Lauren's First And Goal

A Lafayette College news release the other day caught my eye. It began this way:

A record 1,733 high school students participated in the sixth annual Lauren's First and Goal Football Camp on Sunday, June 7 at Lafayette's Metzgar Fields Athletic Complex. The one-day clinic featured 275 college coaches who volunteered their time to teach aspiring football players the in-and-outs of the game.

The donations from campers alone tallied $62,000 and the day's total of $185,000 is steadily on the rise with the help from outside contributions, including a $100,000 pledge from the Special Needs Trust in Clearwater, Fla.

Lauren, the daughter of Lafayette defensive coordinator John Loose, addressed the crowd of players, coaches, parents and volunteers who turned out to support her battle with an inoperable brain tumor and expressed her appreciation for their continuous support. Connecticut head coach Randy Edsall was the keynote speaker.

That sent me to the touching video above, and eventually landed me at a list of college coaches who had volunteered to work one of the two one-day camps (a satellite venue was added at the University of South Florida last year). Old friends Roger Hughes and Adam Hollis of Princeton were part of a strong Ivy League contingent who stepped up.

Among those who helped out in Florida: Dartmouth kicker/punter Matt Kelly (once recruited by Loose). Kelly, a junior and the leading candidate to take over as the Big Green punter in the fall, worked with a group of 15 or so young punters at the South Florida camp.

For more information on Lauren's First and Goal, click here.

College Hoops.net isn't the first place you would look for a story about a former Ivy League football player who went on to the NFL, but there you go. Click here for a Q&A with George Starke, Columbia '71, a former basketball player and football player who went on to start for nine years on the Washington Redskins' offensive line. Some interesting stuff about Columbia and the Ivy League of his day in the piece.

The Providence Journal sports section has an interview with University of Rhode Island president Robert L. Carothers, who is retiring after 18 years and very little success on the gridiron. In the 16 years since he fired longtime coach Bob Griffin, the Rams have had three other coaches and just two winning records. Carothers told the ProJo:

“I think in retrospect maybe the decision with Bob was not fully informed. I was used to teams winning. It just seemed to me that he had gone past his peak and that we needed new energy in the program. Now, after I saw the performance of the other folks that we brought in here, maybe he was doing about as good as he could do, or anybody could do. I feel kind of bad about that in retrospect."

Reading that story sent me scurrying to see double-check exactly when outgoing Dartmouth President Jim Wright took office. It was Aug. 1, 1998. Ironically for a man who was a friend of the football program and anything but a stranger at practice, Jim Wright never once presided over a winning season as Dartmouth president. Over his 11 years the Big Green was 23-86 with a 5-5 record in 2003 the high point.

And finally, word this morning that the certain Hanover High School junior catcher was named to the all-state second team in softball after batting .468 and throwing out runners by the handful this spring. ... Now if only final exams would wrap up. I'm telling you, two kids driven to get good grades in a highly competitive school system adds up to a lot of tension and I can't wait for them to be able to relax.