Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Local Connections

The return of the Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl to Dartmouth's Memorial Field this summer is a good thing for a lot of reasons, including the fact that two locals with an interesting connection to a current Dartmouth player have been named to the 35-man New Hampshire all-star team.

Alexander Morrill is a 6-foot-2, 300-pound offensive guard who opened holes for Big Green freshman Cody Patch when they were teammates at nearby Lebanon. Morrill, who has committed to the University of New Hampshire, was profiled in this video. Patch was chosen to the 2011 Shrine team but was held out of the game because of an injury.

Also chosen to the New Hampshire Shrine team is 6-4, 185 receiver Daniel Gorman of Hanover, who learned last year he is Patch's distant cousin. A football-basketball-baseball captain for Hanover, Gorman has been actively recruited by NESCAC schools is also considering several Ivies. His video is here.

Hartford High School, across the river, has no fewer than eight players on the Vermont team. With Vermont regularly being pounded in the game, the Shrine committee allows the Green Mountain State to load up with players from powerhouse teams.

Nate Eachus, the Colgate tailback who Dartmouth somehow managed never to see despite playing all four years he was in Hamilton, N.Y., has drawn the interest of 27 of the 32 NFL teams according to a story in his hometown paper in Pennsylvania. Eachus, who ran for 1,871 yards and 21 touchdowns as a junior, was held to 763 yards and six touchdowns last fall when he was limited to six games because of what the story calls Pubic Symphysis Separation as well as a head injury. He has been rehabbing in Pittsburgh for the last month and a half, but is still on pace to graduate this spring.

With Colgate and the Patriot League joining the ranks of scholarship schools, the Ivies may find themselves playing against more Northeast Conference teams like the University at Albany, which has released plans for a new football stadium, part of an athletic facilities initiative slated to begin this April. (link) The full stadium project could, at some point, end up looking like this video.

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