clark Judge.

Today's Daily Dartmouth has a story about balancing athletics and academics. The story quotes football co-captain Preston Copley:

"It is tough, balancing academics and athletics at Dartmouth, because of the demands that both put on you. You can't let down on one or the other because you know that you are here for both, that that's why you came here."

There's also a quote from football/track freshman Pete Pidermann:

"Playing two sports, I don't have time for anything else, I have no life. Football is a year-round commitment, so when I am doing track, between class, homework, both practices, workouts, team meetings and team dinners, I barely have time to sleep, let alone do anything else."

The D also has an opinion piece wondering whether the athletic-academic double is worth it. The column includes this:

Dartmouth sports, despite their intrinsic amateurism, have become a cold business lately. Coaches and support staff have forgotten the real reasons that students compete. Today, it seems that they are focused primarily on keeping their jobs and winning.

More from the column with regard to athletic attrition:

Last season, five of 32 football players from the Class of 2007 played while one of five men's basketball players still play. One of five field hockey played this fall and three of 10 male lacrosse players still play.

Former Duke lacrosse player Reade Seligmann could be headed to Brown or Harvard. The Cornell Sun chimes in on whether that would be a good idea.

The forecast is for up to nine inches of snow overnight and tomorrow with some of the wonderfully named "wintry mix" sprinkled in. I can think of two Hanover school kids who have their fingers crossed for a three-day weekend.