To the surprise of no one, New Hampshire's Ricky Santos was chosen CSN's first-team quarterback. He was joined on the first team by Harvard cornerback Andrew Berry. Named to the second team was Colgate linebacker Mike Gallihugh. Holy Cross corner Casey Gough was chosen to the third team. Left off the team entirely was Yale tailback Mike McLeod, who ran for 19 touchdowns and 1,364 yards last year as a sophomore. The sixth-leading rusher in I-AA last year, McLeod is the second-leading returning rusher in the country and for some reason he never seems to get his due.
Dartmouth incoming lineman Lane Shipley of Steamboat Springs, Colo., had a terrific experience in the Colorado All-State game (story and picture) until suffering a season-ending knee injury at the end of the contest. The 6-foot-2, 245-pound Shipley -- who played the entire game on offense and more than half of the defensive snaps -- recovered a fumble to help his team's second-half comeback before taking a hit on a play in the final two minutes of the game. He limped off the field and learned later that he tore cartilage and his ACL on the play. He's having surgery this week but could be back at full strength for spring ball.
Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens, instrumental in the starting of the Manning Passing Academy, gets a mention in this Times-Picayune story about the camp.
When football season rolls around, Green Alert will be essentially a fulltime job. From the middle of August through the end of November, I put most everything else I do aside to try to cover the Big Green the way a local newspaper would cover a Big 10 team, seven days a week.
Some of you have asked exactly what everything else I do is, so I thought I'd give you an idea. ... I write magazine stories, like this fun cover story about a local woman who is carving out a career for herself in comedy, or this one about affordable housing in the Upper Valley. ... I "string" for the Associated Press, write game stories for the hometown newspapers of teams playing at Dartmouth, and even cover Dartmouth basketball for an innovative web site. ... I freelance for several Dartmouth publications, including Dartmouth Life and the Alumni Magazine as well as Middlebury' Magazine. (I've written a few pieces for the Midd publication and particularly enjoyed doing this one.) ... I also help out with freelance writing for Dartmouth's sports information office (such as this story), relying on the institutional knowledge I gained as the beat writer covering Dartmouth for the local daily for more than 15 years. ... I do some PR, last year for a startup company involved in exchanging game films via computer and for two years now as the media coordinator for the Vermont Open golf tournament. ... Occasionally I get lucky and a real plum assignment comes my way like when I was commissioned to write the Ivy League chapter for the ESPN College Football Encyclopedia. ... I've written the Ivy preview for several national magazines in the past but often those assignments go to a writer who covers the team that won the league the previous year and, alas, that hasn't happened for too long. ...
I put much of the above aside and spent about six weeks in the late winter this year working on a young adult novel that I hope to finish after the 2007 football season. The story has been plotted and the first half of it (or so) is written. Think Hardy Boys meet Matt Christopher ... for girls. (It helps to have a daughter who is a big sports fan and pretty good athlete. ;-)
The crowning piece of this patchwork quilt of work is pulling together personal histories for senior citizens. I've done hardbound book, DVD slide show and oral history projects. (I'm finishing an oral history that I hope to have on disc this week.) It's rewarding to be able to use my journalism skills to help someone share a story that will be in his or her family for generations to come. I'm biased of course, but I think a personal history is one of the best gifts any of us can give a parent or children and grandchildren. To see a PDF file of the above flyer for my "Remember When?" personal history projects, click here. (Email me for more information if you or someone you know might be interested one of these projects.)
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