Saturday, January 23, 2021

Don't Get The Wrong Idea

Dartmouth football is scheduled to kick off the 2021 season against the Valparaiso Crusaders on Sept. 18, 2021 but that may not be the case.

It's not what you think.

Barring a worsening of the pandemic, the Big Green will indeed be in Valparaiso, Ind., next fall to play Valpo, but perhaps not against the Crusaders. From the Chicago Tribune (LINK):

Valparaiso University’s Crusader mascot may be on its way out.

An effort to retire the university mascot because of its violent back story have waxed and waned over the years but alumni and the president of the student body said after protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis over the summer and growing awareness of racial injustice, as well as the use of Crusader imagery during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the time has come to find a new university symbol.

Dartmouth Sports Publicity writes about former quality control assistant Jennifer King making history as the first full-time black female coach in the NFL HERE. The local Valley News has a short piece as well HERE.

Both Dartmouth and Columbia have had Power 5 quarterback transfers in the past few years. Could there be another on the way?

Probably not, because he has only two years of eligibility remaining but 6-foot-3 Texas Tech sophomore Alan Bowman, once a recruiting target of both of the Ivies, has entered the transfer
portal. From 247Sports (LINK):

Bowman signed with Texas Tech over reported offers from Arkansas State, Cincinnati, Columbia, Dartmouth, Georgia State, Houston, Illinois, Incarnate Word, Liberty, Louisiana Tech, Nevada, New Mexico State, Ole Miss, Rice, San Diego State, Southern Miss and Texas State.

Bowman has thrown for 5,260 yards and 33 touchdowns at Texas Tech.


Former linebacker Aaron Limonthas will be one of the panelists in a program put on via Zoom on Jan. 26 as part of the college's 2021 Martin Luther King Jr. celebration titled Future of Work; Race in the Workplace. From the workshop website (LINK):
Aaron (he/him) is an alumnus of Dartmouth, where he studied Sociology and Women & Gender Studies and has numerous years of D&I experience within global organizations. Aaron recently took over as the Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Shipt, Inc. Shipt is an on-demand distribution and delivery service, enabling delivery of fresh foods and desired essentials. Aaron joined Shipt from adidas, Inc. where he served as their North American Director of Diversity and Inclusion.

STATS has a story under the headline In 2021, FCS schools tackle issue of two seasons in one. From the story (LINK):
After FCS college football powers Montana and Montana State announced last Friday they had opted out of the Big Sky's spring conference schedule, VMI coach Scott Wachenheim emailed their coaches to express disappointment with the decision.
Both schools cited how a spring season followed by a fall campaign would create too many games in one calendar year and risk the health and safety of student-athletes.
Wachenheim feels both schools - driving forces in the FCS - had known all the information for over five months and could have planned accordingly to make it work.
"All the schools also knew there is going to be a turnaround of playing maybe 18, 19 games in a shorter period of time," Wachenheim said on Thursday. "I do think you can overcome those obstacles with good planning and efficiency, and take care of your players and they maintain their health."

Green Alert Take: On the other hand, what those schools didn't know, and what we all didn't know, was that the pandemic wouldn't be diminished but rather continuing to worsen as the alternative season approached.

The Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference, the oldest Division III conference in the nation, has pulled the plug on a plan to hold fall sports seasons in the spring. From a statement by conference commissioner Angela Baumann:
“Regrettably, the highly contagious nature of the COVID-19 virus and the risk of community spread through conference competition proved too great a risk to our student-athletes to engage in conference play.

“With the health and well-being of our student-athletes and our staff as our priority, the difficult decision was made to cancel the fall in spring MASCAC competition.” 

A Tweet from Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network and the Sirius NFL network:

The NFL informed clubs tonight they are prohibited from timing, testing, interviewing in-person or giving medical exams to any draft-eligible player at any location except a school’s pro day or all-star game this year because of ongoing concerns surrounding COVID-19 .

Anticipating their first winter term in Hanover, a couple of Dartmouth freshmen from Chicago made a one-minute video of their drive to campus:

 
EXTRA POINT
When we lived in rural Hanover I regularly hiked to Moose Mountain's South Peak, which was essentially in our backyard. I went up the mountain hundreds and hundreds of times and never saw a single moose (although we had them in our yard several times). Even deer were exceptionally rare.

The pup and I did freeze in our tracks when we found ourselves in a staring contest with a black bear one time, but that's the only bear I ever saw. I had to Google the small animal with white fur I snapped a picture of (it was an ermine), and occasionally I'd hear packs of coyotes howling just over the ridge. But that was pretty much it for wildlife, apart from chipmunks, squirrels and a porcupine with which the Wonder Dog had an unfortunate meeting.

Here in Vermont I've been hiking almost every day since early fall on Wright's Mountain, and when the snow is new and I'm the first one on the trail, it's fun to check out fresh animal tracks. I see tracks from deer, hare, porcupine, turkey and even coyote, but to date the wildest animal I've seen is . . . wait for it . . . a squirrel that ran across the trail in front of me yesterday. But there's always a chance!

From a local news aggregator Daybreak:
Peter Connolly and his mom, Priscilla, climbed Wright's Mountain in Bradford on Sunday. They'd just gotten to the overlook when Peter, who ordinarily lives in Boston, saw a bird soaring on thermals, majestic over the snow-filled trees. It was a golden eagle. Which, writes the VT Center for Ecostudies' Chris Rimmer, "would be a VT lifer for me. Goldens are decidedly uncommon in VT (they breed well to our north).

Check the photo out HERE.