A New Name, A Not-So-New And An Older One

A little business before getting down to, uh, business ;-)

Monday being by far the busiest day of the week for BGA Daily at this time of the year, I thought to remind you that sign-ups for BGA Premium will begin one week from tomorrow, July 6. A link will go up here and directions for how to sign up will appear on the BGA site. Thanks to everyone who has allowed me to (barely ;-) hang on this long.

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There are a lot of smiles around Memorial Field right now. Dartmouth is in the midst of its first camp session in two years and has its first commitment from a rising high school senior.

Tweeting his intention Saturday to continue his academic and athletic career at Dartmouth was Michael Betsy, a 6-foot-4, 280-pound offensive lineman who heard from a good number of high-academic schools including Harvard, Penn, Brown and Columbia. Here's his commitment tweet:

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Dartmouth coaches started working on the 2022 recruiting class well before the 2021 class went final.

Speaking of the 2021 recruiting class the latest in series of introductions to players arriving on campus in a little over seven weeks features Dillon Holifield, a 6-2, 195-pound safety from Roswell, Ga., who fielded offers from Yale, Penn, Cornell, Bucknell  and Tennessee State per Rivals. Check him out on the Dartmouth football site HERE (and don't forget to click the speaker icon to bring up the sound).

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It is safe to say former Dartmouth offensive lineman Matt Kaskey '19 (center in photo above) has had an interesting offseason away from the Carolina Panthers. Kaskey recently joined with former Dartmouth teammate Zach Husain '17 and rugby alum Dylan Burke '19 to summit 19,341-foot Mount Kilimanjaro in support of the NFL Waterboys effort.

The home page for the Waterboys' website introduces is mission this way:

TEAM UP TO TACKLE

THIRST 

Professional athletes, coaches and sports fans are teaming up to bring life-sustaining drinking water to communities in need. 

From Kaskey's personal Waterboys page (LINK):

Matt has a long history of tackling athletic challenges. At New Trier High School, Kaskey played for the football team, where he led the team as a captain in 2014 and was named to the All-Chicagoland, all-conference, and all-area team member.

Then, he attended Dartmouth, where he played offensive tackle for the football program for four years, beginning in 2015. During his college football career, Kaskey earned a number of awards including: All-Ivy honorable mention, All-Ivy League First Team, and the team’s Jake Crouthamel Award.

Kaskey signed with the Los Angeles Rams as an undrafted free agent following the 2019 NFL Draft. He’s since played 2 seasons with the Carolina Panthers.

Kaskey has always dreamed of applying his athleticism to bigger and more impactful endeavors. Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro is a dream that serves both of those purposes. As Kaskey told the Waterboys team, “Clean water is something that everyone can and should have access to.”

To make a donation through Kaskey's web page, click on the photo below:

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Former Dartmouth track and Nordic ski standout Ben True '08 withdrew from the 5,000 meters at U.S. Olympic Trials yesterday but his dream of representing the United States in Tokyo isn't finished quite yet. True, who crossed the line one spot out of making the U.S. team in the 10,000, needed a top-three finish in the 5,000 to make his long-awaited Olympic debut. He ended up scratching from the race, which saw two of the runners who finished ahead of him in the 10,000 finish in the top three. If either of those runners elects to pull out of the 10,000 to concentrate on the 5,000 True would be named to the U.S. team.

One of the two runners who holds True's fate in his hands has said that as of yesterday he intended to run in both events while the other is still considering his options. Athletes are required by the U.S. Olympic committee to make their intentions known about whether they will double by Thursday (July 1).

EXTRA POINT
The weather wasn't perfect for our weekend away, but when it comes to beautiful and relaxing campsites, Mrs. BGA and I agree Maidstone State Park in the wilds of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom is near the top of the list.

Yesterday morning we enjoyed pancakes at our own private section of sandy beach . . .

. . . only a first down way from where we parked our '84 VW camper: