Plus Two

No names were mentioned during Friday's Zoom call but help from a BGA reader or two, a little digging and some dot connecting confirmed the identities of the final two members of the Dartmouth recruiting class.

Joining the Big Green next year are Derrell Smith-Porter and Isaiah Golonka, who come to Hanover from New England prep schools.

Smith-Porter graduated from Penn Hills High School in Pittsburgh last spring before committing to spend this year as a post-graduate at Worcester Academy per a Tweet from his high school:

Smith-Porter was listed at 6-foot-1, 255 pounds as a high school senior. A TribLive story out of Pittsburgh last year said he chose Dartmouth over offers from West Virginia Wesleyan and Lake Erie College. (LINK)

The other name to add to the class is Isaiah Golonka, a 6-4, 255 lineman who took the long way to Dartmouth. Golonka began his career at Huntsville High School in Alabama. From there he went to Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tenn., and his final stop was Connecticut's Canterbury School for a PG year.

Golonka's Twitter (LINK) lists offers from Western Kentucky and UAB among others.

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In spring football yesterday Dartmouth grad transfer Caylin Parker '20 finally got on the field for  Albany in the Great Danes' loss to Maine. Playing behind a tailback who got 30 carries Parker ran once for four yards.

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Out in Indiana Dartmouth's season-opening foe Valparaiso kicked off its season with a 24-14 win at Butler. Valpo passed for just 85 yards but ran for 241 in a game played before 1,164 fans in Indianapolis. In this strange spring season the same two teams will play again in Valparaiso one week from Saturday.

Dartmouth Game 2 opponent Sacred Heart plays host to Long Island University today.

New Hampshire, which lost to Albany last week, was off and will play host to Delaware on Saturday. Dartmouth visits UNH on Oct. 16.

Longtime Dartmouth rival Holy Cross, which is not on the Big Green schedule next fall, opened with a 20-3 win over Lehigh and its former coach Tom Gilmore, a longtime Dartmouth assistant as well.

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The Valley News had a "first person" interview with Dartmouth interim Athletic Director Peter Roby '79 that includes this (LINK):

VN: Does this mean your tenure could continue past June 2022?

PR: My focus right now is to do the best I can while I’m here. I have things that I’m considering in terms of my life and lifestyle and my family and other things, so I have to weigh all that, but I’m not going to make any decisions yet about what the future holds. I’m in here with both feet. As much as my title is interim, I’m the athletic director and I’m going to make decisions that are in the best interests of Dartmouth, the athletic department and the student-athletes in our charge. I will worry about what comes later when we come to it.

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EXTRA POINT
If you were annoyed this morning by the time change, here's something to keep in mind:

The consolation prize is a pretty good one. It means spring is coming.

Just imagine the double-hit in the fall if we turned the clock ahead instead of having it "fall back." Not only would you lose an hour's sleep but it would be an annoying reminder of the cold, dark days ahead.

If you ask me, losing an hour today is a small price to pay for what's to come . . . although that promise felt pretty empty a few minutes ago with a near-whiteout outside my window!