Thursday, June 10, 2010

Down on the Bayou ...

Dartmouth recruit Sanders Davis, a 6-foot-4, 285-pound offensive lineman from Catholic High School in Baton Route, will be playing Saturday night in the Nike Bayou Bowl in Baytown, Texas. Find a story about Davis in The Advocate. From the story:
“Sanders is a guy who is very self-disciplined,” Catholic coach Dale Weiner said. “You give him a task and he’ll complete it.

“He dedicated himself to becoming a better pass blocker and he got in great shape physically. What he’s accomplished is no accident.”
Davis will be joined in the game by Columbia recruit Duncan Dickerson. Find a story about the Ivy League-bound pair in The Baytown Sun.

The Bayou Bowl features graduating seniors from the Houston area against those from Louisiana.

For a picture of Davis "signing" with Dartmouth click here and the first BGA mention of him signing can be found here.
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The NCAA has released its Academic Progress Report information under the headline, "Latest APR data reveal academic success; Rates rise three points from last year; basketball and football also improve"

The NCAA summarizes the APR this way:
Each Division I team calculates its APR annually based on the eligibility and retention of scholarship student-athletes. Teams scoring below 925 out of 1,000 can face penalties, such as scholarship losses and restrictions on practice and competition. Rates are based on the past four years of performance.
A PDF with Dartmouth's sport-by-sport performance can be found here.

Here's how the Ivy League football teams did (with 1,000 being a perfect score and 925 required to avoid sanctions):
  • 996 Penn
  • 991 Dartmouth
  • 990 Yale
  • 989 Brown
  • 984 Columbia
  • 984 Princeton
  • 983 Cornell
  • 981 Harvard
The Patriot League football programs shaped up this way:
  • 981 Colgate
  • 980 Bucknell
  • 978 Holy Cross
  • 974 Lafayette
  • 968 Georgetown
  • 968 Lehigh
  • 960 Fordham
New Dartmouth opponent Sacred Heart did not make the 925 cut. From a Stamford Advocate story:
Sacred Heart's football team scored a 918, resulting in the loss of a partial scholarship. University spokesman Bill Peterson said the sanction only would apply if the Fairfield school used all of its available football scholarships, which it does not. He said the program has been working to improve its APR.
The University of New Hampshire came in at 977.
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While Dartmouth southpaw Robert Young was drafted yesterday by the Chicago White Sox in the 31st round (link), Yale lefty Brook Hart was not drafted. That's notable in the football realm because, as the Portal 31 blog points out, it assures he will return to New Haven next fall to battle with Patrick Witt for the starting quarterback job.

(Robert Young, by the way, follows in the footsteps of his brother Russell, who was drafted out of Dartmouth in the 28th round by the Cleveland Indian in 2008.)

While we are on the subject of baseball, Dartmouth freshman catcher Chris O'Dowd has been named a 2010 Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America and head coach Bob Whalen has earned the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association's Jack Butterfield Award, "bestowed upon a coach who exhibits the integrity and dedication to the game that Coach Butterfield displayed during his long career at the University of Maine."
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Back to football.

As you may recall, Eastern Washington University is putting in red turf for the fall. The school has a press release about the "Turfbreaking" set for Saturday. While checking that out, I came across a promotional piece EWU did for its red turf fundraising project. It is a short take-off on a movie trailer that can be found here. My initial reaction was that it was over the top. But after a few seconds I realized it was supposed to be over the top and I came to appreciate it. It's only about one minute long so do take a look. It's actually a well-done parody.
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Joe Asch over at DartBlog offers his take on the search for a permanent Dartmouth director of athletics.
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And finally, That Certain Hanover High Senior has been nominated to speak at graduation next Friday night. I don't know if she will be chosen, but simply to be put forward is a nice honor, particularly at a school like Hanover which is sending (if my math is right) 15 kids from a class of about 160 on to Ivy League schools next fall. She was already chosen as one of the marshals.

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