The states in color are those Dartmouth football coach Buddy Teevens plans to bicycle through during a cross country ride from San Diego to Hanover that will begin on May 7. The ride will be part alumni relations, part recruiting, part raising awareness of breast cancer and all adventure.
Dartmouth Coach Buddy Teevens Planning To Bicycle From San Diego To Hanover
To Meet Alumni And Coaches As Well As To Raise Breast Cancer Awareness
By Bruce Wood
Big Green Alert
HANOVER -- Whether it's pushing the building of a new varsity house from dream to reality in record time, planning a snowshoe outing for wide-eyed recruits from the deep south or promoting the idea that his players sit in the front row of their classes, the wheels are always turning for Dartmouth football coach Buddy Teevens.
They'll really be turning early next month when Teevens hops on his Serotta bicycle in San Diego and begins pedaling back to New Hampshire. Fit and trim at age 50, Teevens plans to cover more than 3,600 miles on his own two wheels, and he plans to do it in less than one month's time.
You read that right.
He will set off from California on the morning of May 7 -- two days after Dartmouth's spring football practice ends -- and intends to roll into New Hampshire in time to make son Buddy Jr.'s, graduation from Connecticut's Salisbury School in Connecticut on June 1.
By his count, Teevens will have to average about 160 miles per day riding through the desert, over mountains and through parts of at least 14 states to meet his timetable. He will be accompanied for at least the first portion of his trip by friend and former teammate David Shula '81.
"This is something I've always wanted to do," said Teevens, entering the third year of his second tenure at Dartmouth. "My sister Moira '87 did it years ago and loved it. It's been on my mind. I've gotten more into cycling as I've gotten older. It takes the stress off your knees and back. It's something I really enjoy."
While he's kept his plans relatively close to the vest so far, those who know what Teevens is up to have had mixed reactions.
"My wife's main concern is that I'm well-insured," he said with tongue firmly in cheek, where he proceeded to keep it for a time. "My staff has been very supportive and encouraging. It will get me out of the office. And the other people I've told have ranged from, 'Are you nuts?' to, 'I wish I could do that.' "
Teevens has shared his plans with only a few of his players so far.
"I'm sure some of them will look at me a little bit cockeyed when they hear about it, but I think it will be pretty well received," he said.
Teevens is no stranger to long-distance bicycling. Two years ago he pedaled from New Hampshire to a family vacation on Lake Michigan. "It was kind of on a whim and it was one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done," he said. "You are out there by yourself and you just go. You meet farmers or locals and they are curious. They wonder why you'd do something like this but they are tremendously supportive. It was refreshing to see how friendly people could be. They didn't know me from anyone. I was just Buddy on a Bike."
An inveterate multitasker, "Buddy on a Bike," has a number of objectives for his ride. He's hoping to meet, albeit briefly, with Dartmouth alumni along his route. He'd like to renew acquaintances with high school coaches he's come to know through recruiting across the country. And he's touched base with the Prouty Century Bike Ride & Challenge Walk, which raises money for cancer research at Dartmouth's Norris Cotton Cancer Center, about using the ride to help increase awareness of breast cancer, which has afflicted wife Kirsten's family. While he's not promoting his cross-country sprint as a fundraiser per se, he'd welcome contributions in honor of the ride being made to The Prouty.
Although it's been on his mind for a while, Teevens only recently realized he could squeeze the ride into the busy life of a Division I college football coach.
"I thought if I ever did this it would be well after I retired, if I could still walk," Teevens said with a laugh. "But the more I thought about it, the more I realized it could work. With the nature of recruiting at Dartmouth I do a lot of heavy traveling in December, January and February. The May period would historically be more meeting with alumni and lighter recruiting for me. My thought was to tie it all together this way and hit different pockets around the country. The timing is right with the weather, not too hot in the desert and not too cold once I get over the mountains.
"It's ambitious, certainly. I've got a small window; just about three weeks. But I think it's doable. People have done it in far less."
Teevens, the kind of person who never wants his 45-minute run to take more than half an hour, bicycled 225 miles in one day on his ride to Michigan a couple of years ago and covered at least 170 miles on each day of that trip.
"I know conditions and terrain will have an effect on how this goes," he said. "The unknown for me is the mountains. I've gone over ski mountains here and they are challenging, but it's different from the west. A lot of it will depend on luck. Hopefully you avoid flat tires and bicycle problems and get a tailwind instead of a headwind."
With welcomed expertise from the Claremont Cycling Depot in New Hampshire, Teevens plans to travel as light as possible, eschewing a sleeping bag and tent in favor of motels and quick overnight stops with interested alumni and acquaintances.
"I'll travel with a credit card," he said. "But I'm sure I'll get caught in a situation where there's 50 miles to the nearest hotel and how am I going to get there? Some people have been kind enough to offer a place to stay. With the pace we're trying to keep it would be just overnight, grab something to eat, get something in the morning and get back on the road."
Teevens' route will take him from California through Arizona, New Mexico, a little of the Texas panhandle, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont and eventually to New Hampshire.
"It's not etched in stone," he said. "We're trying to stay off major major roads. We're hoping alums along with way will either ride a segment or point me in the right direction, and that coaches or people I meet along the way will assist as I get a little closer to them."
Teevens opted to fly west and bicycle east to avoid a flight at the end of his ride, and to try to avoid something else.
"Headwinds," he said. "You hear that you have a better chance of getting tailwinds going east, but people I talk to who have done it say not to believe that stuff. It's going to blow all over the place and often. If you get lucky, you get lucky, but it's going to blow in your face a lot."
Teevens plans to share updates on his progress on the Green Alert Dartmouth football blog (whose author has crossed the country twice by bicycle). "We'll post stuff regularly," he said. "That way people along the way will be able to follow where we are. We'd love to have them ride along for a bit or share some travel advice."
Just don't look for Teevens to be wearing a flashy Dartmouth cycling shirt or streaming a banner off the back of his bike.
"I'm a little bit more plain," he said. "I'll have some Dartmouth gear to wear because it is a recruiting opportunity. But part of it is just creating curiosity about Dartmouth. Having people wondering, 'What is this guy doing and where is he from?' I'm sure I will meet a lot of interesting people along the way."
Editor's note: To contact Teevens about his trip, send an email to Buddy Bikes. To follow Teevens' trip, watch for regular updates on the Big Green Alert blog.
I don't usually begin with a non-football story, but the Boston Globe reports former Michigan and Seton Hall coach Tommy Amaker has been offered the Harvard basketball position and that's big news in the Ivy League. The Harvard Crimson also has a short story. ... It will be interesting to see if Amaker has any second thoughts about the job the first time he makes the bus ride from Columbia to Cornell on a snowy Friday night only to get in at 4 a.m. and have to play that night. And how he feels after he gets off the bus at 5 on Sunday morning after driving through the night from Ithaca. I could be wrong, but I just don't think they traveled like that at Michigan, or when he was playing at Duke.
James Perry, the former Brown quarterback who had a short stint on the staff at Dartmouth, is returning to his alma mater as an assistant coach according to the Providence Journal. Perry is the brother of former Dartmouth assistant John Perry, who joined the UNH staff this offseason.
Former Penn standout Jim Finn intends to fight for his job as New York Giants fullback according to the New York Post. Finn understands the deal:
"Hey, it's the NFL, every day they're trying to replace you," Finn said. "I've been basically trying to get shown the door since the day I got in the NFL."It's 158 days until Dartmouth's opener if the widget on my Mac is correct, but hype for the 2007 season has begun with the release of the "watch list" for the Lott Trophy, given to college football’s "Defensive Impact Player of the Year."
The forecast is calling for two inches of wet snow Thursday. Barring a change in schedule, the Little League team I'm coaching may play its first game before its first practice. That certain Hanover High freshman had practice in the gym ending at 9:15 last night and again tonight. Her first game was slated for Friday and they've been outside for all of an hour and a half on the school's new turf football field, which is once again covered by snow. As for that certain Hanover 7th grader, his first baseball practice was slated for a week ago. He hasn't even met his coach yet.
And lest you think the Dartmouth football team is getting off easy, spring practice is scheduled to start Monday. Wanna guess what the weather forecaster is calling for Monday? Yup.
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