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| Brandon Hester '20, right, with his former Dartmouth position coach Dave Shula after a training ride in preparation for his IRONMAN debut. |
I pray that these donations may make a lasting impact on someone's life. After enduring multiple injuries playing college football for Dartmouth, I felt that I never got to fully see what my body was capable of. So one of the large motivators for this race is to simply prove to myself how far a work ethic and consistency can take me in life. From an early age, my parents instilled hard work in to my core. My dad is a big inspiration to do this race as he is the one who sparked my passion for cycling. I always had a goal to do an Ironman and decided alongside my good friend from Dartmouth, Ryan Blankemeier (who will be racing for Team IMF with me), why not now. Dartmouth, and specifically the Football team, set me up to pursue personal goals alongside my professional ones. Being surrounded by teammates and coaches like Buddy Teevens, Dave Shula, Spencer Brown, Kevin Daft, and the rest of the staff who continue to push themselves physically and mentally everyday, inspired me to push myself and try and follow in their footsteps.
As of this writing Brandon has raised $2,800 of his $3,500 goal as part of Team IMF. If you'd like to help push the former Dartmouth football player over the top in his fundraising effort you can help out via his Ironman Foundation page HERE.
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You won't find much about Saturday's game and week one opponent Valparaiso but the local daily has a general overview of the 2021 Big Green HERE.
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Sports Illustrated has a story about the Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator headlined, Nathaniel Hackett Has What It Takes—and a Lot More. From the story (LINK) and the italics are mine:
When Hackett left the lab determined to make his life in coaching, he began toiling under then Stanford coach Buddy Teevens, best known as the tech-savvy, forward-thinking current coach at Dartmouth.
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The Boston Globe has a story headlined Former players see Harvard’s Tim Murphy as a life coach as much as a football coach that offers a history lesson about his decision to step down as head coach at Cincinnati to take over the reins in Cambridge. From the story (LINK):
When Murphy interviewed, he didn’t think he would leave Cincinnati. A 50 percent pay cut made it a tough decision. But he met with the dean of admissions, William Fitzsimmons; Harvard Alumni Association director Jack Reardon; and athletic director Bill Cleary.
“Basically, I said, if these are the type of people who are running this place, I’m in,” Murphy said. “I was just so impressed with the incredibly strong character of these people. The charisma in a very understated way. And it’s like everything else in life; so much of what you do is based upon the people you’re going to work with, and that was it.”
The story includes anecdotes and quotes from Harvard-to-NFL players Isaiah Kacyvenski, Kyle Juszczyk and Cameron Brate.
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It wasn't all that long ago that Ivy League school newspapers dedicated dozens and dozens of column inches to stories about the start of the football season. There would be photos and graphics, features, columns and season predictions all in a special edition. Even with the first game in two years being played tomorrow there's nothing in The Dartmouth and very little elsewhere around the Ivy League.
The Daily Pennsylvanian has a piece headlined, Previewing the Ivy League football landscape for 2021 (LINK), the Cornell Sun has a Big Red season preview (LINK) and the Columbia Spectator has a game preview headlined, Football to host Marist Saturday in first game after 664-day hiatus (LINK). The Brown Daily Herald had a story about The Governor's Cup game with Rhode Island on Tuesday. (LINK)
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The (Lawrence, Mass.) Eagle Tribune has a story about two of its native sons under the headline, The one-two Perry punch: Ivy League will get Brown's best in 2021. From the story (LINK):
“I’ve coached three players that won four Ivy League Player of the Year Awards,” said James. “All were highly competitive, gifted in different ways. E.J. is off the charts, even among the three different quarterbacks. His arm is special. His speed is unmatched. Now, after two years of so much studying and hard work, he can do some special things ... Things I could never do.”
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EXTRA POINT
I have a set of inexpensive, knockoff AirPod-like earbuds I use for listening to podcasts while I hike. I've got a small (or is it a large?) issue when I'm using them. I'm pretty sure the problem is with my ears and not the fact that the white knockoffs were so cheap.
The left one sticks in my ear as if it is glued. Seriously, I could get knocked into tomorrow by a linebacker and that puppy wouldn't come out. I put it in and never touch it again.
The right one? It's only fallen out a couple of times in probably 200 or more hikes, but it always feels as if it's about to go and so every five minutes or so I'm using my index finger to resettle it. That's hardly a deal breaker, but it can be problematic because touching the thing sometimes boosts the volume on my iPod and forces me to touch the other one to lower the sound again.
The earbuds came with different sizes of the rubbery cups to make them fit better in your ear, but whether I use a smaller cup or a larger one the problem persists. Interesting way to find out your ears are different sizes or shapes, huh?
