This is from the Dartmouth football office. (Usual warnings about whether you do or don't want your speakers on apply.)
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Assorted notes from yesterday's Dartmouth football Zoom call with head coach Buddy Teevens and his entire staff:
• Teevens on whether the Ivy League will be back on the field in the fall: "I really believe we will. I think we'll be back full force. The NESCAC ("Little Ivies") just approved spring games for their teams. We're the one kind of dragging anchor at this point."
• Dartmouth's spring practice, which usually starts early next month, will be shifted to May because of delays in recruiting. Said Teevens, the hope is to get to "Phase 3, which is actually football. Pads, helmets, contact (ball) exchanges and so forth."
• The recent COVID outbreak "set us back a little bit but should not adversely impact what's going on during the spring."
• As of now there are 52 players expected on campus for the spring with the first players showing up on March 26. Generally in the spring there are around 90 players involved in practice.
• Students living in the Hanover area are not currently allowed on campus to work out although they do go on campus to be tested. There's an ongoing push to allow those students, be they in the band, in the arts or on teams, to have more access to campus. Interim AD Peter Roby is among those working to encourage the change. If it happens Dartmouth could have 75-or-so players at spring practice.
• There will be a 10-day quarantine followed by a month of strength and conditioning once the players return. Only then will spring practice begin. Thanks to the quarter system Dartmouth can get its full allotment of practices finished during May.
• Teevens said Dartmouth has 10 seniors returning next fall for their fifth year per Ivy League/NCAA rule, but did not name them. There were 19 seniors on the 2020 roster last fall.
• Senior offensive lineman Jake Guidone, mulling Texas State offer of a grad transfer to the FBS level, is being "re-recruited" by Dartmouth.
• Teevens reported "about 40 guys" were on campus for fall practice with players in nine-person pods prohibited from passing and handing off balls.
• "We had 20 practices and made the most of it. It was very helpful for our freshmen."
• There were just seven players on campus in the winter term, mostly working on strength and conditioning around "some of the COVID challenges we faced."
• This year's sophomores haven't been around football since November of 2019 and upwards of half the team will experience game week for the first time next fall.
• Teevens: We're used to having kids not around. With the quarter system guys will do foreign study. They will do an internship in the winter. So the training protocol for us . . . is the norm. Talking to my Ivy peers it's been a little bit more challenging because they have never done it before. Edge to Dartmouth."
• Teevens had told his players if their BMI (body mass index) is over 30 in some stats they qualify to get the vaccine "and a bunch of our guys, God bless them, offensive linemen and defensive linemen, they are getting shots left and right."
• With recruiting entirely virtual, Teevens said he has seen or met only three of the 29 players who have committed this year. "We feel we have a very, very solid, very productive class."
• Teevens also addressed speculation on message boards and websites about the strength of the Dartmouth recruiting class compared to the other Ivies. "We're not the top-rated recruiting class ever. We just go beat everyone else who has better recruits, allegedly, than us. The key is development. ... I think we do a better job than anyone across the board in (that regard).
• Dartmouth had 300-plus potential junior recruits on a Zoom call last week and will have another 300-plus this Sunday.
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EXTRA POINT
About 10 days after hurting my back while pulling something awkward and heavy out of the hatch of my Honda Fit it had finally healed enough that I felt ready to hike again yesterday. Unfortunately, after two days of spring-like warmth and sunshine, the dirt road I take to the trail was a muddy mess with foot-deep, water-filled ruts. Without four-wheel drive I was likely to get stuck and, to quote the Bard, discretion being the better part of valor I punted the hike in favor of a walk somewhere I could get to via blacktop.
About 10 days after hurting my back while pulling something awkward and heavy out of the hatch of my Honda Fit it had finally healed enough that I felt ready to hike again yesterday. Unfortunately, after two days of spring-like warmth and sunshine, the dirt road I take to the trail was a muddy mess with foot-deep, water-filled ruts. Without four-wheel drive I was likely to get stuck and, to quote the Bard, discretion being the better part of valor I punted the hike in favor of a walk somewhere I could get to via blacktop.
I decided to do a loop around Lake Morey in the next town south of here, and soon was parked at a boat launch and setting off.
The good news? My back was fine. It felt a little sore with my feet pounding on a hard surface, but that wasn't the problem.
The bad news? While the podcast I was listening to was perfect for the hike, the sneakers I was wearing most definitely were not. I was all the way across the lake when I realized the minor discomfort on the sole of my foot was turning into a major blister. A very painful blister. Here's the problem: The loop around the lake is exactly five miles, meaning whether I turned back or continued on, I had two-and-a-half miles to go on a foot that was getting worse by the step.
I honestly thought about sticking out my thumb and hitching a ride, but decided I would not be a wuss and kept walking. Then hobbling.
I was about a half mile from finishing when I found a bench, sat and took off my sneaker and sock to get a look at the puffy red mess on the bottom of my foot. It was as bad as I feared.
I haven't done much shopping since the pandemic struck but that's about to change. I'm going to buy myself a pair of "trail runners" today. Trail runners with extra cushy soles.
