Catching Up With . . .

A little news today on two former Dartmouth football players, one from the last several years and one from almost a decade ago.

I heard a while back that southpaw quarterback Jonathan DiBiaso was transferring but out of respect for a young man who came to Dartmouth with big dreams, and who was always very friendly and polite to me, I made the decision to hold off until the news broke in the mainstream media before posting anything. If he'd been a front-line player I would have had no choice but to report the news after learning that he was leaving, but given his spot on the depth chart I opted to wait until word got out, which it now has.

From today's Valley News:

Quarterback Jonathan DiBiaso, the Massachusetts high school career leader in passing yardage and touchdowns, is no longer with the Dartmouth College program, the school confirming DiBiaso’s plans to transfer to Tufts University.

And . . .

DiBiaso, 21, set Massachusetts prep records with 103 touchdown passes and 7,052 yards and was the state player of the year in 2011. He turned down Harvard to play at Dartmouth. His father and grandfather each played at Tufts, in Medford, Mass. Dartmouth confirmed the transfer in a Friday night email.

Struggling with arm and concussion issues, DiBiaso never appeared in a varsity game at Dartmouth. His best performance came in his first jayvee game against Middlebury last fall when he completed 5-of-10 passes for 36 yards and ran nine times for 67 yards.

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An email from an alum asking about a former Dartmouth player led to a Google search that turned up news of Ray Rochester '07.

The 6-foot-2, 210-pound Rochester came from Rockville, Md., via New Jersey's Blair Academy. Then-head coach John Lyons saw him as a potential game-breaking running back, but despite gaudy statistics with the ball in his hands at Blair, Rochester made it clear he preferred to play linebacker. Hampered by injuries suffered in a car accident, he fell behind making the transition to linebacker and Lyons eventually installed him at running back.

Rochester ran 34 times for 106 yards and one touchdown as a sophomore but eventually gave up football and took up boxing.

Whatever became of him? The Google search results show him living in Honolulu and working as co-director of Youth Bridge Global, a "non-profit organization that facilitates youth theatre productions in domestic and international developing communities."

Youth Bridge Global was founded by Andrew Garrod, professor emeritus at Dartmouth. From Rochester's YBG bio (LINK):

Ray has worked with Andrew Garrod as a researcher examining moral reasoning and faith development in Bosnia and Herzegovina and later served as part of Garrod's research presentation team at the Association of Moral Education International Conference at the Utrecht in the Netherlands. In 2009, he returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina as Assistant Director of a new multi-ethnic production of Much Ado About Nothing, coaching the young actors and dancers and designing parts of the set. 

His bio refers to him as a "former Dartmouth boxer," but makes no mention of his football career.

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And finally, it's anniversary day for Team BGA. Because we had our wedding reception on a boat on Boston Harbor, we try to celebrate each Aug. 7 with a dinner on the water. Tonight we'll be on beautiful Lake Memphremagog, straddling the Vermont-Quebec border, and then pitching a tent on the shore of the lake.