Sunday, July 26, 2015

2020 Vision

With recruiting news hard to uncover this summer we have Twitter to thank for a recruit mention that stopped me in my tracks. Why?

Read on.

Randy Bentley, a 6-foot-4, 265-pound center from Ouachita Christian Varsity Football, Monroe, La., Tweeted that he has verbally committed to Dartmouth.

Nothing unusual about that.

What caught me off guard was where it said, "Verbal commit to Dartmouth College Class of 2020."

That's the first time I've seen that. I mean, 2020? Wow!

Bentley apparently can play on either side of the ball. He was 2-1A Football All District second team defensive lineman.

Find some short video clips of him in action HERE.
The Northeast Conference preseason head coaches poll is out and one of Dartmouth's NEC opponents  is picked to finish near the top of the conference, and one is picked to finish near the bottom.

Sacred Heart, which will help open the new Memorial Field home grandstand on the night of Sept. 26, was chosen to finish third in the league with two first-place votes.

Central Connecticut, which filled the spot on the schedule usually taken by old friend Holy Cross, was picked sixth in the seven-team conference. Dartmouth will face the Blue Devils on Oct. 17.

Here's the poll:

1. Bryant (4 first-place votes)
2. Duquesne (1)
3. Sacred Heart (2) 
4. Wagner
5. Saint Francis
6. Central Connecticut State 
7. Robert Morris

Green Alert Take: The Ivy League poll will be released on Aug. 11. Sure wish that in addition to polling the media the conference would have the coaches vote (anonymously of course) and release a combined poll. That way we might get something other than a reprise of the previous year's standings ;-)
Hurrying back inside to get my media responsibilities done for the Tommy Keane Invitational golf tournament last night, I left my camera and iPod in the BGA mobile office.

Smooth move, Columbo. (That's a 1970s TV reference, kids . . .)

It turned out to be a bad move because we had a lengthy, early morning visit from a black bear that would have made some hilarious video.

The bear ripped our composting barrel off its stand and was rolling it around trying to figure out how to get into it. At one point he/she seemed on the verge of climbing on top of it.

After maybe 10 minutes he headed toward our deck and was clearly curious about a lawn ornament I received as an early birthday gift. It's a spinner that stands about 5-feet tall with pinwheels that resemble colored flowers on top that spin in the wind.

The bear approached it, stood, backed off and then went toward it again. Watching from a second-floor window I was ready to shout at the bear if it started to destroy the spinner, but he lost interest and headed for our deck. Not finding a bird feeder he bypassed the deck, headed across the driveway and disappeared into the woods.

I'll have my camera at the ready tomorrow.