Spring Schedule, Interesting Series in Paper

The Dartmouth spring football practice schedule appears to finally be set. Here's how it looks this morning:

• Tuesday, April 13
• Thursday, April 15
• Saturday, April 17
• Tuesday, April 20
• Thursday, April 22
• Saturday, April 24
• Tuesday, April 27
• Thursday, April 29
• Saturday, May 1 (Spring game)
• Tuesday, May 4
• Thursday, May 6
• Saturday, May 8

The front page of today's Columbia Spectator has a "teaser" under the headline, So Many Questions. This is the question asked on the lead page:

This past weekend in Ivy League sports has led to a lot of questions, like is Dartmouth actually good at a sport?

Keep in mind, that is not Princeton taking a shot at the Dartmouth athletic program. (In case you are wondering, the link on the story will take you to a piece about Dartmouth's equestrian team.)

Concidentally, the Valley News has the first of a three-part series on The State of Dartmouth Athletics with a front-page teaser under the headline, Dartmouth AD Search Should Focus on Winning. The story begins with a look at Cornell's basketball success and gets to the point quickly with this:

Why couldn't this be Dartmouth?

That was the question I recently put to Big Green coaches and alums, Ivy athletic officials and former players. Although none would speak for the record, the answer became abundantly clear: Winning simply is not a priority at Dartmouth.

"They are afraid to succeed there, and it shows," one Ivy athletic official told me.

That seems a little unfair to me, but you can check out the story yourself here.

Among those quoted in the story: former Dartmouth director of athletics Ted Leland, who went on to set the bar for athletic directors at Stanford.

Part Two of the series tomorrow is teased this way: "Dartmouth's last search for an athletic director was filled with potholes. Here's what the school can do to avoid a repeat."

Part Three: "A new Dartmouth athletic director would have to break with tradition and start over in order to restore Big Green athletic success."

Two schools that have made it abundantly clear they want to win on the hardwood made moves yesterday. Penn, which fired coach Glen Miller during the season, made what everyone expected official by naming former Quaker great Jerome Allen head coach. The Daily Pennsylvanian has a series of stories on Allen, who had been the interim Penn coach after Miller was canned.

Holy Cross wasted no time deciding it made a mistake last year and fired men's hoop coach Sean Kearney after just one season. From the Worcester Telegram:

“Obviously we were very disappointed with the season and Sean was equally disappointed,” Holy Cross director of athletics Dick Regan said. “It was a matter of sitting down and assessing 9-22, why we were 9-22 and more importantly what was the prospect for next year. Reflecting on it, we just came to the conclusion that if we want to have things turn out much better next year, we really have to think about doing something different.”

Regan also said, "“The other thing, too, is what this really says is basketball is very important to us. I see the ability to win the league championship next year and I felt I had to do whatever it took to get to that point.”

Surprising stuff.

Speaking of basketball coaching changes, the Boston Globe has a poll asking who might be the best fit to replace Al Skinner at Boston College and when I checked this morning Cornell's Steve Donahue was the top pick at 27.3 percent of the 5,623 votes with Harvard's Tommy Amaker next at 20.4 percent. Richmond's Chris Mooney, the former Princeton standout, was receiving 10.3 percent of the vote. The Worcester Telegram polled its readers about the Holy Cross position and Vermont's Mike Lonergan was the top pick at 18.3 percent.

Back to Columbia, for an artist's rendition of the new athletic complex being planned for the Baker Field area, check out this link. The facility will have a "football suite," a "theater style" meeting room, a student-athlete study center, a large strength and conditioning area. Sound familiar fans of Floren Varsity House? For an overview of the project, check out the Columbia Spectator.

A couple of college football coaches with New Hampshire roots have landed at Dartmouth opponents Princeton and Holy Cross. The Nashua Telegraph quotes Eddy Morrissey, the new offensive line coach at Princeton, this way:

"This hands down is the best place I’ve worked; it’s unbelieveable. I can’t put it in words: the community, the people, the resources, the commitment, the kids you coach. I’ve been here for almost two months now, and I’ve never had a kid late to a meeting … It’s dealing with a smart kid but also a committed kid.”

High praise, indeed. Morrissey also coached at Brown, UMass, Northeastern and as a grad assistant at Oregon.

You have to wonder about the future of the Gridiron Classic, which has pitted the champion of the Northeast Conference against the champion of the Pioneer League. As a blog entry in the Asbury Park Press notes, with the NEC champion getting an automatic bid into the FCS playoffs for the first time this year, it will now be the NEC runnerup going to the Gridiron Classic. And the game drew just 1,577 last year with the NEC champion playing. The attendance was 2,264 the previous year.

Off the field, The Daily Dartmouth has a story about changes in the student loan program as a result of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. From the story:

The switch from the Federal Family Education Loan Program to the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program, which is expected to occur in July, will affect approximately 900 Dartmouth students, according to Hazen. The students will have to sign new promissory notes with the Department of Education.

“(The change) will mean nothing other than it will make it easier for [students] because they won’t have to find a lender,” (Virginia Hazen, College director of financial aid) said. “It’s just changing the source of the students’ loans.”

I find that a lot more interesting than I did a year ago at this time ;-)

Speaking of which ... I'm no real estate guru but I always thought the only thing worse than taking six months to sell a house is having the first person who walks through the door scoop it. I'd always worry that we had set the price too low. ...

... Which brings me to colleges. If I were accepted (or at the worst wait-listed) at every single college I applied to, I'd think one of two things: Either I'm a genius or I set my sights too low. Well, as anyone who stops by this electronic neighborhood knows full well, I'm no genius. But I digress.

I bring that up by way of noting that a Certain Hanover High Senior got her first "thanks, but no thanks," from a college yesterday when she heard from her 10th school. (Yeah, that's a lot but as I've learned, times have changed.) Anyway, it was from what is widely regarded as the best liberal arts college in the country (Hint: it also has the best Division III sports program in the country). The result wasn't unexpected and she took it well. Interestingly, and this says something about her, on the posterboard in our kitchen that has all of her college application and financial aid deadlines etc., she wrote "Denied." I think a lot of people would have written "Rejected." Healthy.

The two Ivies on that postboard will have something written alongside them tomorrow and while both might or might not be stretches, I'm not worried either way. There are already wonderful choices and she knows it.