Media Guide-Less

With the end of printed media guides – yes, including football – it's hard to stress how important the web will be in helping colleges get the word out about their programs. And to record their history.

Dartmouth stopped printing most guides during the 2009-10 school year, but at least offered PDF downloads of the traditional media guide (such as this one for baseball). Starting in the coming fall even those PDF media guides will be eliminated in favor of posting most of the information they contained on the regular website.

Dartmouth is taking the first baby steps to the "media guide-less" future by reworking the football site's All-Time Results page. To see how it looks for 2000-10, click here. Look for more and more changes on the site as the summer progresses.

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For an interesting commentary on the move away from media guides and into the digital future, check out this piece on the CoSIDA (College sports Information Directors of America) website.

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Dartmouth recruit AJ Dettorre had a 60-yard kick return in the Ventura County East-West All-Star Football Game earlier this month. Tomorrow night Dartmouth-bound receiver Austin Katigan will be playing in the Texas Private Schools Coaches Association All-Star Game.

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The Sports Network has a story about how Ivy League coaches and athletes supported their colleagues at Penn in the aftermath of the death of Penn football captain-elect Owen Thomas. Dartmouth gets a mention.

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This hasn't happened much in football, but it could. The Dartmouth men's ice hockey team has lost a premier recruit to Wisconsin late. From the Western College Hockey Blog (thanks for the link):

Ivy League schools don't sign National Letters of Intent, and there's no "gentleman's agreement" in place between WCHA coaches and ECAC coaches about not recruiting committed players.

As a result, Wisconsin has gotten Sioux Falls forward Matt Lindblad to back out of his commitment to Dartmouth and sign with the Badgers for next season.

(Editor's note: A top Dartmouth women's basketball recruit one year accepted a late offer from an SEC team during the summer before her freshman year when, if I recall correctly, the SEC school had a slot open up because another recruit, um, became pregnant. The Dartmouth recruit did, in fact, report to the SEC school but upon realizing her mistake made a U-turn and ended up playing for the Big Green for four years. Quite a story.)

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As long as we're on other sports ... It's not hard to make a case that former soccer coach Bobby Clark – now at Notre Dame – was among the best and most popular coaches Dartmouth has had in the past 50 years. His son Jamie, who starred at Hanover High when his dad coached the Big Green (and then played for Bobby at Stanford) was named the head coach at Harvard a couple of years ago. Now, after just two seasons with the Crimson, he's leaving to become the head coach at Creighton.

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And speaking of people moving on abruptly, former Dartmouth Dean of the College Tom Crady has landed a new role as vice president for enrollment management at Gustavus Adolphus College. There's a story in the Daily Dartmouth and a piece out of Gustavus.

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Some sad Dartmouth news, away from the world of sports. Jonathan Wolken '71 wasn't an athlete or a coach but Pilobus, the dance company he founded, certainly was athletic and tremendously fun to watch. From the New York Times:

Jonathan Wolken, a nondancer who four decades ago helped found a dance troupe, named it after a fungus and watched gleefully as that troupe — Pilobolus Dance Theater — became one of the most popular modern-dance companies in the world, died on Sunday ...

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And finally, tonight is graduation for That Certain Hanover High Senior and if you'll indulge me, I'll toss out one last bouquet. Yesterday was Class Day Awards at Hanover and TCHHS was well-rewarded for all her hard work these past four years. First, she received the Tom Hanlon Council Award given, "to a person who by personal commitment and activity has increased the sharing spirit of our school, enhanced the processes of governance and decision-making, and promoted the involvement and interaction of everyone in our school community." The award was a beautiful engraved silver bowl.

She won the indoor track and softball athlete of the year awards and then was presented a very nice plaque as the co-Hanover High School Athlete of the Year.

At program's end she was awarded two local scholarships including one that will ring a bell with many who have lived or studied in Hanover: the Harry Tanzi Memorial Scholarship given to recipients who have, "demonstrated outstanding cizitenship qualities within the school and the greater Hanover/Norwich community. These qualities were the very essence of Harry Tanzi, former honorary mayor of Hanover and a member of the Class of 1917."