Friday, August 17, 2012

Sheehy Wiz

With Athletic Director Harry Sheehy wrapping up his second year in the Alumni Gym corner office, The Dartmouth catches up with him. A couple of excerpts:
Sheehy said that the values of Ivy League athletics — which use “games as vehicles to teach” — renders his job radically different from that of his counterparts who oversee the most nationally prominent athletic programs.
And . . .

Sheehy’s message to his coaches is not merely about producing results, but about enhancing the overall Dartmouth experience for student-athletes, he said.
“Dartmouth is not going to be a great institution because of its athletic program, but we will be a great athletic program because we have a world-class institution,” Sheehy said.
The D also has a story about the expansion of the college's sports medicine staff. From the story:
Charlie Carr will become the director of sports medicine, to whom all trainers report. Kris Karlson will join the staff as a sports medicine physician and will be dealing with muscle and ligament injuries that require rehabilitation. Peter Tryon will be the athletic trainer for men’s soccer, men’s skiing and baseball. Uriko Fujioka will work with men’s and women’s cross-country and women’s basketball.
The story addresses the hopes for a new training facility near Scully-Fahey Field.
Speaking of training and fitness, the Wall Street Journal has a story about how the changing strategy in the sport is having an interesting effect that may lead to the end of the ever-fattening football player. From the story:
As teams de-emphasize the running game, they've been cutting blocking tight ends, and have virtually eliminated the bruising fullback. As these offensive players are replaced by smaller, speedier models, teams that have trotted out a defense full of bulky, even somewhat portly, players are watching helplessly as these speedy new offenses run past them, as if they were little more than blobs of peanut butter.

So this is what it has come to. There are now so many preseason All-America teams that I can't remember which I've linked to and which I haven't. Even a Google search within this blog left me confused. Rather than miss one, here are the Ivy League players recognized by the College Sports Journal:

Second Team
Cornell quarterback Jeff Mathews
Brown kick returner AJ Cruz
Harvard tight end Kyle Juszczyk

Third Team
Cornell receiver Shane Savage
Princeton defensive tackle Caraun Reid
Harvard kick returner Seitu Smith
It's now official. The FCS playoffs are expanding by four teams. Among those added to the field is the champion of the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League, which will be an automatic qualifier. Butler, which Dartmouth will play in this year's season-opener, is a member of the PFL.
Today on BGA Premium: The Penn preview. Already posted are detailed looks at Brown, Columbia, Cornell and Harvard. The series finishes with daily previews next week of Princeton, Yale, Butler, Holy Cross and Sacred Heart. Coverage of practices will start on Wednesday.

By the way, if you signed up to receive email alerts each time a story is posted on BGA Premium and aren't yet receiving those alerts, either you didn't click on the link to send your addresses or, gulp, I messed up. Once more with feeling, to have your addresses added to the list I need them emailed to me either using the link here or by sending me an email with the subject line Email Alerts.
And finally, if you sign up for BGA Premium over the weekend I may be a little slower than usual in activating your account. We leave early tomorrow morning to deliver That Certain College Freshman to Happy Valley for his Orion Wilderness freshman trip. It's an eight-hour drive out tomorrow and eight more back on Sunday and because I don't have a "smart phone" I can't get you going until I can sit down at the computer.