All-State Honors for Florida Tailback

Incoming running back Dominick Pierre has been named to the Florida Class 1A all-state first team according to the Miami Herald. Pierre ran 129 times for 1,048 yards and 14 touchdowns last fall. (link) According to the Sun Sentinel, he chose Dartmouth after considering Penn.


This morning's e-mail brought a link (thanks) with a junior-year highlight video of a quarterback-receiver-defensive back-punter from St. Thomas Academy (Minnesota) named Ryan McManus, who just so happens to be the brother of Dartmouth co-captain Timmy McManus. Any question about whether or not the younger McManus is Timmy's brother would disappear after watching the very first play. On top of everything else, the video shows Ryan can throw a pretty mean block. It also shows why it will be so much fun to watch his big brother back at quarterback come spring practice.

For a story from last fall on the McManus football tradition, click here.

Remember that BGA blog note the other day about how Dartmouth has players from the high schools that produced both starting Super Bowl quarterbacks? NFL fanhouse has a story about conflicted feelings at Isidore Newman school in New Orleans, which produced Peyton Manning (not to mention Dartmouth linebacker Bruno Vetter). The story begins this way:

NEW ORLEANS -- If there were one place in New Orleans where I would expect a blue and white Colts sanctuary on this weekend, a place where those on the outside of Who Dat Nation could find a safe haven, I would have thought Isidore Newman School would be the place.

But even the school that saw Peyton Manning grow from a little kid to a top SEC recruit can't help but get caught up rooting for the Saints in Sunday's Super Bowl.

Again, thanks for the link.

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Dartmouth will lay off 38 employees – beginning today – in the first of what is expected to be two rounds of cuts. The Daily Dartmouth reports.

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One of the fun things about living on a dirt road on the side of a mountain 7.5 miles from campus is the wildlife we occasionally see. We've had bears rifling through our trash (the garage doors are closed every night now), moose strolling across the front yard and foxes searching for food in clear sight of the house. I spotted a fisher cat outside my office window a couple of years ago, a huge flock of turkeys stops by frequently and every once in a while you can hear a coyote chorus in the night as a pack passes by. I'm still hopeful I'll see a bobcat, but no luck so far. Yesterday as I headed out to get the mail I spotted a mink by the side of the road. The two of us spent about 20 seconds studying each other before he (or she) ducked into a hole in the snow and disappeared from sight. Pretty cool.