A New Push

Graduated Dartmouth football defensive back Steve Morris '11 spent part of the spring as a member of Dartmouth's 2011 USA Collegiate Rugby 7s national championship team. Morris, who also ran a little track at Dartmouth, now has his eyes set on another sport. Bobsledding.

According to a Chicago Sun-Times publication Morris will train this summer for tryouts slated for August in Lake Placid and Salt Lake City. From the story:

Morris will push a bobsled along tracks on dry land this summer. He became interested in the sport while watching the Olympic games. He noticed that one of the U.S. bobsledders was a former football player from Nebraska.

Morris is vying for a spot as a pusher, instead of serving as a driver or brakesman.

*

Speaking of alums continuing on in sports, a couple of other grads have made some news recently. Ben True '08, the first Dartmouth runner to break 4 minutes in the mile, recently qualified for the Olympic Trials in the 5000 meters. (story) True, who trains with a new pro track club in nearby Lyme, can often be seen running on the streets of Hanover.

And Kyle Hendricks '12, the Dartmouth right-hander taken by the Texas Rangers in the eighth round of the major league draft earlier this month, has signed and is already on the roster of the Spokane Indians of the Class A Short-Season Northwest League. If you check out the roster, worry not. Hendricks is 6-2, 190, not the 165 pounds the roster says.

*

Back to football, the Yale recruit list first showed up on the Portal 31 blog, but it has now been posted on the Bulldog website.

Portal 31 reports that Duke transfer Tevin Hood, who does not appear on Yale's official list, has been "provisionally accepted," and there are two others who could be added to the list of recruits depending on spring grades and testing.

*

Nothing solid on this but the tom-toms keep suggesting there could be another high-profile transfer or two headed somewhere in the Ivy League before long. And no, not to Dartmouth that I've heard of ;-)

*

The Bangor (Maine) Daily News writes about the challenges facing the football programs at Maine and New Hampshire as the Colonial Athletic Association tilts more and more to the south. From the story:

While each can bus to play the other, there is a possibility of having to make four charter plane trips for league games in a given year. At approximately $75,000 each — not including lodging and meals — an already fiscally challenged UMaine program might not be able to afford such an arrangement.

And this ...

The alternatives include forming a new Northeast-based conference that includes UMaine and UNH — possibly with the likes of America East Conference members Stony Brook and Albany in the mix — or aligning with another league in the region.

Dartmouth, which played New Hampshire every year from 2000 until 2009, will renew its series with its in-state rival in 2014 and play the Wildcats again in 2016. (story) The Big Green last played Maine – where Buddy Teevens was head coach before his first stint in Hanover – in 1998.