Greetings from Mendocino

Greetings from Mendocino, Calif., where we've dodged (somewhat) the northern California fires. It's cold, windy and gray, a perfect Maine day in the town that stood in for Downeast in the Murder She Wrote TV series.

We spent one night in Olema and last night at Henly State Park. Rental VW camper van makes us feel right at home.

Not sure where we are headed next or when I'll have Internet again.

Nothing much to report (my family is eager to leave this ice cream shoppe ;-) but a reader sent this along:

The Sporting News Preseason Rankings

1. Harvard

2. Yale

3. Brown

4. Penn

5. Dartmouth

6. Cornell

7. Princeton

8. Columbia

Hey, it's progress.

Greetings From The Golden State

We arrived at our motel outside of San Francisco at 2 a.m., West Coast time or 5 our time, so (yawn) I have no idea why I'm sitting at the computer while the rest of the family sleeps. I'd write that we arrived here safely, except we didn't. Arrive safely, I mean.

Although the motel promised on its web site and in an email that there was free shuttle service from the airport, it turns out that ends at 11 p.m. After our missing bag (mine) finally showed up early this morning, we hopped in a taxi and headed for the motel in nearby San Mateo with a guarantee from the driver that he knew where it was.

The bad news: He didn't know where it was. The good news: He had a Tom-Tom or some such thing. The scary news: He read the printed sheet we got from the motel as he drove down the road leaving the airport and then typed the address in on his GPS while going 60 mph down the road. It's not an exaggeration to say we weaved back and forth a bit while he fiddled with the tiny on-screen keyboard. All the while he was talking with someone on one of those cell phone thingies hanging from his ear. We couldn't understand a word he was saying but I think it translated to, "I have these East Coast tourists shaking in their shoes."

A quick link or two before we head out to get our vintage rental VW bus and begin (continue?) our adventure ...

Incoming running back Chris Hardy is the subject of a lengthy story in the Norman Transcript. Hardy, in Oklahoma to play in the 32nd Annual Sunbelt Baseball Classic, talks about his decision to play college football at Dartmouth and the chance that at some point he might play two sports in Hanover. He says:

"Obviously, at a school like Dartmouth, handling the academics and playing two sports, that's tough. That's going to be tough to do anywhere if you are a two-sport athlete. I'm going to see how it works out the first year, then go from there."

Speaking of two sports, Tennessee Titans utility player Casey Cramer's going to be playing another won in the "Jeff Fisher & Friends" Charity Softball Game according to this story that mentions the former Dartmouth star.

Quick Hits

A couple of quick links before we zip up to Burlington for our flight. ... A 6-4, 250 two-way lineman from Massachusetts is taking a prep year before deciding on a college and Dartmouth is one of his options. He's thinking about playing football and lacrosse. Find the story here – and if you can find it (I couldn't), there's a story I wrote for the Dartmouth lax web page about how welcoming men's lacrosse coach Bill Wilson is to two-sport athletes. ...

Speaking of two-sport athletes, just-graduated football/baseball player Jason Blydell is playing summer baseball down in Massachusetts and there's a family connection. Find the story here.

Next stop ... California.

Catching Up ... And Heading Out

Our Internet is still down so I've come off the mountain and into town to finish up some freelance writing work and pull together a quick blog as I try to wrap things up before vacation.

A columnist for the Daily Pennsylvanian is hoping a little more information than usual will come out of the Ivy League presidents' meetings. He makes reference to possible "merit aid," packages, something I've also heard whispered about. He touches on possible changes to the Academic Index, which my sources tell me at least some at the meetings would like to see aggressively changed for possibly even abandoned. (I tried to say that last week without quite saying it and in doing so confused a few of you. Sorry about that ;-) The Daily Pennsylvanian columnist writes:

In previous years, merit aid vs. need-based aid was thought of as a zero-sum game. Nobody wanted to touch it. Now that might have changed, especially since it could have an equalizing affect on recruiting without the need to utter the dreaded S-word - scholarships.

Dartmouth has revealed the search committee for a new president. There's a story in the Daily Dartmouth.

A Cornell athlete has won the NCAA triple jump for the second year in a row. There's a story on the Cornell website. What's interesting is that the 2007 NCAA champion from Cornell came back to defend in 2008 ... as a Florida State graduate student. The Tallahassee Democrat wrote:

Unable to continue at Cornell under Ivy League rules that prohibit graduates from competing, (Rayon) Taylor transferred to FSU.

One of the posters over at AnyGivenSaturday has been cruising around the Internet finding street-level (and also aerial) photos of FCS (I-AA) football stadiums. It's worth a look here.

And finally, as I noted above, we are leaving on vacation tomorrow. Regular visitors to this electronic neighborhood will recall that two summers ago we loaded the kids up in our 1984 "poptop" VW Westfalia camper van and headed out for a 7,500-mile, blue-highways trip to White Sands, Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, Zion, Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore and even Lambeau Field and Niagara Falls on the way home.

With only three-plus weeks available, we planned our last trip with the idea of picking up the tour on the West Coast in another year.

This is that year. We are flying into San Francisco tomorrow night and renting a VW camper van not unlike our own in Redwood City. Then we are steering north. Our tentative itinerary includes Mt. Tamalpais, up the coast to Mendocino, a quick zip into Oregon to get the kids another state for their "collection," then down to Lake Tahoe and Yosemite. We'll play it a bit by ear but Muir Woods, Redwood National Park, Crater Lake, Shasta, Mono Lake and Carson City (my father's family is from nearby Minden, Nev.) are other places we might want to explore. We finish up back in San Francisco where we have tickets to see the Giants and Cubbies on July 3 July 2.

If you have any suggestions, feel free to pass them along. (I'm bringing the laptop so email any recommendations you might have – and don't completely forget about the blog. I may toss something up here from time to time if wi-fi is available.)

And yes, you are right, this isn't the best year for a driving vacation of any sort. But the kids are at the age where if we don't do it now, we might never do it, so off we go!

Dartmouth: It's In The Game

Still no Internet on the mountain. Today's email (accessed through my wife's work) said they can't fix what's wrong on the transmitter so now they are going to come around and change all our receivers. Argh.

We're going to look seriously at satellite Internet, although it better be more dependable than our satellite TV. The TV actually worked OK last night ... but I fell asleep in the first quarter and didn't get to see much of the NBA championship game.

There's no telling what will happen, but say this much for Dartmouth: It's in the game with the big boys. This link is about a South Carolina high schooler who has heard from, "Notre Dame, Florida State, Georgia, Tennessee, Auburn, Clemson, South Carolina, North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, Colorado, Princeton, and Dartmouth."

Not surprisingly: "I like North Carolina, Auburn, Clemson, Georgia, and Notre Dame."

A top Chicago-area high school quarterback headed to Harvard was the subject of a Father's Day story.

Sorry I can't dig up more but this is painstakingly slow and there are a lot of things to wrap up before we leave on vacation Friday.

Internet Clamantis In Deserto

I might have mentioned this before a number of us who are terribly frustrated by the radio-delivered service of our Internet provider had several meetings with Comcast down in town hall about getting cable to our rural area of hanover. Bottom line: Not gonna happen. Even if every house on our road and the others that are not served yet signed up for cable, phone and Internet, there's still not enough business for them to make it worth their while. At least that's what they tell us.

So we struggle along with outages like the current one, which continues for a fourth day. If I get what I need done early enough today I'll head into town and try to get you a *proper* blog. But with service out, the best I can do is send you to a link a reader shared with me. This is for a product he'd like to see Dartmouth offer. It's pretty neat, so check it out.

Delay of Game

No blog again today with our radio-delivered Internet signal unavailable due to "suspected interference from another carrier."

Technical difficulties

Sorry, but the Internet up here on the mountain is out AGAIN, so today's blog is on hold until it comes back. It went out yesterday morning. Back soon ... I hope.

A Saturday Story

A quick story to start your morning. I'm not sure all these years later that this is exactly how it played out, but if the details are a little off, it's worth retelling because the O'Henry ending might be instructive.

Back when I was a seventh- or eighth-grader, there was a kid in my home room who had an older sister. Yikes, was she old. Maybe 22 or 23 or something like that. I mean, she was old!

Go figure, she decided to join the military. As it turns out she was getting married and, unable to bear the thought of his beloved heading off without him, her fiance signed up as well. Again, if I remember correctly, there was some kind of buddy program at the time where people could sign up for the military and be stationed together, so off they went in lockstep.

Wouldn't you know it, before long the wife became pregnant and got mustered out of the military. The husband? Stuck city, as Dick Vitale might say.

OK, the details might be apocryphal, but here's why it is interesting:

1. At its spring meetings, the Patriot League's Council of Presidents revised its version of the Academic Index to "enhance admissions and athletic competitiveness of programs externally while maintaining the integrity of the League's founding principles." Think of that as renewing vows with the Ivy League.

2. Now the Ivy League presidents are meeting.

3. Guess what two letters the whispers say the Ivy League will at least consider dropping. The Patriot League if that happens? Stuck city, as Dick Vitale might say.

Dartmouth football has a job posting on a popular coaching web site. Here's what it says:

Football Video Coordinator/ Football Operations Responsible for hiring, training and supervising the video film crew; coordinating video setup, taping and editing all practices and games; coordinating all video exchanges with opponents; production of season ending highlight video. Prefer experience operating the DVSport Software System. Responsible for assisting with the following Football Operations: coordination of football team travel; oversight of maintenance and scheduling of football facilities; spring alumni golf outing and fall football reunion weekends; organization and daily operation of football office. $20-$30K based on experience. Please fax resumes to 603.646.3576 or email Don.Jennings@Dartmouth.EDU with Cover letter and resume

Today is the Dartmouth Friends of Football golf outing at Hanover Country Club. I'll be stopping by to say hi to some old friends and dig around to see if there's anything to report.

Red Rolfe Field At Biondi Park

Dartmouth has issued a press release with information about the current construction of baseball's new Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park. The project is the result of a $5.2 million gift from the late Mike Biondi '79 and Cindy Ginn Biondi '80.

From the release:

Renovations will include construction of a new synthetic FieldTurf surface, permanent seating for 650 spectators with the ability to add more than 1,000 temporary seats along the first- and third-baselines, dugouts, batting cages, bullpens, a new scoreboard, press box, and landscaping.

That permanent seating, as I understand it, will include chairback seating behind home plate. ... The only dirt on the field will be the pitcher's mound. The batter's box and basepaths will be dirt-colored FieldTurf. ... If you are wondering how that will look, check out this close-up photo from a Cornell game played on FieldTurf and relax ;-). ... Having seen a few games on FieldTurf, I can also tell you the ball bounces much more the way it does on grass than it does on AstroTurf.

Dartmouth baseball won the Ivy League's Red Rolfe Division championship for the fourth time in eight years this spring. The Big Green was ranked first in New England and head coach Bob Whalen was named the New England coach of the year.

Note This

Looking for that perfect gift for your favorite Dartmouth alum? Wish I'd known about this before graduation – and a little more before Father's Day – because it is pretty neat. If you bought one of the vintage Dartmouth calendars last December year and can't bear the thought of letting go one of the frameable prints to share if with a classmate, this is the answer!

I know this is going to sound like an infomercial – and I guess it sort of is – but you get 20 "blank notecards with matching envelopes - 5 cards each of 4 different images," for $19.95.

Do the math and that's basically a buck apiece. Just try finding a birthday card at the mall for that price ;-)

For more info or ordering the Dartmouth notecards, click here.


For the earlier Green Alert post on the Vintage Dartmouth Football Program calendar, click here.

---

Next in a series of Dartmouth recruits - Field Hockey:

• Katherine Cobb, M, Darien, Conn./Darien
• Sarah Alderman, M, Sparta, N.J./Morristown-Beard
• Kelly Hood, M, Berlin, N.H./Holderness School
• Meghan Everett, F, Flemington, N.J./Hunterdon Central
• Meagan Vakiener, G, Port Murray, N.J./Voorhees

Alex Jenny Feature

Junior-to-be quarterback Alex Jenny is the subject of an in-depth newspaper feature that looks back at his sophomore season and ahead to his prospects this fall. Talking about the start he made at Harvard last year when he admittedly did not play his best, Jenny makes an astute observation:

In the future, I'll have to learn how to be excited and relaxed at the same time.

When I wasn't paying attention the folks at Dartmouth put a Memorial Field seating chart up on the web. For all I know, it could have been there since last summer. Either way, it's kind of fun to see what it looks like. Find the original of this graphic here. (And keep in mind the bottom side of the graphic will change significantly after the 2008 season when the home grandstand is replaced.)

I wrapped up a few long and hectic days as media coordinator for the Vermont Open golf tournament last night. The winner, Jim Renner of Plainville, Mass., shot 62-62-68 to win going away. Here's a photo I shot of the winner sinking a putt on the picturesque, 542-yard-, par-5 12th hole:

Fore!

Not much time this morning as I gear up for the final round of the Vermont Open professional golf tournament up at beautiful Lake Morey Resort, about 20 miles north of Hanover.

Word is that a familiar name will be joining the Dartmouth coaching staff. More when I get the information firmed up.

One quick link this morning about a terrific Massachusetts football player who will concentrate on another sport at Dartmouth after winning an "Athlete of the Year" award. From the story:

Nate Brakeley of Marblehead played football at St. John's Prep but also gravitated to rugby, the sport he'll be playing at Dartmouth College next year.

Power went out up on the mountain shortly after I got back from the golf tournament and the phone followed. As of 9 this morning it was still out. We found out who won the Celtics-Lakers game on a crank-radio this morning ;-). And of course we have company coming in today from Texas. Hope the power is back up tonight ...

I had to zip into Hanover to finish my golf work (and toss this little blog up) before heading to the course. Off to golf ...

Details On TV Game Are In

A new email informs me the gig is up. The Dartmouth-Columbia game will be broadcast at 4 p.m. on the Versus network, formely known as Outdoor Life Network.

More On The TV Game

A couple of notes from readers of this morning's blog ...

A reader wrote: "The DCAD web page has the Columbia game at 4pm so I think the word is out."

and this ...

Another reader wrote: "I believe that the 4:00 game in question is the Columbia game. And I presume that the game would be televised on YES? (The latter is speculation. The former I'm reasoanably certain about)."

OK folks, here's the deal: Yes it is versus Columbia. Not it is not YES Network.

More when it's clear to share it or you can just figure out the pun ;-)

TV Comes Calling?

Got an email from an alum who works for a large media outlet yesterday noting that one Dartmouth football road game has tentatively been moved to a 4 p.m. start for TV purposes. I'd heard about the possibility elsewhere and was told it was hush-hush, so I'm between the dog and the fire hydrant on sharing too much information about this one. Suffice it to say that, barring one of the schools or the Ivy League having a problem with it, Dartmouth will be playing a rare late-afternoon road game this fall.

I'm sure that's good news for Dartmouth fans around the country. I'm equally sure it's not good news for me. I've tried whenever possible the past three years to make most road trips in one day to keep expenses down. Unfortunately, a 4 p.m., game will mean I probably won't get to writing until 8. Because I always do two stories after a Saturday game, that could keep me going until 11 p.m. or so, which is simply too late to start home. Without giving away any secrets, it will take me at least 5 hours to make the nearest road trip this fall in my trusty '93 Mitsubishi Expo, so it looks like an overnight is in the cards. I'll have the details for you when the deal is officially struck.

Spotted a note in Chuck Burton's Lehigh Football Nation blog about the new turf initiative at the Patriot League school's Goodman Stadium. I bring it up because turf, in this instance, means the real thing. That's right. Grass.

Given a choice, count me as one who would rather have grass than FieldTurf – when it is practical. Unfortunately, real grass in the fall is a problem in northern New England and FieldTurf is clearly the better choice.

Having been on the grass at Penn State's Beaver Stadium in late April and having seen how capably it handled a virtual monsoon during a spring pregame two years ago, I think the technology that has been brought to real grass can make it workable in a location like Pennsylvania. Read the story on the Lehigh project here.

I just emailed my old editor at the local daily with a timely news tip I found in the Providence Journal. I wrote him that the owner of the Boston Celtics will apparently be in Hanover today. Turns out Steve Lewinstein, a real estate developer, is a Dartmouth grad who is celebrating his 45th reunion before flying to LA for game four against the Lakers.

That's about it for now. I'll be heading back up to Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, Vt., shortly for round two of the 54-hole Vermont Open. Yesterday was a good day in my role as media coordinator with the CBS TV affiliate in Burlington coming down for a live remote and three daily newspapers on site. Several others picked up the story I wrote and others still ran the agate on their scoreboard pages. I can remember being the only media member at the tournament many years so that was a terrific turnout.

It could be a long day: the forecast is for violent thunderstorms late this afternoon with hail that might be "the size of golf balls." Wonder what the rules of golf say about hitting a hail stone instead of your ball?

79 Days Until First Practice

• Colgate's first practice of the preseason – Aug. 4.
• Dartmouth's first practice of the preseason – Aug. 27.
• Season-opening opponent Colgate's first game against Stony Brook – Aug. 30.
• Days of Dartmouth practice before Colgate's opener – 3.
  
• Games Colgate will have under its belt before playing Dartmouth – 3

In case you are wondering, it's 79 days until the first practice of the Dartmouth preseason camp. (Colgate will be on the field in 56 days.)

Incoming tight end recruit John Gallagher of West Salem H.S., in Oregon gets a brief mention in this story.

Stanford's Alex Fletcher – brother of offensive line recruit Austen Fletcher (Austen Fletcher video) – has been included on both the Rimington Trophy Spring Watch List (top center in college football) and the Outland Trophy Watch List (best interior lineman in college). Find a story here. Alex Fletcher was a Buddy Teevens recruit at Stanford. Find his bio here.

Congratulations to the former Dartmouth players who graduated yesterday. While the temperature and humidity were uncomfortable, the rain and rumble held off until late in the day. ...

The Daily Dartmouth graduation issue had a story about the contributions of some of Dartmouth's senior athletes.

Changes

A couple of changes in the football offices at Floren Varsity House to report. Jake Kirkendall, who did a terrific job as the Big Green's video coordinator/football operations person for the past year, has moved on to Eastern Michigan University, where he will be the director of football operations. The move returns Kirkendall, an Ohio University graduate, to the Mid-American Conference...Also, assistant coach Kenyada Davis has stepped down for personal reasons.

Want a real time waster on this Sunday? Check out Texas Bob's database of Texas high school football stadiums. He has the stadiums broken down into categories such as top capacity, those with video capability (there are 56 of them!) and the six-man stadiums. There are photos of a majority of the facilities and I'll admit to clicking on more than a few of the pictures. I particularly enjoyed getting a peek at some of the incredibly remote fields that host the six-man game.

A reminder that the Friends of Football golf outing is this Saturday. There's still time to sign up. You can find a flyer for the afternoon/evening here.

Remember Chip Kelly, the offensive coordinator responsible for that high-tech UNH offense? He won over a lot of skeptics in his first year at Oregon and now at least one pundit has him potentially ending up as head coach at Syracuse or Arizona after the 2008 season. Check out the story that includes this:

Oregon offensive coordinator Chip Kelly won't say it, but I will: he's a rock star. In fact, I wouldn't be shocked if he's a I-A head coach at this time next year.

Not bad for a guy who was coaching Division I-AA New Hampshire in 2006. I know it has a good program. But, c'mon, it's New Hampshire.

It's graduation day in Hanover and it's going to be a scorcher. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but trust me, hot and humid are the order of the day. The temperature is expected to crack 90 degrees. ...

I spend a good part of yesterday and will be working the next three days as the media coordinator for the Vermont Open professional golf tournament at Lake Morey Resort, about a half hour north of Hanover. Players from 19 states and as far away as California have descended on the Lake Morey course and will be playing for $51,800 in prize money.

The tournament is the lid-lifter for the New England state open tour that always features a number of freshly minted pros getting their game in order before heading to Q-School in the fall. The best-known of the recent winners at Vermont was Sean O'Hair. He won at Lake Morey in 1994 and was on the PGA Tour the next year. He's gone on to win almost $8 million on the tour since then, including a victory this year at the PODS championship...In addition to filing stories and agate with the media, I've created a Vermont Open blog.

Color Baseball Draft Green

Two graduating seniors on the Dartmouth baseball team and one incoming freshman have been selected in major league baseball's amateur draft. Outfielder Damon Wright was taken by the San Francisco Giants in the 25th round with lefthanded pitcher Russell Young grabbed by the Cleveland Indians in the 28th. Recruit Kyle Hendricks, a righthanded pitcher who posted a 0.93 ERA at his California high school this year, was chosen by the Los Angeles Angeles of Anaheim in the 39th round. Find Dartmouth's release here.

Keggy, the unofficial Dartmouth mascot, gets a brief mention in this story out of California.

This is kind of fun. Hanover is ranked No. 6 nationally among towns/cities with a population of 5,000 or more for the percentage of the population who walk to work (47.2) by city-data.com. All five towns above Hanover on the list are military bases, and almost every town or city listed in the top 101 is either a base or a college town. Now, I could be wrong but methinks a good, hard look at the methodology used for the study is in order ;-).

The Boston Globe has a story about the veterans President Jim Wright has brought to campus as undergraduates now that they've completed their first year. It's a wonderful initiative and a very interesting story.

Next in a series of recruiting lists – Women's Lacrosse:

• Georgia Bird, D, Kent Place/Summit, N.J.
• Dana Brisbane, M, Hotchkiss/Locus Valley, N.Y.
• Kirsten Goldberg, A, St. Paul's School for Girls/Cockeysville, Md.
• Hadley Lankford, A, St. Stephen's and St. Agnes/Alexandria, Va.
• Erin Massimi, M, Westwood/Westwood, Mass.
• Sarah Parks, A, Centennial/Ellicott City, Md.
• Sarah Plumb, M, Nobles and Greenough/Wellesley, Mass.
• Hilary Smith, D, Hackley School/Bronxville, N.Y.

Honoring The Champions

Four more Dartmouth football teams that won Ivy League titles will be celebrated this fall:

• The 1978 team quarterbacked by one Eugene F. "Buddy" Teevens will be honored on Sept. 27, the afternoon of the UNH game.
• The 1958 team, whose leading rusher was one John "Jake" Crouthamel, will be feted on Oct. 11, when the Big Green takes on Yale.
• The 1966 team that finished in a rare three-way tie for the crown will be honored on Nov. 1, when Dartmouth plays Harvard.
• The 1990 team that won the first of two Ivy championships under coach Buddy Teevens will be recognized on Nov. 15 when the Big Green plays Brown.

Additionally, all former Dartmouth teams will be celebrated on Oct. 18 when the Green hosts Holy Cross for Homecoming.

Oh, and please don't ask why Homecoming is against Holy Cross instead of Yale or Harvard. While many of you – most of you? – would probably prefer Homecoming be against Harvard, that is not a football decision and is not made by the athletic department.

One plus about having Homecoming against Holy Cross: It should help what has the potential to be a pretty good year for home attendance. That's because ...

... The Memorial Field season opens with New Hampshire. While UNH doesn't exactly get blood racing among the locals, it has an appeal to some people around the state and usually sees a slightly better-than-usual crowd in the visiting stands. Sandwiched around Homecoming, Yale and Harvard should both be pretty good this fall and both have natural drawing power in Hanover. That leaves only the Memorial Field finale against Brown lacking any special appeal – unless, of course, the Big Green happens to be in the running for the title.

The Sporting News is carrying a story on Dartmouth alum/SEC commissioner Mike Slive '62 and his push for a "plus-one" championship model in major college football. The story is built around the playoff idea, but it is a throw-away note late in the story about something else that caught my eye:

Slive's vow to have the SEC probation-free within five years hasn't quite panned out. But Mississippi State and South Carolina's 5-year probation periods end in June, and only Arkansas' men's track team is currently under sanctions.

The old joke about SEC standing for "Surely Everybody's Cheating" isn't heard so much anymore.

If you know Mike Slive and his reputation, you might be tempted to say, "I told you so."

Reading that story, by the way, sent me scurrying back to the web where I found a thoroughly entertaining ESPN story about Slive from last fall that you absolutely should not miss. The day-in-the-life of the commish (a game day, of course) includes an anecdote that Slive has probably told many times, but for some reason I'd not seen before. From the story:

You might not guess it, but the small, trim man was a college athlete. He arrived at Dartmouth as a quarterback but switched to lacrosse and lettered three years after an unmistakable hint from the football coach.

"We had 20 quarterbacks and 19 centers," he says. "When we lined up and I was the one without a center, I knew I was in trouble."

Hilarious. The ESPN story, by the way, introduced Slive this way:

When the SEC hired Slive away from Conference USA in 2002, many people wondered how a Jewish lawyer with an Ivy League diploma and a New York birth certificate was going to mesh with a brass-knuckles league in the Bible Belt.

They're not wondering anymore.

Former Dartmouth assistant coach Don Brown has had a lot of success as head coach at Massachusetts, where he once served as an assistant to former Brown QB and coach Mark Whipple. Now it appears the Don Brown-Whipple relationship will go to another level as Whipple's son, Spencer is apparently transferring from Pitt to UMass. So says this story. ... Donny Brown, incidentally, has a glittering 88-40 record as a college head coach.

And finally this ... Did you catch the Celtics-Lakers game last night? Pretty good one, was it? I wouldn't know. My kids woke up this morning and asked me who won. I had to fire up the Mac to find out.

Apart from the game being on too late for those of us with sleepy eyes on the East Coast, the problem here on Moose Mountain was once again with our satellite dish. See, our TV picture breaks up or freezes when we have rain – even the hint of rain will do it – or wind. No kidding, I tried watching last night but Paul Pierce would put up a shot and with the ball in midair the picture would f-f-f-freeze. Sometimes it would come back with the teams running up the court, at which point I would try to read the score before the screen froze again to see if the shot went in.

Worse yet, the picture might freeze (or disappear completely) for 3-4-5 minutes. I'm not a big fan of the NBA or either team, but it got so frustrating that I found myself wishing I could end-over-end the clicker right into the screen.

We'd ditch the satellite for much-more dependable cable (with Internet capability) in a New York minute, but as they say down in Mike Slive's country, that dawg don't hunt. I spent part of Wednesday morning down in the town office with a handful of others from rural Hanover meeting with people from a cable giant for the third time to talk about getting cable/broadband Internet service out our way. To the credit of the cable people, they listened patiently to our pleading and didn't laugh. Nor, of course, did they give us any hope that it would happen. Not on their dime, anyway.

Stump Story, Ivy Football Recruits

I had several people write and ask about yesterday's picture of the captains at The Stump. In case you were puzzled by the location of the annual photo of the captains, here's an explanation for the stump taken directly from the Dartmouth website (italics are mine):

The “Lone Pine,” also known as the “Old Pine,” was a pre-Revolutionary pine tree that stood for more than 150 years on what is now called Observatory Hill, above the Dartmouth Green. According to Ralph Nading Hill’s "The College on the Hill," graduating classes in the 1850s adopted the tradition of gathering around the tree to smoke a pipe, which was passed from one to another. The tree was struck by lightning in 1887, and more extensively damaged by a windstorm in 1892; the College cut the dying tree down in 1895. Today the preserved stump of the Lone Pine remains, covered for most of the year but unveiled for ceremonies around Class Day on Commencement weekend. The Lone Pine also lives on as a lectern used for the College’s major events, including Commencement and Convocation. A section of the trunk of the tree was used to craft the lectern after the tree was cut down. The pine has become one of the enduring symbols of the College, used as the basis for the logo that was created for the College’s bicentennial celebration in 1969 (and still in use today) as well as other graphic representations of Dartmouth.

The Ivy League used to – and still might – post a listing of football recruits from all eight Ivy League schools. Because it hasn't, I pulled the following list together. Sorry the format isn't identical for each school, but it was a royal pain just getting it this far ...

BROWN

• Sean Hack Burns, FB, 6-3, 205, Minnetonka, MN/The Blake School
• Shane George Cooney, OLB, 5-11, 190, Mountain View, California/Mt. View
• Derrick Duquette, LB, 6-2, 225, Plymouth, MA/Plymouth South HS
• Nicholas Matthew Faber, TE/OL, 6-3, 235, Alamo, California/San Ramon Valley HS
• Mel Farr, CB, 5-10, 180, Bloomfield Hills, MI/Detroit Catholic Central
• Jonah Fay, WR, 6-1, 170, Brookline, MA/Noble and Greenough School
• John (Jack) Geiger, OL, 6-3, 260, Whitefish Bay, WI/Marquette University HS
• William James Gray, Corner., 6-1, 165, Murrieta, Calif./Murrieta Valley HS
• Bradley Griffith, TE, 6-5, 220, Cincinnati, Ohio/Glen Este HS
• Mark Hammer, Safety, 5-11, 185, Chagrin Falls, Ohio/Chagrin Falls HS
• Mark John Hogan Jr., RB, 5-11, 190, Sudbury, Mass/Lincoln-Sudbury HS
• Evan P. Johnson, OL, 6-3, 270, Kettering, Ohio/Archbishop Alter HS
• Luke Iverson Landers, OL, 6-4, 290, Friendswood, TX/Friendswood HS
• Nathan B. Lovett, Athlete/WR, 6-4, 190, East Providence, RI/East Providence HS
• Jeffrey Matteis, DE, 6-2, 220, Havertown, PA/Haverford HS
• Sam Martin McGrath, OLB, 6-2, 190, Longmeadow, Mass./Longmeadow HS
• Luke MacKenzie Miller, TE/DE, 6-4, 215, Bryn Mawr, PA/Episcopal Aca./Phillips Academy,
• Matthew Martin O'Donnell, ILB, 6-0, 230, Tipton, Iowa/Tipton HS
• Patrick William Pakan, QB, 6-2, 205, Tallmadge, Ohio/Tallmadge High School
• Stephen Douglas Peyton, FB/TE, 6-2, 210, Pioneer High school/Woodland, CA
• Stephen Patrick Reid Jr., OL, 6-6, 270, New Port Richey, FLA/Gulf HS
• Joseph Kyle Rettig, DL, 6-3, 245, Clearwater, FLA/Clearwater Central Catholic
• Neal Kevin Rooney, DE, 6-3, 235, Scituate, RI/LaSalle Academy
• Aaron Matthew Ruffin, CB, 5-9, 170, Alpharetta, Georgia/Northview HS
• Jimmy Saros, WR, 6-3, 190, Grosse Pointe, Michigan/Grosse Point South HS
• Richard Kevin Saunders, OLB, 5-11, 200, Akron, Ohio/St. Vincent-St. Mary HS
• Daniel Timothy Smithwick, S, 6-0, 190, Danville, Calif./San Ramon Valley HS
• Spiro Alexander Theodhosi, RB, 5-11, 205, Londonderry, NH.Londonderry HS
• Nathanial John Thomas, DB, 6-0, 180, Seven Mile, Ohio/Edgewood HS
• Landon Ray Turley, DE, 6-4, 220, Alpine, Calif./Granite Hills HS
• Brett Wyman, ILB, 6-2, 220, Bridgewater, Mass./Bridgewater-Raynham HS
• John Charles Zoppo, OL, 6-3, 285, South Salem, NY/John Jay Cross River HS

COLUMBIA

• Jeff Adams, OL, 6-7, 270, Western Springs, Ill./Lyons Township
• Pete Batesko, WR, 6-2, 205, Point Pleasant, N.J/Red Bank Catholic
• Jerry Bell, QB, 6-2, 196, Corpus Christi, Texa /W.B. Ray
• James Burrell, WR, 5-10, 180, Richmond, Va./Bridgton Academy
• Sam Cecil, OL, 6-4, 250, New Martinsville, W.Va./The Linsly School
• David Chao, RB, 5-10, 185, Park Ridge, Ill./Maine Township South
• Will Claunch, LB, 6-1, 225, Palm City, Fla./South Fork
• Alex Cornish, LB, 6-2, 210, Frederick, Md./Frederick
• Christian Daniel, WR, 6-3, 195, Anaheim, Calif./Canyon
• Ben Evans, OL, 6-6, 275, St. Louis, Mo./St. Louis University HS
• Chris Groth, DL, 6-3, 280, South Lyon, Mich./South Lyon
• Ryan Haslett, FS, 6-3, 205, Holmdel, N.J/(Holmdel
• Bob Hauschildt, OL, 6-6, 280, Rosedale, Ill./Lake Park
• Peter Holst-Grubbe, FB, 6-2, 250, Torrington, Conn./Avon Old Farms School
• Kalasi Huggins, DB, 5-11, 185, Plainfield, N.J./Kent School
• Kevin Lenehan, QB, 6-3, 210, Middletown, Conn./Xavier
• Rafael Lopez, TE, 6-3, 235, Los Angeles, Calif./Birmingham
• Anthony Maddox, SS, 5-9, 175, St. Rowlett, Texas/Garland
• Donnie Miller, RB, 6-2, 215, Spring Lake, Mich./Muskegon Catholic
• Nick Mistretta, LB, 6-2, 225, Nanuet, N.Y./Don Bosco Prep
• Ross Morand, CB, 6-2, 170, Cincinnati, Ohio/St. Xavier
• Mark Muston, WR, 6-0, 180, Eden Prairie, Minn./St. Margaret's
• Nico Papas, FB, 6-0, 233, Watertown, Mass./Buckingham Browne and Nichols
• ChrisParuch, S, 6-3, 205, Bayside, N.Y./Chaminade
• Ben Popeck, DL, 6-4, 230, Olive Branch, Miss./St. George's
• Neil Schuster, CB, 5-11, 175, Dunwoody, Ga./Marist School
• Shea Selsor, DL, 6-2, 230, Piqua, Ohio/Piqua
• Kyle Stupi, OL, 6-3, 265, Eldersberg, Md./Loyola Blakefield School
• J.D. Tyree, DL, 6-5, 225, Martinsville, Va./Martinsville
• Kurt Williams, CB, 6-0, 180, Cortlandt Manor, N.Y./Don Bosco Prep

CORNELL

• K.C. Aharanwa, S/LB 6-3, 192, Dallas, Texas/LD Bell HS
• Drew Bourassa, OL,6-3, 265, Pittstown, N.J./Delaware Valley HS
• Rashad Cambell, DB, 5-8, 175, Cheltenham, Pa./Chestnut Hill Academy
• Emile Chang, DL, 6-3, 265, Elmont, N.Y./Valley Stream Central HS
• Adam Currie, QB, 6-1, 200, Memphis, Tenn./Evangelical Christian School
• Chris Dennis, DB, 6-1, 160, Houston, Texas/Eisenhower HS
• Tom Doupe, DL, 6-2, 225, Westlake Village, Calif./Westlake HS
• Adam Harris, LB, 6-2, 228, Towanda, Pa./Towanda Area HS
• Matt Harrison, OL, 6-4, 300, Missisauga, Ont./Phillips Exeter Academy
• Jordan Heller, WR, 6-2, 187, Miami, Fla./Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior HS
• Ryan Houska, S, 6-2, 210, Plymouth, Mich./Detroit Catholic Central HS
• Zack Imhoff, LB, 6-4, 225, Cincinnati, Ohio/Colerain HS
• Alex Johnson, QB, 6-3, 200, Ithaca, N.Y./Ithaca HS
• John LaBarre, P, K6-3, 175, Walnutport, Pa./Bethlehem Catholic HS
• Tommy Laymon, OL, 6-2, 252, Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Detroit Country Day School
• Troy Lewis, RB, 5-10, 175, Hanover, Md./Cardinal Gibbons HS
• Mat MacFarlane, DL, 6-3, 240, Verona, Wis./Verona Area HS
• Keaton Marks, S, 6-2, 195, San Diego, Calif./Santa Fe Christian HS
• Drew McGowan, TE, 6-5, 235, Evergreen Park, Ill./Saint Rita of Cascia HS
• Jim Miner, OL, 6-5, 255, West Chicago, Ill./West Chicago HS
• Zak Murdock, LB, 6-1, 230, Leechburg, Pa./Kiski Area HS
• Ryan Pardoe, OL, 6-52, 93, Montandon, Pa./Milton Area HS
• Tom Randall, WR, 6-3, 200, Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J./Bergen Catholic HS
• Shane Savage, WR, 5-10, 170, Leesburg, Va./Flint Hill School
• Jon Scheidler, WR, 6-1, 180, Cincinnati, Ohio/St. Xavier HS
• Travers Schmidt, S, 6-0, 200, Tamaqua, Pa./Tamaqua Area HS
• Chris Sheridan, WR, 6-3, 180, Pacific Palisades, Calif./Loyola HS
• Mike Spooner, LB, 6-1, 220, Rocky River, Ohio/St. Edwards HS
• Zach Tally, DB, 6-0, 168, Dallas, Texas/W.T. White HS
• Adbul Taylor, DB, 5-10, 160, Manhattan, N.Y./Paul Laurence Dunbar HS

DARTMOUTH

• Shawn Abuhoff, CB, 5-11, 185, Dade Christian/Hialeah, Fla.
• Joseph Andreassi, CB, 5-10, 175, St. Anthony's/Water Mill, N.Y.
• Garrett Babb, WR, 5-9, 175, Bethel/Shawnee, Okla.
• Joseph Casey, CB, 5-10, 175, Noblesville/Noblesville, Ind.
• Kyle Cook, OL, 6-5, 260, Mater Dei/Anaheim, Calif.
• Anthony Diblasi, SS, 6-1, 175, Belen Jesuit Prep/Miami, Fla.
• Brad Dornak, WR, 6-0, 180, Westlake/Austin, Texas
• Mark Dwyer, DT, 6-4, 240, Woburn/Woburn, Mass.
• Royce Egeolu, LB, 5-10, 240, John Paul Stevens/San Antonio, Texas
• Diego Fernandez-Soto, LB, 6-0, 185, Belen Jesuit Prep/Miami, Fla.
• Austen Fletcher, OL, 6-1, 275, St. Anthony's/Old Brookville, N.Y.
• John Gallagher, TE, 6-2, 225, West Salem/Salem, Ore.
• Chris Hardy, RB, 6-2, 210, Oakwood/Dayton, Ohio
• Charles Hollis, CB, 5-10, 170, Phillips Academy/Longwood, Fla.
• Conner Kempe, QB, 6-4, 200, The Benjamin School/Tequesta, Fla.
• Patrick Lahey, OL, 6-3, 282, Brooks School/North Andover, Mass.
• Ryan Lee, OL, 6-6, 240, Heathwood Hail Episcopal/Columbia, S.C.
• Aaron Limonthas, LB, 6-0, 210, Lamar/Houston, Texas
• Benjamin Magnus, LB, 6-3, 190, Albuquerque Academy/Corrales, N.M.
• Sir Norman Melancon, LB, 5-10, 180, Plano East Sr./Allen, Texas
• Brock Middleton, OL, 6-5, 250, Brophy Prep/Phoenix, Ariz.
• Brendan Murray, LB, 6-0, 185, Notre Dame HS/Chicago, Ill.
• Ryan O'Neill, OL, 6-4, 240, Marist/Orland Park, Ill.
• Grant Palmer, OL, 6-4, 245, St. Charles/Bexley, Ohio
• Connor Phillips, DE, 6-3, 225, Winston Churchill/Potomac, Md.
• Cody Poe, DT, 6-4, 250, Sequoyah/Tahlequah, Okla.
• Michael Reilly, WR, 6-1, 190, Kent Denver/Denver, Colo.
• Dan Rooney, QB, 6-3, 200, Shady Side Academy/Pittsburgh, Pa.
• Foley Schmidt, K/P, 5-9, 175, St. Thomas Academy/Inver Grove Heights, Minn.
• Nick Schwieger, RB, 5-10, 190, Bishop Feehan/Norton, Mass.
• Alex Shulman, TE, 6-2, 205, Thayer Academy/Hingham, Mass.
• Eddie Smith, DT, 6-3, 265, Christian Academy/Louisville, Ky.
• Zach Wodka, OL, 6-3, 265, Buffalo Grove/Arlington Heights, Ill.

HARVARD

• Stephen Aborn, TE, 6-3, 235, Plymouth, Mass./ Milton Academy
• Hugh Archibald, CB, 5-11, 180, Memphis, Tenn./ Harding Academy
• Patrick Bane, DE, 6-1, 235, Lynn Haven, Fla./ A. Crawford Mosley
• Adam Chrissis, WR, 6-0, 195, Pittsburgh, Pa./ Upper St. Clair
• Richard Cox, CB, 6-4, 210, Sardinia, Ohio/ Mason County (Ky.)
• Blaise Deal, RB, 6-1, 195, Glendale, Ariz./ Moon Valley
• Patrick Duffy, K, 6-0, 170, Irvine, Calif./ Mater Dei
• Scott Fritz, OG, 6-2, 275, Houston, Texas/ Clear Lake
• Alex Gedeon, QB, 6-1, 220, Hudson, Ohio/ Hudson
• Matthew Hanson, WR, 6-1, 185, Lafayette, Colo./ Boulder
• Nima Khavanin, OT, 6-4, 235, Davie, Fla./ University School
• Matt Lunati, DE, 6-3, 240, Atlanta, Ga./ The Westminster School
• John Lyon, DE, 6-3, 220, Durham, N.C. Hillside
• Jonathan Mason, CB, 6-1, 205, Mitchellville, Md./ DeMatha Catholic
• Dan Minamide, RB, 5-11, 175, Escondido, Calif./ San Pasqual
• Kevin Murphy, OT, 6-7, 270, San Clemente, Calif./ San Clemente
• Frank Myslicki, K/P, 5-10, 165, Ft. Myers, Fla./ Ft. Myers
• Alan Reeves, QB, 6-0, 205, Alabaster, Ala./ Thompson
• Dave Salutric, LB, 6-5, 235, Naperville, Ill./ Naperville North
• Alex Sarkisian, QB, 6-3, 195, Valparaiso, Ind./ Valparaiso
• Devin Saxon, QB, 6-0, 185, Hayward, Calif./ Moreau Catholic
• Ben Stabler, DT, 6-5, 275, Lancaster, Pa./ Manheim Township
• Aaron Spisak, OG, 6-4, 280, Phoenix, Ariz./ Sandra Day O’Connor
• Sumner Webster, LB, 6-5, 240, Concord, Mass./ Governor Dummer Academy
• Danny Wood, LB, 6-4, 230, St. Petersburg, Fla./ Clearwater Central Catholic

PENN

• Lake Casco, DB, 5-9, 165, Lahainaluna/Lahaina, Hawaii
• Colin Donnelly, WR, 6-0, 180, Central Bucks South/Chalfont, Pa.
• Brian Gieske, DE, 6-2, 228, Chaminade/Manhasset, N.Y.
• Matt Hamscher, RB, 5-10, 180, White Hall/White Hall, Pa.
• John Hurley, 6-1, 190, St. Xavier/Cincinnati, Ohio
• Kameron Jones, DE, 6-2, 219, Los Alamitos/Cypress, Calif.
• Edwin Kispert, TE, 6-3, 225, Gloucester Catholic/Erial, N.J.
• Jim McGoldrick, S, 6-0, 185, St. Joseph’s Prep/Havertown, Pa.
• Chad Miller, QB, 6-6, 210, Foothill/Santa Ana, Calif.
• Aubrey Moore, DL, 6-1, 245, Redland/Mechanicsburg, Pa.
• Luke Nawrocki, TE, 6-3, 235, Chaminade/Syosset, N.Y.
• Steven O’Hayon, DB, 5-10, 170, Miami Country Day/North Miami Beach, Fla.
• Kyle Olson, QB, 6-0, 210, Kennedy (Fullerton JC)/Los Alamitos, Calif.
• Zach Perlman, WR, 6-4, 210, Pinecrest/Weston, Fla.
• Brendan Putnam, WR, 6-4, 205, St. Louis Priory/St. Louis, Mo.
• Anthony Ramirez, OL, 6-3, 275, Dr. Phillips/Orlando, Fla.
• Justin Rand, OL, 6-1, 265, Lacey/Toms River, N.J.
• Erik Rask, LB, 6-1, 215, Corona Del Mar/Newport Beach, Calif.
• Jason Rasmussen, LB, 6-1, 220, Lake Highland Prep/Winter Park, Fla.
• Mason Rippey, LB, 5-11, 210, Jesuit/Portland, Ore.
• Jason Schmucker, S, 6-2, 195, Gonzaga/Washington, D.C.
• Jared Sholly, DL, 6-1, 250, Clear Lake/Clear Lake, Iowa
• Joseph Silberzweig, DL, 6-0, 275, Scarsdale/Scarsdale, N.Y.
• Alec Smith, OL, 6-5, 250, Carmel/Vernon Hills, Ill.
• Matt Swanson, RB, 6-0, 185, Eden Prairie/Eden Prairie, Minn.
• Gregory Van Roten, OL, 6-3, 255, Chaminade/Rockville Centre, N.Y.

PRINCETON

• Matt Allen, OL, 6-3, 270, Tulsa, Okla/Holland Hall HS
• Cameron Browne, OL, 6-4, 240, Lakewood, Colo./Bear Creek HS
• Nick Broz, LB, 6-2, 210, Denve’Regis Jesuit HS
• Mike Catapano, DL, 6-4, 230, Bayville, N.Y./Chaminade HS
• Ivan Charbonneau, DB, 5-8, 160, Kansas City, Kan./Rockhurst HS
• Blake Clemons, DB, 5-9, 160, Hampton, Ga./Lovejoy HS
• Chance Cross, DB, 6-2, 205, Simi Valley, Calif./Simi Valley HS
• Harrison Daniels, 6-2, 180, Naperville, Ill./Naperville Central HS
• Kevin Demaio, DL, 6-4, 260, Holmdel, N.J./Holmdel HS
• Drew Ellis, QB, 6-1, 180, Myrtle Beach, S.C/Myrtle Beach HS
• Jaiye Falusi, DB, 6-2, 205, San Jose, Calif./Archbishop Mitty HS
• Dan Fitzsimmons, LB, 6-2, 210, Flemington, N.J./Hunterdon Central HS
• Otavio Fleury, P, 5-10, 195, Oswego, Ill./Oswego HS
• Ryan Gallagher, LB, 6-2, 215, West Chester, Pa./East HS
• Chris Grous, OL, 6-3, 220, Sewell, N.J./Bishop Eustace HS
• Jon Hibler, WR, 6-2, 175, Midland, Texas/Midland Christian HS
• Patrick Jacob, K, 5-9, 170, Solon, Ohio./Solon HS
• Brad Megay, LB, 6-2, 220, Pottstown, Pa./Owen J. Roberts HS
• Jonathan Meyers, LB, 6-0, 255, Greenwich, Conn/ Greenwich HS
• Mike Milano, LB, 6-0, 190, New Canaan, Conn./New Canaan HS
• Kevin Mill, OL, 6-2, 245, West Chester, Pa./East HS
• John Moellers, TE, 6-5, 245, Tulsa, Okla./Cascia Hall Prep School.
• Mike Muha, DL, 6-4, 240, Coraopolis, Pa./Montour HS
• Grant Serdy, FB, 6-0, 215, Pittsburgh, Pa./Upper Saint Clair HS
• Isaac Serwanga, WR, 6-3, 185, Sacramento, Calif./Jesuit HS
• Adam Shippey, DL, 6-4, 220, Lawrenceville, N.J./Culver Academies.
• Tommy Stewart, WR, 6-3, 205, Eugene, Ore./Sheldon HS
• Eric Stoyanoff, TB, 5-10, 205, Strongsville, Ohio/Strongsville HS
• Nick Thomas, CB, 5-10, 180, Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Brother Rice HS
• Matt Wakulchik, DB, 6-1, 185, North Canton, Ohio./Hoover HS
• Trevor Wilkins, DB, 5-10, 180, Chicago, Ill./Whitney Young HS
• Tommy Wornham, QB, 6-2, 190, San Diego, Calif./The Bishop’s School

YALE

• Michael Anderson, DL, 6-3, 245, Palo Alto/Palo Alto, CA
• Ben Ashcraft, LB, 6-0, 230, Charlotte Latin School/Charlotte, NC
• Drew Baldwin, DB, 5-11, 185 Thomas A. Edison/Alexandria, VA
• Matt Battaglia, DE, 6-3, 235m, Salisbury School/Simsbury, CT
• Alex Birks, TE, 6-3, 225, Mt. Lebanon/Pittsburgh, PA
• David Bollweg, OL, 6-5, 302, Neuqua Valley/Naperville, IL
• Bedford Booth, DB, 6-1, 210, Midland/Midland, TX
• Carter Deutsch, DL, 6-4, 245, Second Baptist Upper School/Houston, TX
• Geoff Dunham, DB, 6-2, 190, Lake Highlands/Dallas, TX
• Evan Ellis, OL, 6-2, 285, Elizabethton/Elizabethton, TN
• Bryan Farris, QB/K, 6-3, 215, Phillips Andover (MA)/Derry, NH
• Jeff Fell, OL, 6-5, 290, Garden City/Garden City, NY
• Cliff Foreman, LB, 6-1, 210St. Albans School/Washington, DC,
• Michael Gabriel, OL, 6-2, 270, Choate Rosemary Hall (CT)/Powell, OH
• Josh Grizzard, DB, 6-3, 196, East Wake/Zebulon, NC
• Dawson Halliday, QB, 6-2, 200, Bearden/Knoxville, TN
• Jordan Haynes, LB, 6-2, 225, Jesuit/Folsom, CA
• Lars Knudsen, WR, 6- 4, 178, Whitefish Bay/, Whitefish Bay
• Josh Kozel, FB, 6-1, 235, Staples/Westport, CT
• Colin Kruger, OL, 6-3, 300.Riverview/Sarasota, FL
• Jake McCrary, RB, 6-0, 185. Briarcrest Christian/Germantown, TN
• Mike McInerney, OL, 6-4, 280. William Penn Charter School/Blue Bell, PA
• Chris Morris, WR, 6-2, 175, Highland Park/, Dallas, TX
• Wes Moyer, LB, 6-0, 205, Alameda/Alameda, CA
• Sudiptho Paul, DB, 6-0, 175, Miramonte/Orinda, CA
• Nick Schneider, LB, 6-3, 215. St. Xavier/Cincinnati, OH
• McConnell Smith, WR, 6-0, 200, University School/Cleveland, OH
• Reed Spiller, DL, 6-2, 275, Portsmouth/Portsmouth, NH
• Jake Stoller, DL, 6-4, 260, University School/Shaker Heights, OH
• Alex Thomas, RB, 5-9, 190, Ansonia/Ansonia, CT

Where? Notre Dame, That's Ware

Dartmouth's 2008 captains are pictured at The Stump. (Photo courtesy of Dartmouth Sports Publicity)

---

KiJuan Ware, a Dartmouth defensive assistant in 2004 and a wide receivers coach in 2005, has joined the coaching staff at Notre Dame. Ware, most recently the recruiting coordinator and wide receivers coach at Georgetown, will be an offensive intern for the Fighting Irish and head coach Charlie Weis. While neither Georgetown nor Notre Dame has posted an announcement on the Internet, Ware is now listed in the Notre Dame football directory. Until it is taken down, you can find Ware's bio on the Georgetown web site here.

A couple of promising football players who succeeded in other sports at Dartmouth are in the news. Former baseball standout Eddie Lucas '04, who probably would have been the Big Green's starting quarterback in 2001 (see earlier Green Alert post) has been promoted to the Kansas City Royals' Triple-A team in Omaha. He's mentioned in this release. Find his current minor league bio here.

Lacrosse standout Chad Gaudet, whose promising career as a running back was derailed by a knee injury, has earned All-Ivy Academic honors this spring. Dartmouth's news release on the All-Ivy lax player can be found here.

Two more schools have released their recruiting lists. Find the Penn list here. ... For the Harvard list, click here.

The Harvard Crimson's graduation issue lauds the job head football coach Tim Murphy did last year while leading Harvard to a stunning upset of previously unbeaten Yale and the Ivy League title. ... Speaking of Yale, Jack Siedlecki is featured in the transcript of an espn.com roundtable discussion with coaches who toured the Middle East recently. What jumps off the page from Siedlecki's answer is just how important The Game between Yale and Harvard really is. The story is pretty long and I admit to skipping over the answers by the other coaches, but Siedlecki's responses are definitely worth reading.

Tuesday's Notes

A potpourri Tuesday ...

As so often happens when the subject of sportsmanship comes up, the famed Cornell-Dartmouth 5th Down game gets a mention in a Washington Times story headlined Sportsmanship exists when money doesn't. ... For those of you who don't know the story, there's a terrific CSTV report on the game at this YouTube link.

Holy Cross is ramping up the PR campaign for "2008 Walter Payton Award Candidate" Dominic Randolph. Find a web page listing achievements by the talented Crusader quarterback here. (And don't be surprised if similar pages pop up before long for Colgate tailback Jordan Scott, Yale tailback Mike McLeod and Harvard quarterback Chris Pizzotti, all deserving of being on the Payton Watch List. The Payton Award, of course, is for the outstanding offensive player in the Football Championship Subdivision of Division I.) ...

Curious about the timeline for the rebuilding of Memorial Field's west stands? This PDF lists projected timing for planning board-site review, planning, design, building permit, bid, construction and occupancy for all major projects at the college including both Memorial Field and baseball's Red Rolfe Field.

And finally, that certain Hanover High sophomore was announced as a captain of her softball team for next spring at last night's banquet. Making her parents more proud: She won the team sportsmanship award for the second sport in a row. She earned the same honor during the winter track season.

Sign Of The Apocalypse

So now Dartmouth football is getting dissed in Opera News Online? From an article headlined: Yankee Ingenuity; CHARLES A. RILEY II savors the small-town flair of New England's Opera North:

At cocktail hour, hot-air balloons in LifeSaver colors drift over Quechee Gorge ("the Grand Canyon of the East"), seven covered bridges, ten area ski resorts and a dozen golf courses. Below, on the country-club decks and inn porches, the chat runs from third homes in Florida to the iffy prospects for the Dartmouth football team and, more and more, Opera North.

The italics are mine. No, it isn't a real deep, hard dig, but a dig it is.

The Ivy League isn't getting much more love from the pundits as the preseason polls/rankings start to trickle in. The College Sporting News does a nice job over the summer compiling the polls and consolidating them into one über-poll. So far, only the Any Given Saturday poll and Lindy's ranking are in and Yale is the only Ivy team getting a mention. The Bulldogs are No. 24 in Lindy's and missing in action in the AGS poll. Defending champion Harvard, with two starting quarterbacks returning, is nowhere to be seen.

The only other Dartmouth opponent mentioned is New Hampshire, which is No. 10 in the Lindy's ranking and tied for 18th in the other.

Speaking of UNH, quarterback Ricky Santos has signed with the Montreal Alouettes after being released by the Kansas City Chiefs. Find a story here.

Still on the CFL, I had a nice conversation with former Dartmouth standout Anthony Gargiulo last week after his "retirement" from the Calgary Stampeders was announced. Anthony told me that despite the horrendous break in his lower leg last fall, he's rehabbed hard and is now able to run as fast as ever. The problem: He can only do it for short intervals before the leg tires and the pain builds up. He's still holding out hope about perhaps one day playing again but is realistic about his chances. In the interim he is continuing to train football players and other athletes back home in New Jersey at Test Sports Clubs. Among the athletes he's worked with: Joe Flacco, the Delaware quarterback taken 18th overall in the 2008 NFL Draft.

And finally, that certain Hanover High sophomore learned another lesson yesterday in the Covered Bridges Half Marathon. For the second year in a row she was using the run for training, rather than as a race. That said, she has a pretty strong competitive gene and so when the classmate she was running with developed blisters and asked her to walk with her on several occasions, she was torn. Stick with a friend or try to post a time? In the end, she tried to do both, walking with the friend on a handful of occasions before eventually running again. She felt awkward about finally leaving her friend, but also disappointed about not having a chance to see what she could do in a race that comes around only once a year. To her credit – and this will embarrass her – when people asked her time for the 13.1 miles and she told them 2 hours, not once did she add the "but," that I certainly would have been tempted to add on.

I'm reminded of my second cross country bicycle ride with a friend from grad school. He was a marathon runner but hadn't done a lot of bicycling. He found it frustrating that he couldn't keep up with me and I found it frustrating that I had to keep waiting. It made for some hard feelings before we decided after a few days that we'd both ride at our own pace and see each other at the end of the day.

Next in a series listing Dartmouth recruits: Women's soccer

• Annalyse Chinco, G, Sacramento (St. Francis HS*)
• Colleen Hogan, G, Houston (Awty International School)
• Alexandra Dutton, B, Granite Bay, Calif. (St. Francis HS*)
• Erin Fleischli, B, San Mateo, Calif. (St. Francis HS*)
• Alyssa O'Dea, F, Irvine, Calif. (Irvine HS)
• Jennifer Williams, F, Cincinnati (The Seven Hills School)

* Chinco and Dutton were high school teammates. Fleischli comes from a different St. Francis

A Page Out Of History

Before heading across the river to Vermont to cheer on that certain Hanover High sophomore in the Covered Bridges Half Marathon (her more sensible brother is playing golf today) ... a couple of fun ones for you.

To read a 1913 New York Times story about Dartmouth agreeing to wear numbers on its uniforms in a game against the Carlisle Indians, click here (PDF page). In case you are wondering, Carlisle won the game, 35-13.

Do you remember Jay Fiedler on the cover of Sports Illustrated when he was with the Dolphins? Find that cover here. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the SI Jinx absolutely took a bite out of Fiedler the next week. Jay had two fumbles and two interceptions in a 42-10 loss to the Rams.