A story on the SwimSwam website under the headline, 20 Dartmouth Sports Sign Solidarity Letter, Protest Team Cuts includes this (LINK):
Another source of irony is the fundraising video Dartmouth sports made earlier in the summer which featured 2 of the soon-to-be cut teams: golf and swimming and diving.
Do watch the engaging video, which begins with quarterback Jake Allen tossing a football :
“How on earth do you appropriately schedule the facilities, the training staff, and all of the shared resources at work?” Archer said. “Who would you give priority to? Would you say, ‘Man, the winter and spring kids got their season crushed (last year) — I guess they get first priority.’ And then what do we do, go to Schoellkopf at 10 o’clock at night and try to practice? … That’s why I say the likelihood of a spring competitive football season is next to none.”
And . . .
Archer noted that every other Ivy League university needs to approve the return of its students back to campus before collegiate sports can resume. This semester, Cornell was the lone school in the Ancient Eight to invite all of its students for an in-person experience.
And . . .
“You have to ask the medical people, ‘Is playing football medically appropriate to play in the spring season and then turn around and play in the fall?’” Archer said. “If we play the spring, there will surely be a plan to play in the fall because there will be a vaccine.”
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A Sports Illustrated story under the headline Can—and Should—College Football Change Its Approach to Contact Tracing? includes this (LINK):
“The contract tracing is killing us,” says Todd Berry, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association. “All (of a) sudden the coaches are calling me. They tell me that one kid got it and 12 are out (for contact tracing), and none of the 12 even ever had it.”
Green Alert Take: Maybe instead of complaining about that, Berry should be applauding it.
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Joseph Arnold, Dartmouth's first-year assistant AD for compliance, will be featured in a reality TV show tonight and tomorrow called Bridezillas. Arnold is a former lineman at the University of Alabama Birmingham. From the story about the nature of the show (LINK):
“Bridezillas” is all about brides behaving badly, doing whatever it takes to achieve the weddings of their dreams. The “bride as Godzilla” scenario can take several forms, but typically involves pitching fits, arguing with caterers, fighting with wedding planners, bullying members of the bridal party and making the prospective grooms miserable.
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A story headlined 100 colleges whose grads go on to earn the most has Dartmouth listed at No. 17. Doubtful you'll guess who comes in at No. 1. (LINK)
Green Alert Take: That Certain Dartmouth '14 doesn't help Dartmouth's ranking, but if the list was 100 colleges whose grads land jobs that leave others envious, she'd be a huge help. Rangers in the National Park Service don't make a lot of money but if you are living and working in Yellowstone or Grand Canyon or Glacier Bay or the Everglades, as TCD'14 has, that's a pretty fair reward in and of itself.
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EXTRA POINT
I thought Mrs. BGA's head was going to explode while we watched a couple of games on TV last week. During one, the game's color commentator – a well-spoken, pleasant and insightful former athlete – said a player "could have went . . . " During another, a color commentator who was otherwise well-spoken, said, "He should have ran . . ."
Every time it happens, and it happens a lot, Mrs. BGA and I turn and grimace at each other.
Maybe because the commentators are highly regarded former athletes and perhaps a little intimidating no one pulls them aside and offers a gentle correction. Or maybe they don't care and just let it slide. Either way, for some of us it is fingernails on a chalkboard.
It's too bad because there are a lot of kids watching those broadcasts. Maybe, just maybe, if "gone" had replaced "went," or "run" had been used instead of "ran," without even realizing it a few kids might learn something other than how to run a curl on the football field or what grip a pitcher uses to throw his slider.
End rant.
