Ya Gotta Have Heart

New opponent Sacred Heart has opened spring practice. For a look at the Pioneers, click here. (Dartmouth will play host to Sacred Heart in Week 2.)

Something that jumped out of the story:

The Pioneers will once again be led on offense by quarterback Dale Fink (Swansea, IL) who opens his fourth season under center. The four-year starter has re-written the Sacred Heart record book over his career, holding 11 Pioneer passing records. Fink threw for 2,064 yards last season, completing over 60% of his passes for the third-straight season (.611).

That ought to get the attention of a few defensive backs.

On the flip side, Sacred Heart rushed for a league-low 113.9 yards per game last year, although the spring football release does tout an "experienced offensive line."

The defense has nine starters back, although that's from a team that allowed 40 or more points in four of 10 games. The starting placekicker also returns.

Sacred Heart's 2009 Results

• Marist, L 31-12
• at Holy Cross, L 52-21
• at Albany, L 22-9
• at Central Connecticut, L 24-12
• St. Francis, W 29-7
• Monmouth, L 42-20
• at Wagner, L 49-28
• at Robert Morris, L 9-7
• Bryant, W 24-14
• Duquesne, L 45-42

Things won't be the same when the Dartmouth football team kicks off the Ivy League season at Franklin Field next fall. The Penn website writes:

The Penn football program, athletic department, and community in general lost an iconic figure on Thursday morning when it was learned the Dan "Lake" Staffieri had passed away. "Coach Lake", 85, had been battling cancer of the bladder, which (in his words) had forced him to "redshirt" this past football season.

The Daily Pennsylvanian has a couple of stories including a heartwarming one that begins this way:

When longtime football assistant Dan “Coach Lake” Staffieri — known for the blue helmet he rode around campus, his red plaid attire and the cheers he led at Franklin Field — became ill last year, the Quakers dedicated their season to him.

“It would mean the world,” senior receiver Kyle Derham said at the time, “to be able to go to his house and bring him another ring.”

The team came through on that goal, and on Wednesday, head coach Al Bagnoli delivered the 2009 championship jewelry.

But on Thursday morning, Staffieri lost his battle with bladder cancer.

If you never saw or met Coach Lake, you don't know what you missed, but a DP story that begins this way will give you an idea:

Think back to the first time you encountered Dan “Coach Lake” Staffieri walking — maybe driving — around campus, interrupting your lunch with a cheer or prowling the sidelines at a football game.

I can almost guarantee your initial reaction: utter bewilderment.

That amazement is more than justifiable. After all, it’s not every day you encounter an elderly, plaid-wearing Penn football fanatic cruising around campus in an oversized football helmet and leading cheers through a megaphone.

Some time ago this blog had a post that included a link to a 34th Street Magazine story about the man headlined, The Great Lake.

Instead of a number, or a black band, it would be fitting if the Penn football uniforms had a 2-inch, by 2-inch patch of plaid next year in Coach Lake's honor. Just a thought, but it makes me smile.

Dartmouth alums and longtime followers of the college will be interested to know that it is official. The Fighting Sioux nickname at North Dakota will be no more. From a story that first appeared in the Grand Forks Herald:

The Fighting Sioux nickname and logo, cherished symbols of UND athletic teams for nearly 80 years, must be consigned to history, the State Board of Higher Education ruled here Thursday.

The board directed Chancellor Bill Goetz to immediately advise UND President Robert Kelley by letter that the university should begin its transition away from the logo and nickname.

For a timeline of the Fighting Sioux issue, click here.

It's not a nickname but a mascot that was in the news this week at William & Mary, which was required to retire the old Tribe logo featuring a pair of feathers. From a W&M release:

There is a new, powerful guardian of the nation's second oldest institution of higher education. The College of William & Mary announced Tuesday that its new mascot, the Griffin - a mythical creature with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion - has arrived on the Williamsburg campus.

"The Griffin has joined the Tribe," said William & Mary President Taylor Reveley, who unveiled the new mascot Tuesday during a campus-wide event in William & Mary Hall's Kaplan Arena. "With its arrival, we now have a mascot that unites strength with intelligence, recalls our royal origins, and speaks to our deep roots in American history."

Discuss among yourselves.

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The Cornell Sun has a piece on basketball coach Steve Donahue, a truly nice man who departed Cornell for Boston College. ... ESPN's Andy Katz, meanwhile, has a story on college coaching searches that includes this:

Dartmouth: Still looking for a replacement for Terry Dunn. It's considered the worst job in the league. Harsh but true.

Ouch.

There was a familiar candidate in town yesterday to interview for the opening and he didn't have to travel far. Suffice it to say if he happens to be the guy the state's largest newspaper might start paying a little more attention to the Big Green.

Speaking of coaches, there's probably some back story on this but it's hard to believe that Walt Harris, the former Stanford and Pitt head coach, is joining the Division II ranks as a "quality control" coach for California University of Pennsylvania. The Observer-Reporter has a story. Harris, in case you didn't know, was once up for the Dartmouth coaching position.

Heading out west, the Seattle Times has a story that says the University of Washington athletics program, "lost $5.5 million in 2009 ..." I've written this before but the U-Dub athletics department did not lose $5.5 million in 2009. It spent $5.5 million to put together an athletic program. If the English department pays out $2 million in salaries and expenses does anyone write that it lost $2 million? No, they do not. If student-athletes are indeed learning valuable lessons (which they should be) why is it that money spent on those lessons is lost?

And finally, I'm not sure I'll ever quite understand Ivy League admissions.

At Hanover High School, as at others, there is a Wall of Shame where kids post their rejections. Across the way is a wall where they put their waitlist notices. I had a chance to look at the sheets of paper taped to the wall yesterday while I waited for the Meet the Marauders baseball program to begin.

Anyway, on the second wall is a waitlist notification from a young man who had 2390 (out of 2400) on his SATs (that's 800, 800, 790 for the mathematically challenged). He is the kind of three-season athlete coaches love – someone without an abundance of natural talent, but who gives you absolutely everything he has. He's also a fine musician. And according to That Certain Hanover High Senior, who is a good judge of character, he's one of the absolutely best and nicest people she knows. And still, he was waitlisted. Not at Harvard or Yale, but at Penn, which if you believe what many around the rest of the league say, is one of the easiest Ivies to get in. (Easiest being relative, of course.)

Go figure.