Two Who Went Elsewhere

We know about the talent Dartmouth has coming to Hanover in the Class of 2014. Today, a couple of potential targets from that class who opted to go elsewhere.

The Big Green had a bit of an "in" with Conor McFadden. The 6-foot-3, 270-pound offensive lineman went to St. Thomas Academy in Minnesota, which sent both two-time captain Timmy McManus and placekicker Foley Schmidt to Hanover. From a story in the Star Tribune:

Conor McFadden's football recruiting page on espn.com sticks out like few others. Down the left side, in the space reserved for schools being considered by potential college players, the logos are colorful and bright. But you would have to be an Ivy League nut to recognize them: Harvard, Dartmouth, Cornell, Princeton and Yale.

Though he was leaning heavily toward another Ivy, he's headed elsewhere. From the story:

McFadden made official visits to Princeton and Cornell, and was set to sign with the Tigers. But when Stanford offered an official visit and a spot as a preferred walk-on after Princeton made a coaching change, the writing was on the wall.

*

In Buddy Teevens' first year back as Dartmouth head coach the biggest thorn in his side in a 28-16 loss at Holy Cross was Steve Silva. All the Crusader standout did was run for 132 yards and a touchdown, catch eight passes, return a punt 58 yards to set up his own option TD pass and return a punt for 87 yards and another touchdown. Younger brother Jamie Silva later played at Boston College and has been on the Baltimore (ouch) Indianapolis Colts for two years.

Any wonder why Dartmouth (along with Holy Cross, Brown and others) kept an eye on Ryan Silva, who visited Holy Cross, Brown and ... Dartmouth among others?

The Pawtucket Times writes about the youngest Silva ending up at Amherst, where he is projected to play running back.

*

The Daily Dartmouth has a story about the Pyramid Hotel Group taking over day-to-day management of the Hanover Inn. For a list of other hotels around the country that are run by Pyramid, click here.

*

And finally, we enjoyed Hanover's annual Old-Fashioned Fourth of July even with That Certain Hanover High graduate away as a camp counselor and her brother off to golf camp at Penn State. I pulled on my Green Machine baseball T-shirt, marched with our team in the parade and then enjoyed the sack races, water balloon and egg tosses, petting zoo and performances on the Dartmouth Green. Mrs. BGA pointed at a few pocketbooks left unattended next to a tree during the water balloon toss and with a laugh said that's something you would never see in a city. Probably right. At night we headed up to Lake Morey Country Club which generously lets everyone set up picnics on several of its plush fairways to watch fireworks sent up over the lake.