Strong Work

(Photo courtesy of Dartmouth)

Poking around the Dartmouth football website, I stumbled across the bio page for Dartmouth's football strength staff: Dave Jenkerson (center), Darren Mustin (left) and Brandon O'Neill. Read all about them here.

And while we are at it, there's a Dartmouth page with training/teaching videos for well over 100 different lifts. Honest now, how many of us knew there were lifts with names like Goodmornings, Band Poor Man Glute/Ham and Arnold Press? Fibber ;-)

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The Pioneer Football League, which now bills itself, "the nation’s only non-scholarship, football-only NCAA Football Championship Subdivision conference," is adding Mercer and Stetson to the fold for 2013. Mercer (Macon, Ga.) last fielded a team in 1941 and Stetson (DeLand, Fla.) in 1956.

With the Northeast Conference adding scholarships and the Patriot League discussing scholarships, it's to the Ivy League's advantage to at least keep an eye on what is happening elsewhere in the non-scholarship world. Might come in handy come scheduling time.

Now a quick quiz. I've given you a head start with two of the members who are coming in. Can you name the rest of the Pioneer Football League lineup? No peeking until you give it a good shot. Give up?
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Butler Bulldogs
Campbell Camels
Davidson Wildcats
Dayton Flyers
Drake Bulldogs
Jacksonville Dolphins
Marist Red Foxes
Morehead State Eagles
San Diego Toreros
Valparaiso Crusaders

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Although this well-done video was created for a Penn State campaign, Success With Honor is a saying that has long been associated with the school. As Ivy League schools go more and more to multimedia on their web pages, they might want to consider producing something like this to serve as a standing introduction to their programs.

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Here's a wild one. The Houston Chronicle writes about boxer Juan "Baby Bull" Diaz, who fought 20 years and "would win 13 national amateur championships and unify three of the four major world lightweight titles as a pro."

So far, so good.

Here's where the story takes a strange detour:

Recently married and accepted to Dartmouth Law School, the 27-year-old Diaz announced his retirement on Monday.

"The 20 years of boxing started taking its toll on my body," Diaz said. "The hunger's there, but the wear and tear on my body told me it's time to move on to bigger and better things. Law school's right around the corner, and I think that's my future. I want to be one of those good guys, one that retires on time and not because I'm forced out."

Anywhere spot the problem with that?

Hint: If you don't know, click here.

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And finally, our Green Machine baseball season came to a close last night with a 6-5 loss in our divisional semifinal. They battled back from a four-run deficit to get within one run in their last at-bat and had a runner on second when the game ended.

After an undefeated regular season it was a disappointing end for the kids, particularly after least year's championship run, but the loss taught us one important lesson. Pizza is just as effective a salve for a season-ending loss as the traditional ice cream cone. Three cheers for a neat group of kids who had a great season!