News & Notes

With the planned reconstruction of the stands at Memorial Field on hold, the concrete structure is being powerwashed, patched and otherwise made ready for next fall. The college is going ahead with the new $45 million Visual Arts Center according to this story in the local Valley News. That project was originally budgeted at $52 million.

Speaking of the impact of the economic downturn college sports, the Brown Daily Herald has a story headlined, "Hiring freeze may hit athletics hard." The story begins: "The Department of Athletics expects to lose about 30 coaches and staff this summer." That doesn't sound quite right, but the story makes it clear there will be a lot of belt-tightening going on in the Brown athletic department, as there surely will be everywhere.

Freshman tailback Chris Hardy is pictured in a Valley News story about how more running backs (and receivers) may be involved in the Dartmouth offense next fall. Hardy says:

“We're going to run the ball more than we did last year. That's one of the main things – you look at our (stats), we didn't run much. Any carries are obviously going to go to the number-one guys, which was Milan (Williams). This year, though, we've got a new O-line coach and new system, so it’s going to be real nice for the run game.”

Also mentioned in the story is junior Matt Dornak, a converted corner who is proving to be a load at running back this spring. He was just elected social chair at Gamma Delta Chi. Teammate and classmate James O'Brien, a former corner whose soft hands are now being employed at wide receiver, was elected GDX president while former teammate Alex Stonehouse is the new vice president.

Chris Hardy, by the way, won't be the only college athlete in his family next year. A College of Charleston web posting reports the school has signed his younger sister Cathryn Hardy, a 5-foot-11 forward who scored 1,303 points and grabbed 810 rebounds as a high schooler. Charleston head coach Nancy Wilson says, "She is a player that goes hard all of the time – She knows no other way." Sounds like it runs in the family.

There are school newspaper stories today about a couple of Ivy League spring games and both point out that making judgments based on what you see on the field can be a little tricky when the contests aren't full contact. The Columbia Spectator writes that quarterback Millie Olawale couldn't really show his strength and elusiveness because the defense was forced to play two-hand touch with him.

A little to the south, the Daily Princetonian wrote that star tailback Jordan "Culbreath received the LaDainian Tomlinson treatment and was not used at all. Because defensive players were not allowed to tackle the quarterback in the backfield, many plays ended prematurely when a defensive lineman grazed the opposing quarterback."

At Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph wasn't tackled or even touch in the spring game because he didn't play in it. While he wasn't on the field he wasn't exactly forgotten, being selected a Holy Cross captain for the third year in a row. From a school release:

Fifth-year senior quarterback Dominic Randolph (Amelia, Ohio) will serve as the captain of the 2009 Holy Cross football team, it was announced by head coach Tom Gilmore. Randolph, who was one of three captains during the 2007 campaign and one of two captains in 2008, becomes the first player in school history to serve as a team captain for three seasons.