Desert Gold

It appears you can add Mike Tree of Brophy College Prep in Phoenix to the list of Dartmouth regular-decision recruits. A defensive tackle/linebacker type, Tree visited Princeton two weeks ago and was in Hanover last week before making Dartmouth his choice. A scout.com "two-star" pick, Tree was a a first-team, all-state 5A choice by the Arizona Coaches Association who is reported to have had "offers" from Air Force, Brown, Columbia and Holy Cross in addition to Dartmouth and Princeton. No word on whether he was offered by Saturday Night Live, although this earlier post explains why he might deserve one.

For a story about how Tree spent last summer, click here. ... Brophy, by the way, is a perennial Arizona powerhouse that in recent years sent offensive linemen Shane Peterlin '11 and Brock Middleton '12 to Dartmouth.

A message board that carried news of Tree's commitment says safety Cole Pembroke of Desert Vista High School in Phoenix will be in Hanover for a recruiting visit this weekend although remember, it's just a message board.

The Palm Beach Post reports that 5-11, 185 De-Andres Jackson of Glades Day, "has offers or interest from Brown, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Arkansas State and Air Force." For a story about Jackson, a tailback/receiver, click here. For video of Jackson, click here.

Something to ponder: If, as the Harvard Crimson writes, Harvard may not allow quarterback Andrew Hatch to transfer back from LSU, could he end up at another Ivy League school? He's clearly a talented quarterback and a very good student.

There was an interesting Q&A in the Cornell Sun yesterday with Doris Davis, Cornell's associate provost for admissions and enrollment, regarding the "changing admission process." The Q&A included this:

Sun: It has been said that one reason Cornell announced its second phase of the new financial aid plan in October is because it was losing many of its athletes to schools with bigger financial aid programs. Is the newest plan helping in the recruitment of athletes?

DD: We’ll see. (One phase is) to reduce parental contribution for select students whose incomes are above $60,000 a year. And those students may include students who are of an enrollment priority. Some of those students may be athletes and some may be mathematicians and physicists. So there are a range of students who are going to qualify for those enhanced initiatives. And that piece, we will see, because those students (effected by the new plan) come in fall 2009.

That almost sounds like scholarships, or at least merit aid. Discuss among yourselves.

And here's something I completely missed last spring. Although Wake Forest became the first "top 30 national university in the U.S. News & World Report ranking," to drop SAT and ACT test scores as admission requirements, incoming freshman athletes at the school are still, "required to present a valid SAT or ACT score to the NCAA Eligibility Center in order to practice, compete or receive an athletic grant-in-aid at Wake Forest University." ESPN ran an interesting blog piece last spring on "Wake Forest's Testing Dilemma." Bruce Feldman, the writer of the blog, is author of the book Meat Market. His research for the book gives him an interesting perspective:

The biggest academic dilemma I observed stemmed from something that is relevant to the Wake Forest story and the standardized tests. In the case of many borderline recruits, schools needed to determine who was a safer pick: the kid who had a solid GPA but a low ACT score, or the kid with the shaky GPA but a respectable ACT?

The evidence I saw indicated that you're probably better off with the former rather than the latter. For regular students that might not be the case, but for student-athletes, who are afforded additional academic support systems, it was. The kid who had a solid GPA had at least shown that he will be diligent, meaning he'll be more likely to go to all his tutoring sessions and study-halls and be on time for class (and position meetings and practice too).

Meanwhile, the other kid might have been conditioned to think he's always smart enough to just get by. Maybe he is, or maybe, when things get tougher, he won't be.

While he makes it clear he's talking about "borderline recruits," I've heard the same thing over and over again from Dartmouth coaches who believe the work ethic that allows a kid with substandard scores to achieve a high GPA is what will make that student-athlete a success both in the classroom and in athletics.

In case you missed it (as I obviously did) find a News & Observer story about Wake Forest dropping the standardized tests here.

And finally, it's exam week at Hanover High School and that certain junior and her freshman brother seem to have been studying harder than I ever did for college exams. (Please don't tell them I said that ;-) Kudos to them, particularly the freshman who would much, much rather be throwing a ball somewhere but has been studying hard for a full week. Both kids are still training with the track team, a good break from the books, although only the junior reached the qualifying standards to keep competing at the two upcoming meets at UNH and states one week later.