Headline in the Houston Chronicle (
LINK):
Texans turnaround is the next mountain to climb for globetrotting defensive coordinator Matt Burke. Burke '98, of course, is the Texans' new defensive coordinator and a former Dartmouth safety famous for climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Unfortunately, the story is behind a paywall but it includes. . .
Burke, a Dartmouth graduate, once considered attending medical school. It’s not hard to imagine him diving into the myriad mysteries of the human body. But Burke is not a quiet man, those close to him say. Few things other than football can satisfy the adrenaline requirement of a bearded, bold and boisterous New Englander who spent the offseasons before the birth of his two children vaulting off the highest bungee jump in New Zealand, touring Turkey, submerging in Iceland saunas, and going on safari in Botswana.
The writer did some digging and included anecdotes from one of Burke's Big Green teammates, including this one regarding the Texans' new assistant's exploits mountain climbing in the Cascades:
“I think he’s a naturally really curious person, one of the most curious people I know,” says Brad Jefferson, one of Burke’s close friends who made that Shasta climb in May 2019. “He’s the kind of person who looks at a map and thinks, ‘What would it feel like to be there?’
And this . . .
Burke’s start in coaching is one of the few conventional things about his career. He’d been a heady but not overtly talented backup safety, an emotional nucleus of the only 10-0 team in Dartmouth football history. When Rick Marcella, Bridgton (Maine) Academy’s longtime head coach, called his colleague, Dartmouth’s defensive line coach, in search of a new assistant, Burke’s was the immediate name Marcella says he received.
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With the addition of kicker Matisse Weaver, Dartmouth's recruiting class would seem to look like this ("seem to" because it won't be officially announced until spring). Fingers crossed that I didn't forget anyone this time, which I did the last time I posted. (Thanks for the help.) And a reminder that positions are best guesses, heights and weights are largely self-reported and towns listed may be for the school or the player, or both. Corrections should be sent to the link over to the right.
QUARTERBACK
• Woods Ray, 6-2, 200, Homewood HS/Homewood, Ala.
• Grayson Saunier, 6-3, 200, Lafayette HS/Lafayette, La.
RUNNING BACK
• Colin O’Garro, 6-1, 205, Iona Prep/New Rochelle, N.Y.
• Chris Roper, 5-11, 190, Adairsville/Cartersville, Ga.
WIDE RECEIVER
• Nick Lemon, 6-0, 180, Cardinal Gibbons/Raleigh, N.C.
• Jonathan Nelson, 5-10, 175, Bridgeland HS/Cypress, Texas
• Ian Scott, 5-11, 165 Brentwood Academy/Nashville, Tenn.
TIGHT END
• Taysire Williams, 6-6, 230, Jimtown HS, Elkhart, Ind.
OFFENSIVE LINE
• Godson Ajoku, 6-6, 317-pound, Canterbury School/Milford, Conn.
• Francisco Caballero, 6-3, 285, Gulliver Prep/Miami, Fla.
• Cameron Davenport, 6-5, 330, Ben Davis HS/Indianapolis
• Max Livingston, 6-5, 277, Grapevine HS/Colleyville, Texas
• Will Prince, 6-5, 260, Avon Old Farms/West Hartford, Conn.
DEFENSIVE LINE
• Hilton Hebert IV, 6-3, 230 Morgan City HS/Morgan City, La.
• Joshua Johnson, 6-3, 230, Statesboro HS/Statesboro, Ga.
• Keoni Perkins, 6-3, 230, South Grand Prairie HS/Gran Prairie, Texas
• Bruce Williams, 6-2, 235, Huron/Ann Arbor, Mich.
LINEBACKER
• Cameron Lee, 6-4, 195, Bishop O’Connell HS/Arlington, Va.
• Max Schlager, 6-1, 195, Trinity HS/Camp Hill, Pa.
• Steve Simpkins, 6-2, 220, Summerville HS/Summerville, S.C.
DEFENSIVE BACK
• Cameron Alston, 6-3, 195, Conway HS/Conway, S.C.
• Jorden Barnes, 6-0, 185, Brentwood Academy, Nashville, Tenn.
• Samuel Washington, 6-2, 190, Martin Luther King HS/Detroit
• Harrison Keith, 6-1, 195, Choate/Fairfield, Conn.
KICKER
• Owen Zalc, 5-10, 155, Green Hope HS/Cary, N.C.
• Matisse Weaver, 5-10, 190, Lander Valley HS/Lander, Wyoming.
LONG SNAPPER
• Andrew Belles, 6-3, 200, Houston HS/Germantown, Tenn.
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EXTRA POINT
I believe wholeheartedly in equal opportunity so please don't take this the wrong way.
Over the past couple of days I had to make several phone calls looking for help filling out financial-type forms that had me baffled. The good news is the wait to speak to a human was surprisingly quick.
The disappointing news is that while I'm relatively sure the first person I spoke with yesterday understood my problem, I simply could not understand what he was telling me because he had a very strong accent. I was embarrassed and it was awkward (for me and for him) that I couldn't make out his words. For support, Mrs. BGA was on an extension (that's right, we have a landline) and she couldn't make out what he was saying, either.
Fortunately, he could understand me, and when he finally realized he didn't have the answer to my questions he said he would transfer my call. That much I understood.
While listening to Muzak, Mrs. BGA and I expressed relief to each other that we would finally speak with someone we could understand.
After the Muazk stopped someone picked up and asked my name. "Oh, it's you," the voice on the other end of the line said, and we understood perfectly. Our original helper had answered his own call. With that, he transferred me again.
More relief and more Muzak.
This time the phone was answered by a woman . . . and we realized immediately she had the same accent. Fortunately, her accent wasn't nearly as strong and I (we) understood virtually every word she said – if not every explanation she offered. You know how those impenetrable financial documents/contracts can be. ;-)
The bottom line is, she was able to answer our questions to the point that we could finish filling out the form and pop it in the mail. We'll find out in a few weeks if we dotted our i's and crossed our t's properly.
I just hope if we made a mistake and have to call back again we get our second helper the first time.
