First Email Alert Sent

Green Alert subscribers who signed up for the 2008 season and requested the "email alert" option should have gotten a test email Thursday night. If you did not, please email me and I'll double-check my list to make sure I haven't forgotten you.

A couple of reminders ...

The 2008 Green Alert subscription cycle begins Aug. 1 and runs through July 31, 2009. (First time I've written 2009 - pretty scary, actually.) Over the next several days the subscription list will be winnowed down to folks who have subscribed/renewed for the coming season. Give it a try and if your password doesn't work at that point you will need to fill out a new subscription form. I apologize for requiring you to do that, but the program I use to keep track of subscribers is getting overrun with duplicate forms and a bit of dead wood (hate that expression, by the way) from the past several years.

Voting in the poll (over there, on the left) ends Friday morning, so let your voice be heard ;-)

From D-Back To Lawyer To Agent

The St. Petersburg Times has a profile of former Dartmouth defensive back John Owens '91, a partner in one of Florida's largest law firms and an up-and-coming sports agent. From the story about Owens, who came to Dartmouth from Prospect, N.Y., and Notre Dame High School:

Owens looks for mentally tough players with a clean background who exhibit leadership on and off the field.

"Often you find that the players that make it in the NFL aren't always the most talented, but the ones who are mentally tough enough to handle the pressure of playing on an NFL team," Owens said. "The other thing we look for are players that will learn the playbook, because coaches like those guys. If you don't learn the playbook, you're gone."

Sounds like the profile of an Ivy League player, don't you think?

The Time Magazine website has yet another story on Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. As is usually the case in longer profiles, the story mentions that he played football for Dartmouth.

With the Summer Olympics around the corner you may be wondering about Dartmouth's historical impact on the Games – Summer and Winter. For a list of Dartmouth's all-time Olympians, click here. That page is part of a regular blog that will be concerned with Ivy athletes in China. Find that blog here. There's even a link for an all-time medal count for Ivy League schools. It looks like this:

1. Yale 105
2. Harvard 96
3. Penn 63
4. Princeton 55
5. Dartmouth 45
6. Cornell 40
7. Brown 35
8. Columbia 20

If you haven't read the First Person with Buddy Teevens, find it here. From the story:

Buddy Teevens on first-game foe Colgate opening camp this weekend:

It's about a month ahead of us and that's the way that it is so I don't worry about it or complain about it. I think it adds incentive for our players. They can see the pro camps are now up and running. The college camps are getting going, and ESPN has segments on football every day. The feeling is, hey, it's time to play football. That's exciting and encouraging to our players and coaches. It would be nice to start a little earlier, but you can also enjoy the summer a little longer than most folks.

Teevens First Person Posted

(click image to enlarge)

By Bruce Wood
www.biggreenalert.com

July 30, 2008

Fresh back from a relaxing week visiting family and friends at Cape Cod, Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens sat for a full hour on July 29 to answer questions and offer random thoughts about the summer, the 2008 season and the state of the Big Green football program heading into the fourth year of his second stint at the helm.

On what the prognosticators use to form their opinions:
Outsiders look at our program and they see graduation of the bulk of the offensive line. They see the graduation of the quarterback. The graduation of the top receiver. The graduation of two tight ends. But we are comfortable with the guys that are stepping up. Outsiders don't know how huge the spring was for us.

The fact that a (320-pound guard) Jon Summers was out afforded (junior Alex) Toth and (sophomore) Will Montgomery a much greater opportunity to develop. They got two or three times the repetition that they would have had. The tight end position with (junior) Carroll Papajohn was the same thing. We had a lot of athletic young players who made great strides in the spring and that will help us this season.

Click here to read the story on Green Alert premium

Gargiulo, Cramer In News

Anthony Gargiulo's dramatic comeback bid from a horribly broken ankle was put on hold when he was cut yesterday by the Calgary Stampeders. But his career may not be over. From a story in the Calgary Herald:

"He came out and practised hard, his foot would hurt and swell up and he'd have to take it a little bit lighter the next day," said Stamps coach and general manager John Hufnagel. "At this time, he's just not ready to compete day in and day out.

"I think he wants to play and I think he'll continue to work to get back on the field."

There's another Gargiulo story in the Calgary Sun.

If Casey Cramer is in an NFL training camp you can just about bet at some point there will be a story about what happens when someone is practicing a little too hard. Moderation was never Cramer's thing in practice. There were a bunch of stories like that coming out of the Tennessee Titans camp yesterday that mentioned the former Dartmouth All-American, but here's the kicker: Casey was on the receiving end, not the delivering end, this time. From the Titans Radio version:

Defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch scrapped with left guard Eugene Amano and linebacker Stephen Tulloch slammed into tight end Casey Cramer, a hit he didn't seem to be ready for.

''There’s a fine line as you build toughness and there’s a fine line how you go about doing it,'' (Coach Jeff) Fisher said. ''You just learn how to do it.''

Visit Green Alert Premium later today or early this evening for a First Person report with Buddy Teevens. The Dartmouth coach graciously sat with me for the better part of an hour yesterday and touched on subjects such ... as who is on campus this summer and what they are doing, whether he sneaks a look at preseason magazines on the supermarket shelves, what "junior day" is all about, what he thinks about Colgate opening camp this week, his social networking policy and more.

Colgate Camp Opens Soon

Opening-game foe Colgate opens camp Sunday. No kidding. Find a short release here.

Dartmouth's first practice ... drumroll please ... Aug. 27.

Jenny Profiled In Daily Dartmouth

The Daily Dartmouth has a story about the football program centered around junior Alex Jenny, who will come to camp in 29 days as the No. 1 quarterback. Jenny, listed at 5-11, 182, tells the school paper:

Obviously I’m not the biggest quarterback in the world. I’d say my biggest strength is just knowing the offense and knowing what’s going on with the defense. I’m not a physically dominant player in any way, so I just try to have a good grasp on what we’re doing.

Jenny may not be the prototypical 6-4, 225 quarterback, but don't underestimate his physical skills. He puts a lot of zip on the ball. And in spring drills he surprised many an onlooker with his running ability.

Former Dartmouth tight end Casey Cramer has become a special teams force with the Tennessee Titans. There's a story about him on the Titans Radio site, and audio with him here. Casey, by the way, would be a terrific color commentator when his playing days are over. The web posting included this:

''You can make a good living playing special teams,'' Titans fullback/special teamer Casey Cramer said. ''For young guys, you can find your way onto the field quickly if you make an impact on special teams.''

Colgate tailback Jordan Scott has been named to The Sporting News preseason FCS All-America Team. The Colgate web site has a brief mention.

New Hampshire football is playing Army this year, Pittsburgh of the Big East in two years and Boston College in 2014. Athletic Director Marty Scarano revealed those games in a state-of-the-program meeting according to a story in the Laconia Citizen. UNH, you may remember, defeated Rutgers, Northwestern and Marshall during Ricky Santos' time at quarterback. Scarano told the assembly:

"I don't want to say (Army's) a game we can win, but obviously we can compete. It's a great event for the University."

Green Alert Take: Good for UNH. The shame is that Dartmouth and the other Ivy League teams no longer have that kind of opportunity.

And finally ... that certain Hanover High junior to be is at the bottom of Grand Canyon today as part of her "West Coast Counselor In Training" program. ... The freshman to be at Hanover is at his camp and mom and day are wrapping up two weeks of empty nesting with a question: Where have all the good movies gone? We've seen four in the past two weeks and still haven't seen one we'd recommend.

And finally part II ... This is coming to you from the parking lot of the Hanover town library. That's right ... no Internet again this morning. Argh!

More On Reggie Williams

If you wondered for even a second if Reggie Williams' knee problems were as bad as they sounded in various press reports, read the story in the Daily News and be sure to check out the closeup of his knee. It is beyond horrifying.

Williams appears to be wearing a Dartmouth shirt in the picture. The story writes:

A 3.8 high school GPA allowed Williams, the first in his family to attend college, to earn an academic scholarship at Dartmouth. That experience enabled him to build on his interests and knowledge; he still feels intensely proud of his Ivy League degree. "At Dartmouth, I learned how to maximize my potential," he says.

Former Big Green lineman Hank Paulson is the subject of a lengthy story in the New York Times under the headline: Can Hank Paulson Defuse This Crisis? From the piece on the treasury secretary:

Facing the possibility of even worse economic news in the months to come, Mr. Paulson — whose nickname “The Hammer” comes from his days as an offensive lineman on the Dartmouth football team in the ’60s — has won praise on Wall Street and Capitol Hill, particularly among Democrats, for his role in fashioning solutions to economic difficulties this year.

The Dartmouth football team could have up to five games - or more - broadcast on TV this fall. The possible broadcast schedule:

• Sept. 20 at Colgate (Time Warner Sports)
• Sept. 27 New Hampshire (WMUR)
• Oct. 4 at Penn (CN8)
• Oct. 11 Yale (NESN*)
• Oct. 25 at Columbia (Versus*)

* The first three games are confirmed broadcasts. The Yale game on NESN is still to be confirmed. The Columbia game was originally reported to be on Versus at 4 p.m. That game is not currently noted on either school's schedule as being televised but the time is listed as TBA, which makes it sound as if details are still being ironed out. It still shows up on the Versus schedule here, but we all know better than to quote that source as being definitive. Or we should. Um, stay tuned ;-)

Speaking of the Ivies and Versus, here's a preview of the league the network put up. The short Dartmouth entry is begins with mention of QB Tim McManus.

To learn a little more about Game 2 opponent UNH, here are some thoughts from coach Sean McDonnell spun out of the CAA media day and reported at Seacoast Online:

"If we can stop the run on defense and get the quarterback to play we can be in the thick of it."

and ...

"The (media) all said, 'You've lost probably the most prolific player in the last 10 years of (Division I-AA) play. What do you do?'" McDonnell said. "The biggest thing I explained is that we've got to let R.J. Toman be R.J. Toman. He's a real good football player."

If you haven't voted in the poll (left column) step right up. The results so far have been interesting ...

More Internet Woes

Internet is down here on Moose Mountain ... again. Granted, there was a lightning storm last night, but after being "down" for a month in late spring/early summer it's hard to give our provider the benefit of a doubt. This is what we get for $44.95 a month :-(.

Our "task force" for broadband in rural Hanover met with the phone company and learned if we can get DSL out here it will be 5-6 times faster than our current radio provider for $17.95 per month (I think that's the number they said, if not, it's close) for the first year. They didn't tell us what the second year would be, but if it is dependable I almost don't care.

Frustrated? You could say so.

Now I'm off to the Tommy Keane Invitational golf tournament after which I'll have to park myself in town to use wireless and get the job done I was hired to do because dial-up (which I'm using now) is simply too slow.

A Jugador Named Fiedler

You don't have to know Spanish to understand what this story on the Mexican NFL page is all about:

¿Qué tienen en común Jay Fiedler, Marty Domres, Richard Todd, Brian Griese, Cliff Stoud y Danny White? Y atención, no es que hayan sido malos, simplemente les tocó sustituir a jugadores que marcaron una época, fueron hito y muchos de ellos parte de la leyenda de sus equipos.

Boston.com has the story of a singer/songwriter named Kevin Connolly who just churned out his eighth album played two years weeks of football at Dartmouth.

Harvard lineman "Big Dog" Carl Ehrlich has another entry in his entertaining and informative blog series. This should get the rest of the Ivy League thinking - if not up off the couch and working out:

It would be a mistake for anyone to think that we’re fat and happy after winning the league last year. I haven’t heard a single person mention last season since Christmas and I’ve never trained with a hungrier group of people. If there is a school in the country squatting heavier than we are, they’re lying.

Colgate tailback extraordinaire Jordan Scott and a teammate were sentenced to 21 days in jail and suspended for one game for entering a dorm room and rifling a desk looking for money. How is the punishment playing among 'Gate fans? Not particularly well if this message board is representative.

Day Two of the Tommy Keane Invitational golf tournament at Hanover Country Club. The team of Scott and Mike Peters, sons of former director of athletics (and announcer of the tournament) Seaver Peters led the qualifying for match play yesterday with a 65. The Peters brothers are bidding for their seventh championship in the 33 years of the event.

I'll be out there again today posting updates throughout play and a wrapup at day's end.

(This post appeared first on the TKI blog before I noticed the mistake. Yikes!)

A Great Story Gets Even Better

Former tailback Chad Gaudet's story keeps getting better.

The June grad, who saw his once-promising football career ended by a freak knee injury on the first carry of his sophomore season before making a name for himself on the Dartmouth lacrosse team, will use his final year of NCAA eligibility playing lacrosse as a graduate student at the University of Virginia. One of the top faceoff specialists in the country, Gaudet will be enrolled in the M.S. in Commerce Program at Virginia, which made it to the NCAA semis at Foxborough last May before dropping a one-goal game to Syracuse. For a story I freelanced last spring on Chad, click here.

A Tuesday posting listed Dartmouth opponents mentioned in the SME (Sports Media Entertainment Network) preseason Top-25 poll. The SME Ivy League poll looks like this:

1. Yale
2. Harvard
3. Princeton
4. Brown
5. Penn
6. Dartmouth
7. Cornell
8. Columbia

From the SME website: "Ivy League projections were voted on by SME Network staff broadcasters and reporters." I don't know who they are but comparing this poll to some of the others we've already seen, the thought occurs there might be one or two voters from Princeton ;-)

Spotted this in the Miami Herald:

"Three members of the University of Miami football team's top-rated recruiting class will be heading to Milford Prep in New York state this fall ..."

Ah, but don't expect to see them playing against the Dartmouth junior varsity on Memorial Field this fall. The reason the Big Green jv schedule currently has just three games is the annual visit by Milford has been dropped.

While it might not have been all that much fun playing the game, for fans it was entertaining checking out the blue-chip running backs and wide receivers that Milford usually brought to town. Googling their names after the game would reveal they were headed to Iowa, Pitt, West Virginia, Rutgers ... or Miami.

There can't be many FCS coaches who welcome walk-ons as readily as does Dartmouth's Buddy Teevens. Some even end up helping the team. No position seems to bring as many walk-ons as kicker and it sounds as if Dartmouth may have another one or two would-be kickers show up this fall. Whatever is in the water, Teevens may want to share some of it with Pat Sullivan down at Samford. From a story in the Birmingham News:

Can you kick a football? Are you enrolled at Samford University?

If so, then, boy, does Pat Sullivan have a job for you.

The Samford head football coach and Ross Robinson, his recruiting coordinator, need to fill a couple of holes on their depth chart and they are turning to the student body.

Robinson sent out a mass e-mail asking all students if anyone wants to try out for jobs as backup place-kicker and punter.

And finally this ... The rain has finally stopped in the Upper Valley and just in time. My driveway (the only pavement on our entire road) now features a deep gully between the end of the blacktop and the road. Cars coming in and out of our driveway will bottom out until I can get out there with a wheelbarrow and shovel and fill the "canyon" in a bit. But that won't be until Monday at the earliest because I'll be working today through Sunday night as the media coordinator/blogger for the Tommy Keane Invitational golf tournament at Hanover Country Club. (It was while working up the TKI blog that I came up with the new template for the Green Alert Blog - hope you like it.)

While I'm working golf this weekend I won't be able to "approve" Green Alert subscriptions quite as readily as when I'm at the keyboard writing during the week. So if you sign up (you are going to sign up, aren't you?) and fill out a new subscriber form, it may sit dormant until late at night. (Remember: Only new subscribers need fill out the form asking for a UserName and Password.)

Dartmouth Picked Seventh

I missed this while I was on vacation and perhaps you did, too. Dartmouth was chosen to finish seventh by Phil Steele's College Football Preview Magazine. Phil Steele's, in case you are wondering, has become increasingly favored among FCS fans in recent years as other magazines have pared back or completely dropped their coverage of the "second tier" of college football.

Phil Steele's Ivy League predictions (courtesy of a regular reader who sent them along):

1. Harvard
2. Yale
3. Cornell
4. Brown
5. Penn
6. Princeton
7. Dartmouth
8. Columbia

Steele's comment on Dartmouth:

"Just looking at the Ivy standings and seeing that Teevens has gone from 1 to 2 to 3 wins in Ivy play should have me calling for 4 this season but with a less experienced squad and questions about the QB, O-line and defense overall (last in Ivy in '07), the progression may come to a halt."

The only Dartmouth player to earn preseason All-Ivy recognition is senior tailback Milan Willliams, chosen to the second team. Interestingly, the preseason Ivy League offensive and defensive players are both from Yale (tailback Mike McLeod and linebacker Bobby Abare) but Harvard is picked to win the title.

Green Alert Take: You can debate his conclusions, but it's hard to quibble with Steele's concerns about the Big Green this fall. As for his All-Ivy preseason team, I guessed he would have Milan on the second team but expected offensive lineman Alex Rapp to join him. And while I can understand, given last year's season-ending injury why safety Ian Wilson isn't on the team, anyone who saw him play in the first three games last year would have him on the preseason All-Ivy first team. He was as dominant defensively as any Dartmouth player has been for 20 years - and that's saying something.

You know the season is approaching when conferences start holding their media day as the CAA did this week. Chosen to finish second behind Massachusetts in the North Division by the coaches: New Hampshire. Wildcat tight end Scott Sicko and punter Tom Bishop were named to the 2008 CAA Football Preseason All-Conference Team. Release

(The Ivy League media day, by the way, is Aug. 12 at Yale. And in case you are wondering, the countdown to Dartmouth's first practice is 35 days.)

Another sign the season is approaching: Stories are starting to pop up about the next football game to be played in Hanover, two weeks one week from Saturday. It won't be the best football Memorial Field will see, but the 55th annual Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl game might well draw the largest crowd of the year to watch the best graduated seniors from New Hampshire take on those from Vermont. As this Rutland Herald story notes, the game has raised more than $5 million for the Shriners' Hospitals for Children in Springfield, Mass., and Montreal, Quebec, as well as the Shriners' Burns Institute in Boston. Kudos to Dartmouth for continuing to host the game.

Speaking of hospitals, I helped out with one of the Dartmouth press guides several years ago (not football) and when I asked the coach, "What are the major concerns recruits or their families have when you talk with them," medical care in a rural environment was high on the list. That led to inclusion of more information on Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in the media/recruiting guide. Given that concern, a story in today's Daily Dartmouth under the headline, "DHMC ranked among top hospitals in nation," must have been well-received around Dartmouth's athletic complex.

In other Dartmouth news out of the athletics realm, the college sent out this note yesterday:

The most ambitious fund-raising initiative in Dartmouth history, the Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience, reached a milestone in June as it surpassed the $1.1 billion mark. The campaign, which began in 2002, is on track to raise the remaining $200 million of the $1.3 billion goal by its scheduled end-date in December 2009.

Find the full release here.

And finally, a reader close to the Dartmouth program yesterday shared this link to a story about a Penn recruit who got in a little hot water for a prank he pulled with a headless "road kill" deer. The reader shared this sentiment: "I'm not really sure what to say about this, except I'm not sure how many places outside of central Pennsylvania this could happen." Having lived in central Pennsylvania, I had to laugh.

PS: If you have any pull, please have the torrential rain in Northern New England stop. That certain Hanover High freshman-to-be is at camp (in a cabin with screen windows) and it's been coming down endlessly since he checked in on Sunday. :-(

Non-Coaching Changes

This panoramic view of the work on baseball's Red Rolfe Field is stitched together from four different photos. I didn't use a tripod and I'm no Photoshop expert, so it's not perfect, but click on the picture and it will enlarge enough to give you a pretty good sense about how work is progressing.

---

Lots of info today ...

First, that preseason scrimmage at Harvard on Friday, Sept. 12, has been tentatively scheduled for 1 p.m., with the team traveling down and back on the same day. The Big Green will open the 2008 season eight days later at Colgate.

A couple of non-coaching staff changes that will impact the football program. Scott Roy, the head football trainer since 2005 and a trainer at Dartmouth since 1998, has moved on to nearby Colby-Sawyer College, about 40 minutes south of Hanover. Colby-Sawyer has traditionally sent undergraduates studying athletic training to Dartmouth for internship opportunities and Scott has shown many of them the ropes over the years. Now he'll be working with them down in New London. Mike Derosier, who has worked with football, will step in for Roy. 

Also, strength and conditioning coach Dan Nichol is moving to the University of Maine. He has worked with the Dartmouth football program for the past two years.

Mike McCune '92, a former All-Ivy lineman, will take over as sports director of WCAX-TV, the CBS affiliate in Burlington, Vt., later this week. McCune used to be a frequent visitor to Dartmouth practices over the years in his role as a field reporter/anchor for WCAX. He replaces longtime sports director JJ Cioffi, who got his start in television at WNNE, the NBC affiliate that used to be headquartered in White River Junction, Vt.

A blogger working up a positional analysis doesn't see Casey Cramer in the Tennessee Titans' future as a fullback.

Hank Hendricks, 22, a former backup quarterback at UNH, is one of five young men being sued in the May 2007 death of a professional surfer in the San Diego area. The Boston Globe has a brief AP story about the suit being brought by the victim's mother. Hendricks admitted to being an accessory after the fact in the death of Emery Kauanui Jr. From a story earlier this month in the Peninsula Beacon News:

Henri “Hank” Hendricks, 22, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and could receive a maximum term of three years in prison. The judge said the DA’s office did not oppose a reduction of the offense to a misdemeanor if he is successful on probation for two years.

More from the story:

Hendricks was one of the five men outside Kauanui’s house who fled after Kauanui was knocked to the ground. “He left his friend (Kauanui) behind and he didn’t render any aid ... Hank knew it was the wrong thing to do,” said (his attorney Richard) Gates.

Doing Their Part

Don't miss a terrific story on ESPN.com about ...

"Athletes United, a student organization seeking to bring together Dartmouth varsity athletes with third-, fourth- and fifth-graders from towns around Hanover in the Upper Valley region along the Connecticut River that separates New Hampshire and Vermont."

Among the student-coaches aiding the initiative started by women's soccer players Myra Sack and Becky Poskin this summer are football players Niles Murphy, Marlon Alebiosu and Zech Glaize, along with former teammate Evan Nogay. Find another story about Athletes United in the Daily Dartmouth.

Two more indications about how challenging the Dartmouth schedule could be this fall ...

* While it's important to take any/all preseason polls with a grain – make that a full shaker – of salt, being included in a poll is better than not being included. And no fewer than six Big Green opponents are on the SME (Sports Media Entertainment Network) preseason poll. They are:
19. UNH
32. Yale
33. Harvard
41. Colgate
42. Holy Cross
47. Princeton

(In case you are wondering, the only opponents missing from the poll are Penn, Cornell, Columbia and Brown, and given that the poll goes as deep as it does, the feeling here is that Brown was shortchanged by the SME voters.)

* Cornell isn't on the SME list, but playing in Ithaca is hardly a picnic. Dartmouth has lost its last five games at Cornell, dating back to 1996, and others haven't done much better in the Finger Lakes in recent years. From a story in the Cornell Sun:

In his four years at Cornell, head coach Jim Knowles ’87 has made Schoellkopf Field a stronghold impregnable to opponents — the Red has gone 16-5 at home under Knowles.

The Harvard Crimson has another entertaining blog entry from lineman Carl Ehrlich. "Big Dog Carl" writes about what he saw while helping out at the Crimson's annual football camp for high schoolers. If you've got a high school player heading off to camp, this is a must read.

Speaking of Harvard, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune has a lengthy story about former Crimson star Matt Birk, a Pro Bowl regular as a center with the Minnesota Vikings. The story says:

Matt returned home for Christmas break during his freshman year at Harvard. Birk was homesick and walked in the door with his few belongings and no plans to return to Cambridge, Mass.

Fortunately, his father convinced him otherwise.

Dartmouth followers are familiar with the story of former assistant coach Joe Moglia, who left football behind, became the CEO of AmeriTrade and wrote the book Coach Yourself to Success: Winning the Investment Game. For a revealing look at another coach who went on to tremendous success in the business world check out this Fortune Magazine story about Bill Campbell, captain of the 1961 Ivy League co-champion Columbia squad, former Columbia head coach and chairman of the Columbia board of trustees.

And finally, it's very quiet here on the shoulder of Moose Mountain these days. That certain Hanover High junior-to-be is in California working for a week at a YMCA camp as part of a four-week CIT program. As part of the program she got CPR certified and took an intensive Red Cross first aid course while working with young children at her old camp. After flying west she spent several days camping/exploring at the Channel Islands National Park and next week will be hiking to the bottom of Grand Canyon (something we did as a family two years ago). Her brother, meanwhile, is away for two weeks of overnight camp ... which means, lots of movies and dinners out for the two of us left behind ;-)

A Few More Names To Watch

In the language of Northern New England, it is "way wicked" early to spend much time or effort discussing the next recruiting class even before the current one steps foot on campus. That said, with 6-3, 205 linebacker Tom Patek of Carmel Catholic in Illinois having already committed, I thought to take a look at who one of the top recruiting services is listing as Dartmouth prospects in the high school class of 2009. A couple of red flags: 1) This same service listed 29 potential Dartmouth recruits last year and nine are coming. 2) Tom Patek is not on the 2009 list.

Keeping that in mind, here are the players listed by Scout.com: Andy Dittrich, QB, Breck School, Minneapolis; Mike Tree, DT, Brophy Prep, Phoenix; Anthony Greco, MLB, Notre Dame Prep, Scottsdale, Ariz.; Mike Chocholousek, MLB, Mountain Ridge, Glendale, Ariz.; Lange Nelson, SLB, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Rolling Hills, Calif. and Michael Tomakili, WLB, Palisades Charter HS, Pacific Palisades, Calif.

Several regular readers have emailed for suggestions about places to stay in Hanover this fall. Find Dartmouth's recommendations here. Hanover's Chamber of Commerce has a list. So does the Dartmouth Medical School. There's also a Dartmouth Office of Alumni Relations list.

As one of the proud 814-or-so folks who live in Etna (a rural "village" in Hanover), I'd be remiss if I didn't mention two local choices. If you like rustic with absolutely gorgeous views looking out over the Vermont mountains (and perhaps the Adirondacks if it's a very, very clear day), you might want to consider Moose Mountain Lodge. Down in Etna Village itself is the Trumbull House Bed & Breakfast.

Immelt Returning to Campus

Jeff Immelt '78, the former lineman and friend of the Big Green football program who oh-by-the-way happens to be the CEO of the General Electric, will speak at Dartmouth on Aug. 13. His topic: "Green is Green: How Cleaner Technology is Growing Business's Bottom Line." The talk is part of the Institute for Lifelong Education at Dartmouth (ILEAD) summer lecture series. The talk, set for 9 a.m., at Spaulding Auditorium, is open to the public for $20 or free with a Dartmouth ID.

Lots of press today about the College Football Hall of Fame inductions. This story centers on Dartmouth grad Reggie Williams and his interaction with an injured high school athlete during a hospital visit. It includes this jarring photo of Williams in his wheelchair at the hospital. There's a photo of Williams with former Ohio State QB Rex Kern here.

Spotted this mention yesterday of a talented student-athlete from the San Diego area who very nearly ended up in Hanover. From the story:

Double-A Midland's Trevor Cahill, the minor-league strikeout leader with 122, worked two innings Friday against San Antonio as a tune-up for today. Scouts who have seen Cahill (9-4, 2.45 ERA combined between Class A Stockton and Midland) recently have raved about his ability ...

That was followed by another piece that spells out the near-miss for Dartmouth. The Union-Tribune story starts this way:

Trevor Cahill's journey to Yankee Stadium almost never happened.
Heading into the 2006 baseball draft, Cahill had an offer to attend Dartmouth. The Vista High graduate had every intention of pitching for the Big Green – assuming he wasn't taken in the draft's first five rounds.

But he was.

Jayvee Schedule Posted

Got a note mentioning that the 2008 jayvee football schedule has been posted here. It's a curious schedule for a couple of reasons.

In most years there are four games. With regular opponent Milford Academy not listed, there are just three games on this schedule.

Also, the Middlebury game is a week before the varsity opener against Colgate and that's a little unusual. The jayvee schedule as of mid-July:

• Sunday, Sept. 14 vs. Middlebury 1 p.m. in Hanover
• Friday, Oct. 31 vs. Harvard 2 p.m. in Hanover
• Sunday, Nov. 9 vs. Bridgton Academy Noon in Hanover

As always, Green Alert premium will have full coverage of the jayvee games.

Missed this the first time around, but the year in Dartmouth sports story (spun out of an interview with AD Josie Harper) I freelanced for the college's Big Green Sports News is available on the web. Find a PDF that includes the story here.

Remember that link earlier this week about Dartmouth's planned new Visual Arts Center? The full story from our local daily includes an artist's rendering of the design that can be found here. The artist's rendering has stirred up quite a few comments from folks around Hanover.

Tickets Here! Who Needs Tickets?

Dartmouth football tickets are on sale for the 2008 season. For information on single game or season tickets, check out this release. The full ticket brochure can be found here.

Junior quarterback Alex Jenny's Wayland (Mass.) High School has built quite a football tradition and a news brief about the school's upcoming golf fundraiser notes the school has gone 33-4 over the past three years with 16 players going on to college football. Among the colleges Wayland has sent players to are Dartmouth, Colgate, Holy Cross, Maine, Vanderbilt and Northeastern.

If Phil Steele's football magazine has it right, Dartmouth will be playing two of the top three teams in the Patriot League this fall. Steele's preseason picks:
1 -Colgate
2 - Lafayette
3 - Holy Cross
4 - Fordham
5 - Lehigh
6 - Bucknell
7 - Georgetown

Just stumbled across some pictures from the screening party for the documentary, Eight: Ivy League Football And America. I'm wondering if you can identify the two chaps in this picture ;-) For more photos from that evening, click here.

Early Commit And A Walk-On

A couple of recruiting notes, more on Reggie Williams and a bizarre opponent note all on today's docket.

First, the recruiting. A high school senior-to-be has committed to Dartmouth. A Chicago Sun-Times publication has this note about 6-3, 205 linebacker Tom Patek, who has decided he's heading to Hanover in the fall of 2009. Talk about early decision ...

Coach Buddy Teevens has a newish walk-on headed this way according to this story. Derek Fish is a Connecticut high school graduate who hopes to do some placekicking for the Big Green. From the story:

In the fall, Derek will call Dartmouth College his home. He is thinking of majoring in psychology and hoping to do club wrestling as well as join the football team this upcoming fall.

“Going down the line of people I know, it was made possible for me to be able to talk to the Dartmouth football coach and I might be a place kicker for them in the fall,” says Derek. “To play on Division I, I would need to be at the peak of my mental abilities because it’s a competitive school like that.”

The Orlando Sentinel chimes in on Reggie Williams as his College Football Hall of Fame induction nears. Sentences like this one are pure recruiting gold:

Williams is so indebted to Dartmouth that he would have crawled the 700 miles to Indiana.

"Everything I learned helped me in taking on the challenges of life," he said.

Here's a head-scratcher from the story:

He had two scholarship offers -- Dartmouth and Albion College. One look at the idyllic campus in Hanover, N.H., and he knew he'd found a home. Well, he still needed one thing.

"Once I passed the etiquette class and got to know all my forks and knives, I felt a lot better," Williams said.

Um, must've been an academic scholarship. Like the fork and knife bit, though.

Here's a sad truth from the story:

Williams will probably be the last Ivy League All-American to make the Hall of Fame, since the Ivy League doesn't make many All-Americans anymore.

The story is right, unless it's in the "Divisional" class, which features FCS, Division II, Division III and NAIA players.

In case you missed it – I did – Colgate tailback Jordan Scott and wide receiver David Morgan are spending 21 days in jail this summer, but will miss just one game after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count of second-degree criminal trespass in a Colgate dorm room. There's a short story in the Syracuse Post Standard. According to the story, the teammates "walked in and Scott began rifling through a drawer looking for money when the two women inside the room woke up and shouted, Scott told police." The pair also will be on probation for a year.

Anything you can do I can do better ... Yesterday we reported here that Colgate had eight players honored as preseason Patriot League all-stars by Phil Steele's football magazine. This morning brings a note on the Holy Cross site that there are 10 Crusaders honored by the same publication.

James Jones Returns To Staff

Remember that posting a while back about a "familiar name," joining the Dartmouth coaching staff? That name is James Jones, and he will coach the Big Green tight ends this fall. Jones, you may recall, was the Dartmouth defensive line coach under Buddy Teevens in 2005 before moving on to Kansas State. Find a release on his return here.

A writer from the Winnipeg Free Press is rooting for Anthony Gargiulo as the former Dartmouth defensive end bids to make it back into the Calgary Stampeders lineup after a horrific broken ankle last fall that required two surgeries and enough hardware to stock a Tru-Value store. ...

Speaking of Gargiulo, he authored a posting for the Stampeders' blog that can be found here. Among other things, he wrote:

The offer to return to the Stamps aligned itself perfectly with the progress of my rehabilitation for my injury. I had reached a point where I was able to run any number of drills without pain and really needed to get back on the field in order to take the next step.

To hear audio from an out-of-breath Gargiulo after his first practice a couple of days ago, click here.

The Cornell Daily Sun has a list of a couple of dozen Big Red athletes to watch next year. Mentioned from the football (and baseball) team is quarterback Nathan Ford. No question he's deserving. But I'm also gonna keep my eye on receiver/quarterback Stephen Liuzza, accurately described in his Cornell bio as "electrifying." This is the kid, remember, who threw for 292 yards and ran for 131 against Dartmouth in three quarters last year – after not having practiced at quarterback since the preseason. As a freshman the year before he had an 81-yard TD run against the Big Green.

Colgate, Dartmouth's season-opening opponent, has had no fewer than eight players earn recognition on the Patriot League preseason teams named by Phil Steele's football magazine. Not surprisingly, premier tailback Jordan Scott was named to Steele's first team. Find Colgate's release here. The Raiders, by the way, report to camp two weeks from Sunday if you can believe it. (Or even if you can't.) Dartmouth's first practice is Aug. 27.

Out of the sports realm ... Dartmouth revealed plans for a huge new "Visual Arts Center," to be constructed on Lebanon Street, roughly across from C&A Pizza. Plans for the $52 million, 99,500-square foot building are receiving a mixed reviews. Here's what one Hanover resident had to say in a story picked up by the Concord Monitor:

"I can't be very tactful about it," said Marilyn Willy Black, a former selectwoman and current town moderator who sits on the Dartmouth Liaison Committee. "I just think it's hideous."

Tuesday Musings

Thanks to those of you who signed up for Big Green Alert since the 2008 subscription process opened yesterday. With a travel schedule that this year pretty much dictates an "overnight" for all five games, and the rising gasoline prices, every subscription helps!

So you know, the Ivy League media day is Aug. 12. Regular content on the Big Green Alert site will begin with a report from New Haven that afternoon. Opponent previews will kick off soon after, with a detailed report each day leading up to the opening of Dartmouth's preseason camp on Aug. 27.

And now for a few links ...

The Daily Progress has a story about former Dartmouth defensive lineman Adam Nelson's third Olympic shot put appearance.

A Titans website reviewing the team's tight ends makes mention of Dartmouth grad Casey Cramer in a review of the team's tight ends.

My brother sent along a mention of an Ivy League slam from an ESPN column. You may have seen this lede from Pat Forde late last month:

"Because it's June, and because June is slower than an Ivy League defensive back when it comes to college football news, the boss e-mailed me with a quirky story idea."

Ouch.

Saw a mention of this letter from a disgruntled Rutgers alum on Jake Novak's Roar Lions Roar blog. It's a reflection of the price you pay when you take your athletic programs to a new level. As a Penn Stater, I'm glad when the writer talks about schools whose model Rutgers should not emulate he doesn't mention that certain school in Happy Valley.

And finally, I've got to admit it. When I saw the list of names for the home run derby last night I was less than enthused, but it certainly turned out to be a remarkable show. Enjoy the all-star game tonight from Yankee Stadium. ... We're hoping to take the kids down to the Stadium before it closes and have our eyes on the Aug. 17 afternoon game with the Royals. We thought we had landed four tickets from one of the online brokers only to get an email back this morning telling us the tickets we'd ordered were no longer available. Nice.

2008 Green Alert Signups Begin

While a number of you have already signed up for the Big Green Alert 2008 premium service (thank you very much), the subscription cycle is only now officially kicking off.

To sign up or renew your subscription, visit the Big Green Alert home page and on the left side click on either the PayPal or Pay By Check link, whichever you prefer. The fee will remain the same as last year, $65 for a full year of Dartmouth football coverage. New this year is an option for receiving immediate email alerts whenever new stories are posted. That will be just $10 extra.

To view a PDF fact sheet with more information and background on Big Green Alert premium, click here.

I haven't worked up the numbers for the 2007 season, but in 2006 there were 161 stories on the Green Alert site. That worked out to about 128,000 words. There were 45 full-length stories before the first game. I'm sure last year was about the same and expect this year to be no different.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at the link on the right side of this page.

Gargiulo Giving It Another Go

Former Dartmouth defensive end Anthony Gargiulo '06 is back in Calgary and back in a Stampeders uniform, testing the leg horribly broken by a controversial block last season. The Calgary Herald has a terrific story about Gargiulo's surprise appearance at practice as he tries to defy the odds and make it back to professional football after the injury forced him to announce his retirement prior to the season. He's now listed on the team's practice squad. There's another story in the Calgary Sun that includes this quote from the player known fondly around Hanover as Knuckles:

"I wasn't pushing it too, too hard, but I was able to make it through all the scout reps. (Yesterday) was about testing it out and seeing where it was at.I think I'm pretty far along. Hopefully, I'll continue to progress."

Find the Stamps' announcement here and a note from Anthony on the Stamps' blog here.

Reggie Williams' story is compelling and the Southbend Tribune is one of the latest to write about the Dartmouth/Cincinnati Bengals alum who is about to be formally inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Noting his health issues, the Tribune writes:

Williams is often asked the question whether playing football was worth it, considering all the current medical problems he is having.

"I spoke for the Class (inductees of 2008) at the (National Football Foundation) Awards Dinner (December, 2007) at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City and said this was all worth it.

"But that was before the last six surgeries," Williams said. "What I feel now is that if it was only football success that was attained, then it was not worth it. But football gave me many things I wouldn't have had; friends from the game, an opportunity to help kids, the chance to go to Dartmouth and helping start Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex."

Do check out the photo of Reggie that accompanies the story. It's long been considered the "classic" Reggie Williams photo from his college days for good reason.

Half of the schools Dartmouth will be playing this fall have now updated their football web pages to include not only updated bios of returning players, but profiles of the incoming freshmen. Those pages are for:
Colgate
Columbia
Cornell
Harvard
Holy Cross
Yale

Please check back later today for information on signing up for the fourth year of Big Green Alert.

On Reggie Williams

There's a story from Cincinnati spun out of Reggie Williams' upcoming induction into the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind. It begins dramatically:

In two days, Reggie Williams will drop his crutches and ease into the passenger seat of his Lexus, embarking on a journey as life-affirming as it will be painful. It will begin in Midtown Manhattan and end with his induction into the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind.

The former Bengals linebacker will have 707 miles over which to ride shotgun and stare down at his right leg. The limb has been so ravaged by football, surgery and infections that this might be Williams' last road trip with it. He'll have 707 miles to be grateful.

If that doesn't get you to read on, nothing will.

Of Williams' days at Dartmouth, the story says:

"He was obviously one of the highest recruits they had ever had, but he related to others extraordinarily well," said Dartmouth classmate and friend Grayland Crisp, who will chauffeur Williams to South Bend. "He was always admired for his natural leadership - by example and by what he had to say. He always had that presence. He was someone that others looked up to."

Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens was an integral part of the beginning of the famed Manning Passing Academy in Louisiana. A quote from a story in The Advocate:

“I don’t think the Mannings or Buddy Teevens (former Tulane football coach), who was organizing this with the Mannings back at Tulane in the mid-1990s ever dreamed it would get this big.”

You never know what you are going to find on eBay. How about the 1904 book, Three Years of Football at Dartmouth: Being the Story of the Seasons of '01, '02 and '03 by onetime Dartmouth professor and well-known scholar Louis P. Benezet? From the description:

This SIGNED COPY is a VERY RARE book on the secondary market. Book dealers, collectors & other interested parties are encouraged to check out the pricing & availability of this volume from online sources. This is a bona fide bargain opportunity to acquire this title. Listed in A. Grobani bibliography: Guide to Football Literature.

It can be yours today for $495.

Brown Bombers

The Brown website has posted its "outlook" for the 2008 season and optimism abounds in Providence. From the posting:

With most of the key components returning to the offensive side of the ball, and a veteran defense, the 2008 Brown football team will look to make a legitimate run at the Ivy League title with the return of 19 starters (10 offense, 9 defense), including nine All-Ivy players, after finishing third in the Ivy standings with a 4-3 league record a year ago.

One of the early adopters of Astroturf has finally made the move to FieldTurf. Cornell's Schoellkopf Field will have a surface much kinder on the body when Dartmouth visits there next fall. Check out the photo gallery here. ...

... A side note after looking at the pictures out of Ithaca. The decision was made to face the large Cornell "C" on the 50-yard line toward the "Crescent" side of the field. One of the pictures shows the view from the press box side and the upside down letter really sticks out. Dartmouth faced its "D" toward the home stand and press box, leaving it upside down for visitors/viewers looking out of the enormous windows that overlook the field from the Floren Varsity House, but perhaps because the block "D" is closed, it isn't has jarring as the Cornell "C." ... If I ruled the world I might have tried to work up something for the 50 that featured mirrored letters, or maybe a couple of offset letters facing in opposite directions. ... Just my two cents.

The Friday Daily Dartmouth had a column that began this way: "It’s been a quiet week in the world of sports, and in the Hanover bubble." Struggling for something to write (I've been there), the author included this:

We’re still just over two months away from the kickoff of the 2008 football season, and Conner Kempe ‘12’s highly-anticipated appearance on campus will come even sooner, but until then the Dartmouth super-fan must patiently wait for something interesting to happen.

To help combat the possibility of tear-inducing boredom, here are some ideas to keep you occupied until the Cubs fall apart, the Patriots can’t get over a loss and Dartmouth football barely exceeds expectations again.

1. Memorize the roster of two or three Dartmouth sports teams and find a fun fact about all of the players. I conducted an informal survey in Thayer yesterday and was disturbed to find out that a great majority of the sophomore class cannot name a single person on the Dartmouth football team. I was met with responses that included, “I have no idea,” “Um…Andrew…umm…I don’t know,” “Who are you?” and “Dude, I can name like five!”

And finally this ... Am I the only one that hopes Brett Favre doesn't come back and end his career the way Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath did, a broken-down QB in an unfamiliar uniform?

Internet Alert!

After two hours of scrambling atop our new metal roof (a full three floors high in the back), the owner of our radio-delivered Internet providing service finished installing a new receiver and has us up and going again. Finally. To quote a southern friend, "Lord be willin' and the creek don't rise," the blog will return in full tomorrow morning and each day thereafter.

Of course, it will be just my luck that I haven't anything of interest to post ;-).

For what it's worth, I got an email asking if I would be starting signups for the full Big Green Alert site again soon. I'll have a note here and on the regular BGA site about that Monday. In short, yes, I'll be kicking off the subscription drive next week, at the same cost as a year ago. One subscriber has suggested an add-on to the Green Alert service and I'll share some information about that on Monday as well.

In the meantime, I'm going to see what I missed in the month or so that I've been hobbling along with occasonal dialup Internet. Talk to you tomorrow ...

Bringing Back A Regula-r Memory

Just one quick dial-up-enabled link this morning before our Internet is (hopefully) restored ;-)

There's a story out of the Vancouver Sun about a Canadian Olympic softball pitcher named Lauren Bay, younger sister of Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Jason Bay. Actually, her name is Lauren Bay Regula, and if that last name sounds familiar to Dartmouth football fans, it should. Turns out, Lauren is the wife of former Dartmouth kicker Dave Regula '98. From the story:

Canada reaches the podium in women's softball at the Beijing Olympics, some credit may well have to go to a trader from Chicago who once kicked field goals for Ivy League college Dartmouth.

David Regula, the second-highest scoring kicker in Big Green history, is the husband of Canadian pitching ace Lauren Bay.

What the story fails to mention is that while Regula is indeed No. 2 on the all-time Dartmouth kick-scoring list (194 points on 38-of-53 field goals, 80-of-97 PATs), he also was involved in one of the most bizarre plays you'll ever see.

The year was 1997 and Dartmouth was playing Penn at Philadelphia. After kicking a field goal in what would be a 23-15 Big Green win, the left-footed Regula boomed a kick down the left sideline. The Penn return man coughed the ball up and into the hands of a hard-rushing Regula, who barely broke stride while returning his own kickoff for a touchdown. When he added the extra point Regula had personally scored 11 10 points (field goal, touchdown, PAT) in about seven seconds.

The play was subsequently broadcast nationally on an ESPN featured called, "Hidden Plays."

Regula finished the afternoon scoring 17 of Dartmouth's 23 points.

Of Bagels And Thursday Thoughts

Greetings from Green Alert Mobile – my 1984 VW camper van parked in the lot of our closest Panera Bread store, which features free wi-fi (not to mention delicious Asiago cheese bagels). ... The good news is the owner of our Internet provider will be stopping by the house tomorrow to (hopefully) get our service up and going again. The fact that the owner is stopping by would probably be a little more impressive if he were not the only full-time employee. At least that's what I've been told.

Keep your fingers crossed because this is really making life difficult. Amazing how critical Internet has become to so many of us.

A couple of quick notes. I just answered a reader question about the Dartmouth-Harvard scrimmage this fall. It is slated for Friday, Sept. 12, at Harvard. When I spoke with coach Teevens about it this spring he said it would probably have a significant "game-like" component as well typical scrimmage situations.

Colgate sports information reports that the Dartmouth game will be broadcast locally on Time Warner Sports of Central New York.

The Cornell media guide is up and available for download (PDF) here.

There's a terrific (and lengthy) story on Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randoph here.

Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park

The renewal of athletic facilities at Dartmouth over the past decade or so has been truly remarkable. Slated to open next spring: Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park. I'd heard a lot about what was planned but these drawings show a park that I couldn't ever have imagined. (Click on photos to supersize them and get a good look.) An artist's rendition of the grandstand (with chairback seating) slated for Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park.
The entrance to the new facility.
A diagram of the new field. Note the more reasonable centerfield fence. New trees and a hedge will line the left field wall.
Work has begun. The new FieldTurf surface – artificial everywhere except on the pitcher's mound – is supposed to be in place and ready to use for fall baseball.

Now a quick football link: Jake Kirkendall, who made a lot of friends in one hard-working year at Dartmouth, is now at Eastern Michigan University. Find his bio here. ... I have checked a few times for the bio of former Dartmouth quarterback Dan Shula on the University of Miami website. This is all that I've found, a little surprising given the PR the Hurricanes could get from a mention of having the grandson of Miami Dolphins' legend Don Shula as a grad assistant on their staff. ... Ran into offensive coordinator Mike Hodgson this morning as he headed down to Louisiana to work football camp. We had a good laugh because as steamy as it is in Hanover today, it will be significantly more uncomfortable in Louisiana.

A Couple Of Hoops Newsmakers

A couple of former Dartmouth basketball coaches are in the news ...

First, Mike Maker, a longtime Dartmouth assistant who helped West Virginia into the NCAA's and most recently was at Creighton, is the new head basketball coach at Williams. He'll do a terrific job there. I couldn't be happier for him ;-)

Also, Makes' former head coach at Dartmouth, Dave Faucher, gets a nod in this Sports Illustrated story for helping discover Andrew Wheating, the Olympics-bound 800-meter runner from nearby Norwich. From the story:

Dave Faucher, the former men's basketball coach at Dartmouth and director of alumni relations at KUA, reached out to an old friend named Jeff Johnson. KUA had no track team, but Faucher wanted Wheating to have some coaching and some direction and Johnson had plenty of connections and background. He had been a runner at Stanford and one of the founding employees at Nike in the 1970s. He knew running. (He also knew Prefontaine). Faucher suggested to Johnson that there was a raw, possibly talented young runner at his school.

Johnson, who is retired and was coaching part-time a local high school agreed to have dinner with Wheating at Molly's Restaurant in Hanover, N.H., in late January of Wheating's senior year. This was just two years ago and Wheating had never run a track race in his life. Johnson brought up Oregon (he was close friends with incoming Oregon coach Vin Lanana, who had previously coached at Dartmouth). He asked if Wheating might be interested in attending college and running for Oregon.
"Sure," said Wheating.

Johnson recalls, "I don't think Andy even knew that Oregon was in North America."

Faucher, a marathon runner himself, knew a good thing when he saw it. Jeff Johnson, the coach Faucher brought Wheating to the attention of, is that certain Hanover High distance runner's coach. And Vin Lananna, of course, is the former Dartmouth distance and cross country coach. Wheating has an astounding story, well worth reading.

Green Alert Mobile

Greetings from the parking lot of Thompson Arena in Hanover where I'm using the Dartmouth Public Internet wi-fi from the comfort of our 24-year-old VW camper van. That's right, no service up on the mountain ... still.

I visited a very quiet Floren Varsity House this morning and found the football offices all-but-deserted as most of the coaches catch their breath before everything breaks loose next month. In case you are wondering, there are 50 days left until the start of camp! In the interim, the campus is teeming with young campers here to work on their forehands, their goalkeeping or their crossover.

From Floren I headed over to Alumni Gym and had a chance to sit down and talk with new Director of Varsity Athletics Communications (aka sports information director) Rick Bender. He quickly proved to be exactly what everyone I talked to and everything I read led me to believe: a nice guy.

I forgot my camera today but will have a treat of sorts for you here tomorrow, so be sure to stop back ;-)

And now for some links ...

The Sports Network has an exhaustive ranking of FCS quarterbacks and not surprisingly, given the Dartmouth will have a new starter under center this fall for the fourth time in Buddy Teevens' four years back, there's no mention of a Big Green signalcaller. There is, however, mention of a number of QBs Dartmouth will face this year. Among those named ...

• Holy Cross' Dominic Randolph is ranked the No. 3 quarterback in the land.
• Harvard's Chris Pizzotti is ranked No. 12 (although he may not even be the most athletically gifted QB in Cambridge).
• Brown's Michael Dougherty is at No. 15, which might be a little high but still ought to tell you something.
• New Hampshire's RJ Toman is listed as the No. 1 new starter, something that may have more to do with who he's replacing than who he is.
• Penn's Robert Irvin is the No. 3 quarterback on the hot seat, whatever that means in the FCS.

It's still a while until UNH reports to camp but the Seacoast Online site has a story about the Wildcats spending their preseason working entirely on themselves instead of preparing for an opponent in the final week, a result of playing 11 games this year instead of the allowed 12.

The Ivy League lost a piece of its early history with the recent passing of former Yale coach John Pont. Boston Globe story.

Home Sweet Home

We're back from our adventure in Northern California where we saw a lot of smoke but fortunately no fire. The disappointing news is that the Internet is STILL not working up here on the mountain, although our provider believes he has identified the source of the "rogue signal" that has been interfering with the radio transmitted Internet signal we are supposed to get from the Moose Mountain tower. How soon he'll be able to restore service is still uncertain, so I'm writing from the Hanover town library.

What does that mean?

First, a little background. On most mornings I probably spend an hour to an hour-and-a-half combing a variety of web sites in advance of pulling together the blog. (Yeah, I know. Pretty dumb for something that doesn't bring in any money, but hey, it keeps me informed and helps me keep you informed.) Anyway, I tried that from home on my wife's dial-up work account and, in no small part because the phone line on our dirt road hasn't been updated since Alexander Graham Bell was on this side of the grass, I probably got to one-quarter of my usual haunts in one incredibly frustrating hour.

So the blog will probably be off-and-on until:

• our Internet provider solves the problem,
• or the annual Ivy League preseason media gathering in early August. (Once the media event is held, I'll be working each day on opponent previews and tossing them up on the regular Green Alert site so I'll likely be in town and able to post.)

I'll be back in town tomorrow (Tuesday) to cruise through the athletic department and football offices to look into whatever I missed while I was away, so you may want to check back for that.

What else? This is kind of fun. As has been the case in almost all of our big vacations, we ran into someone we knew. This time it was a Green Alert subscriber/old friend at the Giants-Cubs game in San Francisco. Good to see you Rave!

We also passed through the hometowns of a few Dartmouth players (Cupertino, Palo Alto and Menlo Park). We spent an hour walking around the Stanford campus (but couldn't get into the football stadium for even a peak) and mailed our camping stuff home from the FedEx/Kinkos shop in Menlo Park in advance of two days luxuriating in a hotel in San Francisco.

OK, now for a couple of links. A Texas linebacker has getting a lot of attention from Dartmouth recruiters. Find the story here.

Click here for an update about the National Football Foundation 2008 College Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Dinner & Show in South Bend, Ind., where former Dartmouth/Cincinnati Bengals standout Reggie Williams will be inducted July 19. ...

You might find this interesting as well. A regular reader sent along the following while we were away:

For those of you who watched the College World Series
from Omaha Wednesday night, it may be worth chewing on
this:

The Ivy League baseball season was supposed to end on
May 4 (it actually ended May 7 because of rainouts).
Had Dartmouth or Columbia advanced to the NCAA’s final
game, they would have been playing it 7-1/2 weeks
after the end of the scheduled completion of the Ivy
tourney.

The Division I-AA football playoffs, by comparison,
last a breezy four weeks -- commencing one week after
the last regular season games and ending three
Saturdays later.

Good thing the Ivy presidents are “looking out for”
football and keeping its season short ... Or are they
really sending the message that they know Ivy athletes
can’t compete in major Division I team sports?

And finally this: That certain Hanover High junior-to-be heads to her summer camp this evening for a week of preparation in advance of being a "West Coast" CIT. She was lucky enough to be chosen for a highly selective program that will send her back to California next week to work for short time at a camp in Julian, Calif., not far from San Diego. Among other things, while out West her group will explore the Channel Islands National Park and hike to the bottom of Grand Canyon, something we did as a family two years ago. Lucky kid ;-)