Recruiting News

The names of two line recruits reported to be coming to Dartmouth have surfaced.

Brett Kana, a 6-foot-4, 276-pound offensive/defensive tackle from Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua, N.H., has told WMUR TV in Manchester he is headed Hanover way. His MaxPreps profile has little information but several photos. Kana was a member of the New Hampshire Division II all-state first team. (link) Kana also throws the shot and discus.

The New Britain Herald reports that, "two-way lineman Martin Pomykala made a verbal commitment to Dartmouth. " His junior highlight film can be viewed on YouTube here. Scout.com lists him at 6-3, 240 with a 4.7 time in the 40. (Scout.com is usually, but not always, in the right neighborhood for height and weight. There are times when the 40 time isn't in the right continent, so your mileage may vary.) There's more information on Pomykala here. It says he heard from Boston College and Connecticut, visited Rutgers and went to "junior day," at LSU.

Dartmouth had no fewer than three talented players on the roster this fall from Belen Jesuit Prep in Miami (All-Ivy safety Peter Pidermann, linebacker Diego Fernandez-Soto and safety Anthony Diblasi) and it wouldn't be a huge surprise if the school sends another student-athlete or two this way in the next few years. The Miami Herald has a story about the rising fortunes of the Belen program, which each year seems to send several players to the Ivies. The story says:

A Belen home game is like an Ivy League setting with small tailgate gatherings at a stadium with no lights and very few frills. Beyond the football is a stringent academic institution that will not bend, and that's why success on the field has come slower than in most places.

Next fall news on the University New Hampshire football might not be germane because Dartmouth will have officially ended its series with UNH. In the meantime, a Concord Monitor story about the Wildcats in anticipation of today's playoff game at McNeese State is a reminder of the quality of opponent Dartmouth was facing each September:

...(T)he Wildcats have finished the season in the top 10 four of the last five years, they are a combined 56-19 from 2004-2009 and they have made the playoffs for six straight years, the longest streak in school and conference history and the third longest active streak in the country.

A conservative website called Land of the Free has a column on the fight over the Fighting Sioux nickname. The column includes this:

After more than 35 years, the Big Green nickname remains wildly unpopular and the college’s student body has instead given unofficial approval to an animated beer keg as the school mascot. Now here is a healthy alternative to a school’s politically incorrect use of a Native American mascot — glorification of alcohol.

And finally, if you tune in to the TV show Extreme Home Makeover Sunday night you'll see a house being built for a family in neighboring Lyme, N.H. You never know until you watch a show what footage was included and what hit the cutting room floor, but the Dartmouth men's ice hockey team was involved in the project, film was shot in Hanover and at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.