That kicker? Dartmouth's Connor Davis, who will be a junior this fall.
From the story:
The free app is called “KickStat” and was launched at the end of March. It’s an IOS application that can be downloaded to your iPhone and used to track your kicking.
The app allows you to track a player’s field goals, kickoffs and punts by sessions of practice, shows trends and allows kickers to take videos and download them.Davis explained:
“As soon as I got to Dartmouth and got into computer science, I started looking for a project in the IOS platform,” Davis said. “One day, it just hit me that I wanted to do something that mattered to my peers.
“My dad was using a similar app for golf and I thought I could do the same thing for kicking.”From the story:
Davis, who made 43-of-43 extra points and 6-of-9 field goals for Dartmouth last season and was the team’s leading scorer, has been able to get out and kick as much as possible as well.
“I consider myself lucky because I have a field near my house,” he said. “I know a lot of guys who have nowhere to kick.”
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Not to get political on your or anything, but in the absence of centralized decisions the Ivy League schools are starting to set their own policies regarding an extra year of eligibility for spring athletes. It's the wild, wild west out there.From the Harvard Crimson:
Varsity athletes whose spring seasons were canceled due to the coronavirus will not be able to use their extra year of National Collegiate Athletics Association eligibility at Harvard by taking a semester off, according to a Thursday email from Athletics Director Robert L. Scalise.And this:
In an email to all spring sport student-athletes, Scalise wrote that Harvard’s decision reflected the eight Ivy League presidents’ belief that athletes should prioritize their status as students. In explaining the move, he quoted an agreement made by the league’s presidents.
“Ivy League athletes are students first and foremost,” Scalise quoted. “No student-athlete should withdraw from the spring 2020 term for the sole purpose of preserving athletics eligibility.”In part, Yale AD Vicki Chun's statement regarding spring seniors includes this (LINK):
After a thorough review, together with President Salovey we believe it is important to follow our existing rules and regulations, which require a student who takes a personal withdrawal to be apart from the university for two full semesters. We have spoken with colleagues in the Ivy League and everyone is addressing this unique situation in the way that makes the most sense for their institution.And this from Princeton AD Mollie Marcoux (LINK):
“Due to the University’s strong belief that all students should remain in school now more than ever, Princeton has decided that it will not approve the necessary waivers for students who withdraw from the Spring ’20 semester to use their 5th year of eligibility at Princeton.”Green Alert Take: A can of worms has officially been opened in the Ivy League.
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Elsewhere, there is this from the Wisconsin State Journal, regarding the University of Wisconsin taking a stance not unlike that of some of the Ivies:The NCAA overreacted in restoring a year of eligibility to spring sports students amid the coronavirus-related shutdown, University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez said.
And UW won’t be allowing those seniors to pursue another year with their teams in 2021, according to an athletic department statement Thursday that cited “a time of unprecedented uncertainty in college athletics.”And this from Alvarez:
“What we tried to do was encourage our seniors to go ahead and, if you’re going to graduate, graduate and move on with your life. We appreciate everything that you’ve done. But move forward. The future is in question, and we can’t promise you anything.”Green Alert Take: Wisconsin has opened a door and it will not be the last to step through it.
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Former Former Harvard guard Bryce Aiken has become the latest Ivy League basketball product to decide on a grad transfer destination. He'll be heading to Seton Hall.
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The Dartmouth has a story under the headline Dartmouth sports teams tackle remote training and practice. Not much football mention.The D has another story under the headline, Thinking About Sports: A Foolproof Way to Boost Attendance at Dartmouth Sports Games? (LINK)
The answer? Sell beer at the games. The writer finishes the story this way:
(P)erhaps it’s time for Dartmouth to shake off its New England puritanism and embrace what sports is really all about.
As long as it isn’t Keystone Light.Green Alert Take: Not gonna happen of course. And it wouldn't work after the novelty wore off anyway.
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From the oops Dartmouth: Yesterday's listing of the incoming recruits left off Kyle Brown, a 6-foot-4, 265-pound lineman from Marcellus High School and Homer, N.Y. My mistake.
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I also missed the second quick video message Spencer Brown, Dartmouth's strength and conditioning coach, had for Big Green football players late in March. Find it HERE.
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From the Columbia website:Bubble at Columbia’s Baker Athletics Complex Becomes a Field Hospital
Medical treatment will begin early next week at Columbia's Bubble at Baker, which is being converted into a field hospital capable of treating as many as 288 patients that have mild COVID-19 symptoms.Dartmouth's West Gym, once simply known as Alumni Gym, is being set up as a field hospital as well.
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Dartmouth President Phil Hanlon sent out emails yesterday with the expected news that spring graduation won't happen as planned and reunions are another victim of the pandemic. In part he wrote to alums:It is with a heavy heart that I must announce the need to postpone Dartmouth’s Commencement exercises for the Class of 2020 and make alternative arrangements for Reunions this year. I had been holding out hope that the COVID-19 pandemic would pass in time for us to proceed with commencement and reunions as planned in June. But it is now clear that the risk of hosting such large-scale events that bring students, families, alumni, and friends to campus from all over the world at that time is simply too great a risk to take.And . . .
Commencement exercises for the Class of 2020 have been rescheduled to June of 2021, with the precise date to be determined in consultation with the senior class.Regarding reunions, he wrote:
(O)ur Alumni Relations team will be working with each reunion class to develop a rich array of virtual reunion programming for classes to enjoy safely this June in lieu of our traditional in-person gatherings. In addition, we plan to welcome our 2020 reunion classes back to Hanover in June or July of 2021 to partake in all the signature reunion events on campus you’ve come to know and love, including class dinners, hikes up Moosilauke, memorial services, and family activities.
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A loyal reader shared a link to a story under the headline, This ex-NFL player is now a doctor working 24-hour ER shifts—here’s what it’s like on the front lines of COVID-19.From the story:
When Myron Rolle, a former NFL safety with the Tennessee Titans, volunteered to treat COVID-19 patients as a third-year neurosurgery resident at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, he felt as prepared as he could be.
“That comes from my football background, where adjustment and adaptation happen on the fly within a game,” Rolle tells CNBC Make It.And:
The transition from professional athlete to Harvard-educated neurosurgeon to doctor on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic was relatively smooth for Rolle because each role has its similarities, he says.
Rolle, 33, says he always knew he wanted to be a neurosurgeon, even during his college football days at Florida State University. In 2008, during his junior year, he was named a Rhodes Scholar (where he got the opportunity to study at Oxford University on a full scholarship).Green Alert Take: Those who condemn football or don't see the value in athletics might want to read Rolle's quote again.
Green Alert Take: And those who think you can't get a good education at big football schools might rethink that if they ever met people like Rolle and MIT doctoral candidate John Urschel of Penn State and the Baltimore Ravens.
EXTRA POINT
Given the weather in Northern New England, the home season for Dartmouth baseball is so condensed that if you sneeze (please don't) you can miss it. Ever since BGA started if the Big Green was home on this weekend I'd cover Saturday morning spring football practice and then head over to Red Rolfe Field for baseball. Then it would be time to zip home and write up my football story.
Sunday brought about was the agonizing decision of of whether to stick around for the entire Dartmouth baseball doubleheader or punt the second game of what was frequently a critical Ivy League game to catch the final round of the Masters.
Granted, the Big Green would have been at Yale this weekend but oh how I wish I had to face that choice this Sunday.
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Editor's Note: If you look up there near the top of the right column I've tossed up a Donate button. I'd thought about that in recent days, and even put one up for an hour or so the other night before pulling it down. It just made me feel uncomfortable.But after someone whose opinion I respect said this site is worth it – and I should put it back up – I've decided to give it a try. I've had people a lot smarter and more successful than I am tell me I've got things backward. They think BGA Daily should be the paid piece and BGA Premium should be free. Who knows? Maybe they are right but I'd like BGA Daily to reach the widest audience possible and the current format is the best way to do that. This started as a "loss leader" to (hopefully) draw subscribers into the paid site but long ago outlived that purpose.
For the record, this is posting No. 6,684 on this platform and there have been well over 7,500 postings since BGA started. In 15-plus years I think I've missed fewer than two dozen days. A lot of time and effort goes into BGA Daily and with my other writing drying up the time has come to give that button a try and see what happens.
Thanks, and thanks for stopping by.
-– BW –-
