Taking a Position (or two)

There are too many mentions on recruiting sites and on newspaper websites today about high school seniors headed to Dartmouth to mention them all, but no new names have surfaced ... so far. Three high school seniors who were regular early decision admittances and expressed intentions of playing did show up in media reports, so they will be included in the unofficial and tentative positional list below.

One name that has surfaced again is that of Chai Reece, the 6-foot, 175-pound defensive back who is prepping this year at Loomis Chaffee after graduating from Loyola High School of Los Angeles and is reportedly still committed to Dartmouth.

With that out of the way, here's an educated guess at how the incoming freshman class shakes out at this point, keeping in mind that heights, weights and positions are largely taken from media reports and are undoubtedly off a bit. So too, the positions. Offensive/defensive line is particularly tricky and so is determining what the plans are for quarterback/athletes. With those caveats, here we go with players in different areas of the field listed in alphabetical order:

OFFENSE

• Jordan Are' , 6-2, 197, QB/ATH (Alief Taylor, Houston)
• Cameron Crage, 6-3, 210, QB (St. Andrews School, Boca Raton, Fla. )
• Ryan McManus, 5-11, 170, QB/ATH (St. Thomas Academy, Minn.)
• Charlie Storey, 6-2, 190, QB (Milton Academy, Essex, Mass.)

• Cody Patch, 5-10, 184, RB (Lebanon, N.H.)
• Pedro Robinson, 5-9, 170, RB (Sacred Heart, Stanford, Calif.)
• Ben Ticknor, 6-2, 205, RB (Milton Academy, Concord, Mass.

• Kirby Schoenthaler , 6-0, 184, WR/QB (Bartlesville, Okla.)
• Bo Patterson, 6-1, 185, WR (James Island, SC)

• Chris Boudreaux, 6-5, 240, TE (Lake Forest Academy, Lake Forest, Ill.)

• AJ Dillione, 6-3, 275 OL/DL (Hun School, West Chester, Pa.)
• Will Guinee, 6-4, 255, OL (Malden Catholic, Topsfield, Mass.)
• Keith Hamren, 6-3, 260 OL (Clements, Sugar Land, Texas)
• Patrick Hand, 6-4, 260 OL (Lawrenceville School, Far Hills, N.J.)
• Ben Spiritos, 6-2, 295, OL (Landon, Olney, Md.)
• Scotty Whitmore, 6-5, 300 OL (Klein Collins, Spring, Texas)

• Riley Lyons, 5-10 175, KsP (Blessed Trinity, Roswell, Ga.)

DEFENSE

• Zack Fowler, 6-2, 235, DL (Southwestern, Pulaski, Ky)
• Sean Ronan, 6-3, 260, DT/OL (Boca Raton, Fla.)
• Jeff Winthrop, 6-4, 285, DL (St. Paul's, Roxbury, Conn.)
• Corbin Stall, 6-3, 217, DE/LB (Union, Tulsa, Okla.)

• Mick Miller, 6-1, 225, LB (Bartlesville, Okla.)
• Peter Savarese, 6-2, 200, LB (Browne & Nichols, Belmont, Mass.)
• Eric Wickham, 6-2, 239 ILB (Savannah Christian, Ga.)

• Andrew Donahue, 6-1, 185 CB (Mullen, Denver, Colo.)
• Bennie Niles, 5-9, 170, CB (Clearwater, Fla.)
• Chai Reece, 6-, 175, CB (Loomis Chaffee, Conn.)
• Marc Sasso, 6-0, 205, S/RB (Palos Verdes, Calif.)
• Steve Dazzo, 6-0, 205, S/QB (Prospect, Ill.)

(Feel free to share size/position clarifications.)

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A couple of interesting tidbits from the many mentions on the web this morning ... Delawareonline reports that:

A.J. Dillione, the first-team All-State center for Salesianum's 2009 state championship football team, signed with I-AA Dartmouth. ...Dillione's two-way play had also earned scholarship offers from Villanova, Towson and Maine.

And the Patriot-Ledger writes that ...

... Milton Academy teammates (and roommates) QB Charlie Storey and RB Ben Ticknor (are) bound for Dartmouth. Storey said that while his dad crewed for Harvard, “He told me that from now on he’s a Dartmouth fan.”

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The Daily Dartmouth has a story about athletes from commuting distance of Hanover choosing to go to Dartmouth. As the beat reporter for the local daily in another life I once wrote a story on the same subject and to a person, the athletes I interviewed said they knew the buildings and knew the campus before they enrolled, but they didn't know the college. They said they seldom saw their parents or went home, and that given the opportunity, they would make the same choice again.

For what it's worth, doing that research and writing that story turned out to be quite handy. And in case you are wondering, apart from vacations, That Certain Hanover High Grad has been home for a half day to visit with her aunt from Texas.

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The Daily D also has a story about Hanover High teachers being the highest paid in the state. With better than 10 percent of the seniors last year enrolling in Ivy League schools and probably an even higher percentage going to NESCAC and Patriot League schools, it would seem you get what you pay for.

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Saw this recently and I think it's worth a mention:

Nike, Inc., is giving $400,000 to Penn State’s libraries in honor of Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno’s milestone 400th win.

Paterno and his wife, Sue, have been staunch supporters of the libraries, and one of the school’s main libraries is named after the family.

The Paternos have contributed more than $4 million to the school during JoePa’s 45-year career, including aid for the libraries.

One correction though. While he's been head coach in Happy Valley for 45 years, Paterno was a longtime Nittany Lion assistant prior to replacing Rip Engle. In fact, his career at Penn State reaches back 61 years.

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And finally, walking out to get the newspaper this morning I recalled a few years ago when the fellow who plows our driveway had to come in with a backhoe to move the piles back and make room for more snow. As wide as he always begins the piles at the start of the snow season, they kept filling in until he had no alternative. I was still thinking about that when I came back in and heard the forecast calling for a potentially big $torm on $aturday and still another that could hit here on Monday or Tue$day.