If you've been following the weather in the Northeast you probably know. That winter storm warning? They got it right. Only a few inches of snow fell, but then the temperature rose just enough for the precipitation to turn to rain. Unfortunately, it didn't rise enough to keep the rain from freezing whenever it came into contact with anything. The results:
- Ice has coated everything. As I look out my window, even the skinniest tree branch is now encased in ice the diameter of my index finger. Weighted down that way, trees are trying their hardest to touch their toes. Uh, make that their roots.
- Schools are closed. (Whether wearing pajamas inside out and putting a spoon under the pillow had anything to do with that is open to debate, but I know two kids who didn't take any chances when they hit the sack last night.)
- One large tree and two smaller trees fell into our yard. (Not to worry, we have hundreds and hundreds of trees on our heavily wooded nine acres. To worry: I don't have a chainsaw, which is a good thing, given my mechanical abilities. And while I can saw/section two of the fallen trees, the big one is going to be a bear to clean up.)
- Power lines are down.
- Power was out until about a half hour ago, which made finding out that school was off a little tricky until I was able to dig out a battery-powered radio.
- And finally, no power, no blog.
And now for the reason you visit this electronic neighborhood ...
The Dartmouth baseball team is in the Dominican, men's ice hockey is in Scandinavia and women's lacrosse is in Australia. Once every four years teams are allowed to go "overseas" during or, in the case of lacrosse and baseball, before their seasons. All money spent on these trips, I've been told, was raised by the programs themselves. Thanks to assistant baseball coach Nick Enriquez for sharing this photo from the complex where the Big Green will be playing and practicing.There was a column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch that should be mandatory reading for every Ivy League president. Most of you probably already know this, but Richmond is a terrific academic institution. Despite that, the school isn't afraid to have real success in football. Nor is it afraid that going to the playoffs will tarnish the school's image.
In a story headlined, "Spiders show real students can win games," coach Mike Long says:
"A lot of kids can't go to UNC or Virginia or Virginia Tech or Notre Dame. But they want to get a good education and be involved with a team that has a chance to win championships.Yes, I guess they do.
"We've got the best of both worlds."
Speaking of Richmond, Dave Clawson helped get that program going as head coach before taking a job at Tennessee. The Williams grad who did such a terrific job turning around a struggling Fordham program before leaving for Richmond had been rumored to be a possible candidate at Yale. Not going to happen.
Clawson is the new coach at Bowling Green. How big a "get" would Clawson have been at Yale? Here's an excerpt from the Bowling Green release announcing his hiring:
Clawson twice has been named national Division I-AA Coach of the Year, winning once at Fordham and once at Richmond, and was named his league's coach of the year four times in a seven-year span. In 2005 and 2007, the Richmond Touchdown Club selected him College Coach of the Year, and he was an Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award Finalist in 2002 and 2005.Another coach in the news is New Hampshire's Sean McDonnell. A UNH release notes he was to be honored by the New England Football Writers last night after a season in which he ...
...led his Wildcats to their fifth consecutive appearance in the NCAA FCS Championships and advanced to the quarterfinals for the fourth time during that five-year span. McDonnell led UNH to a 10-3 campaign in 2008 and the CAA North Division title, just one victory shy of the school record 11 wins his Wildcats posted in 2005.Word has reached this precinct that sophomore tight end Michael Cummings had a three-hour surgery on his balky shoulder yesterday at Johns Hopkins. The 6-foot-5, 250-pound Cummings played through the problem during the fall, even moving inside when needed.
From a Dartmouth release:
Dartmouth has accepted 401 students into the Class of 2013 through the early decision admissions program. Students admitted in the early decision program will comprise approximately 35 percent of the class that matriculates in the fall of 2009. A total of 1,550 early decision applications were received, the most ever, an increase of 9 percent over last year.And finally, when I stopped by the football office yesterday to inquire about when the early decision announcement could be released, Dartmouth video coordinator Chris Feller gave me a "Big Green Bundle," the collection of DVD's from the past season. I probably spent more than an hour last night looking through a few of the games.
I'll have a capsule look at the early admission football recruits as soon as soon as they've all returned the proper paperwork. That could be as early as one week from today, although it might taken another couple of days depending on how quickly they get to the post office ;-). ... Keep in mind that while the college can't/won't say anything officially (or unofficially, because they play by the rules) recruits are free to share their own information and intentions. So if you are out there reading this – and I know you are ;-) – feel free to drop me a note.
Listen, it was a tough season, no question. And it's easy to wonder why in the world you'd ever want to watch it again. Well, guess what? The final scores aside, it really was a lot of fun watching bits and pieces of those games. I can't imagine anyone who played this year not getting the DVD package. I'm sure it might take a little while longer for some to be ready to watch them, but honestly, the Big Green Bundle would be a terrific Christmas present. And no, Chris didn't ask me to write that. It's something I found myself thinking while I was watching. For more information, look over there to the left.
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