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(Now that I'm back from our weekend away I'm digging through my emails to make sure those of you new to BGA Premium will be up and ready to go by the end of the day.)
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Another sign that football is coming back:
CLICK HERE for information on buying tickets for Dartmouth football.
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The Dartmouth football office video introduction to incoming freshmen series continues with
James Morrison, a 6-foot-6½, 245-pound offensive lineman from St. Joseph Regional High School in New Jersey and
Painter Richards-Baker, a 6-1, 190-pound wide receiver from Christ School in Arden, N.C.
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A story on the Canadian Football League's 3 Down Nation website headlined
New names to know for 2021 training camp: B.C. Lions includes this on Dartmouth grad Isiah Swann '20 (
LINK):
There are ballhawks and then there is Isiah Swann. The 23-year-old racked up 17 interceptions and 49 pass breakups while earning an Ivy League diploma, all that’s left is proving that translates to the pros.
Swann, of course, signed with the Cincinnati Bengals as an undrafted free agent after his All-America career at Dartmouth ended but was released prior to preseason camp when it was determined that the leg injury that hampered him in his senior year wasn't properly healed. He's feeling better now and ready to go. Find an earlier BGA Daily post detailing Swann's move north of the border HERE.
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There are three FCS football games in what is termed "Week 0" of the 2021 season and a former defensive classmate of Isiah Swann will be on the field.
Defensive end TJ Simpson '20 saw his career as a grad transfer delayed when Indiana State opted not to play a spring season, but he'll get a jump on most of the FCS on Aug. 28 when the Sycamores play host to Eastern Illinois. In case you are wondering, that's 48 days from today.
Check out Simpson's Indiana State bio HERE.
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Yahoo has picked up a story from behind the Manchester Union Leader paywall about a Dartmouth football player dealing with a legal issue. The story lede (LINK):
A judge's decision last week will allow parts of a Dartmouth College football player's lawsuit against the college to move forward.
The suit alleges the investigation into a student's sexual assault claims against him was discriminatory.
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EXTRA POINT
First, a little update on That Certain Dartmouth '14 and That Certain Nittany Lion '16.
TCD'14 yesterday ran a 12.3-mile trail race in Colorado. It's no ordinary race. Here's the description from its website (LINK):
The Kendall Mountain Run starts in downtown Silverton, Colorado and traverses jeep roads to within a final 250 vertical foot scramble to the summit of Kendall Mountain overlooking town and the majestic San Juan Mountains. Ascend from 9,318 feet to 13,066 feet to tag the summit and take in the view before descending back down the back of Kendall Mountain and linking back to the jeep road. Finish in historic Memorial Park in downtown Silverton.
If I'm reading the results correctly, there were about 300 finishers and TCD'14 finished 51st overall and 10th among the women in 2 hours, 24 minutes and 46 seconds. In case you are curious, it took 1:30:59 for her to reach the summit.
While his sister was running TCNL'16 was in his car driving to Colorado to spend part of his vacation with her. He worked his route and dates out to be in Chicago yesterday to watch the Cubs-Cardinals game. He went online a week or so back to buy surprisingly expensive bleacher seats to enjoy the authentic Wrigley Field experience and was crushed that the game was rained out. Here's hoping he'll be able to resell the tickets.
And now about our weekend . . .
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| Poptop VW Vanagons abound |
We've had our 1984 VW Westfalia poptop camper for 27 years and our Vanagon never had a nickname. Until now.
The nickname (you are going to have to wait for it) was born over the weekend at West River Westies, a gathering of the owners of 90 of these unique, vintage vehicles at a campground in southern Vermont. Although we'd never been to the annual event before, we were immediately welcomed like long lost family members and can't thank Eric, Heidi and the organizers enough for putting together such an enjoyable, low-key and well-run affair.
Everywhere we turned people shared tips and tours of their VWs. On one side we had a couple from Cooperstown, N.Y., who invited us to join them at their campfire, reaching into the ice chest to share cans of craft beer while the sound of sing-alongs from other campfires wafted through the air and a light show lit up a nearby tree. Set up front of us we had world travelers from New Mexico who in addition to sailing the length of the Mediterranean on their 39-foot catamaran and backpacking for six months in Southeast Asia have put more than 160,000 miles on their Vanagon named Dan the Van, driving it over rough roads in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. (Interestingly, they had a mechanical issue in northern Vermont and we soon learned that it had been taken care of by our Bus Whisperer, who they now hold in the same high regard we hold him.)
Alongside our VW were three older "breadloaf" style buses owned by a group of longtime West River Westies veterans from Chicopee, Mass. They could not have been any more welcoming, going out of their way to invite us to float down the river with them, even scrounging up extra inner tubes and loading us into one of their '70s era buses to be dropped off upstream for a ridiculously fun ±45-minute float back down the river. The ride to the dropoff was almost as memorable as the float down with nine people and a dog crammed into an old bus that was bottoming out in every pothole. All manner of tubes were lashed haphazardly on the top and sides of the vehicle and threatening to fly off and bounce down the dirt road as we made our way upstream.
It was our new friends from Chicopee who offered up the nickname for our Vanagon. At a grocery stop on the way to the campground one of them had seen a wiffle bat and ball and impulsively bought it. When they learned I had coached Little League for almost a decade and they looked over at our faded yellow Vanagon, one of them said, "Leave that bat out in the sun for a while and it will be the same color as your bus."
With that they presented us the yellow bat, the ball (which we slid over the antenna) and suggested we name the bus, "Wiffle the Westie."
And so Wiffle it is.
For pictures from our West River Westies weekend (including a look at an overloaded VW headed to the river dropoff) as well as some neat prizes we won at the event raffle
CLICK HERE.
I don't know the exact dates for West River Westies in 2022, but let it be known BGA Daily will be going dark for those several days because Wiffle will be there ;-)
