Dartmouth safety Niko Mermigas is being represented by NA3 Sports Agency as he bids to find a home in pro football. NA3 has offices in South Florida, New York, Chicago and New Orleans.
Welcome to the agency. A physical athlete who has scouts talking Niko Mermigas SS pic.twitter.com/rkcAQNLJ3Z
— James Durkin (@JamesDurkin28) January 20, 2022
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Speaking of Dartmouth, former players named Niko and pro football, a loyal emailer shared a link to a Big Blue View posting under the headline, Giants position review: Defensive line remained a strength in 2021 that includes this (LINK):
Niko Lalos performed well at times in 2020 but failed to be active for one game during the 2021 season. Lalos spent the entire year on the Giants’ practice squad.
And . . .
(David) Moa and Lalos were signed to future deals at the end of the season, but their climb to crack the 53-man roster is steep.
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Another pair of sharp eyes (thanks!) found a link to a story headlined, How LSU Receivers Coach Cortez Hankton Could Make Early Impact on Roster. Not much there we didn't know about the former Dartmouth assistant except this eye-opener (LINK):
On Wednesday, the terms to Hankton's contract were revealed, with the Tigers new passing game coordinator making an average of $900,000 over the course of his three-year deal. That number places him above all other position coaches on staff and within spitting distance of coordinators Mike Denbrock and Matt House.
Green Alert Take: I don't think he would be making that kind of bank if he'd stuck around Hanover ;-)
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Speaking of former Dartmouth coaches . . .
Just announced: @WashingtonNFL’s Assistant RB coach @JenniferKing5 named RB coach for the @ShrineBowl.
— Sam Rapoport (@samrap10) January 20, 2022
Coach King is the first woman to lead a position room in the history of the game. #forwardprogress pic.twitter.com/zkfPRQyOrR
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For those of you wondering if and when Dartmouth players in the transfer portal will be making their intentions known, keep in mind that the traditional college football signing day is Feb. 2, one week from Tuesday.
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And good news for Dartmouth sport fans. Veteran sportswriter Tris Wykes is going to reprise his role as the Big Green beat writer for the local Valley News. Let go during a budget cut in March of 2020, he is returning to the paper to replace Seth Tow, who moved on to a newspaper in Indiana. Wykes announced the move on his Octopus Athletics website with this caveat (LINK):
We’ll cover Dartmouth College sports in person when we think it’s worthwhile, but the focus will be, as the marketing folks like to say, “hyper local” and zeroed in on the high schools.
Green Alert Take: Congrats, Tris. See you out there.
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Disappointing COVID news in a story in The Dartmouth (LINK):
The number of active COVID-19 cases on campus jumped to 748 on Thursday, up 77 from Wednesday, according to the COVID-19 dashboard. This number includes 613 undergraduate students — up 61 — 68 graduate and professional students — up 10 — and 67 faculty and staff members — up 6 from Wednesday.
The D another has story headlined:
DHMC contends with staff shortages and full ICU; DHMC pulmonologist and critical care chief David Feller-Kopman reports that over 90% of COVID-19 patients in the ICU and on ventilators are unvaccinated. (LINK)
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EXTRA POINT
A few weeks ago I wrote in this spot about surprisingly long stretches where deer follow the trail I hike each day.
Stepping into my own tracks yesterday to make it easier going over snow, I noticed deer not only followed the trail, but they were stepping in my tracks as well. There were times when I found deer prints in almost all of my footprints for 50-75 feet or more. Here's a pic I took of deer hooves in my footprint:
With a little Googling I discovered a 5-foot-10 person's stride will average about 29 inches and a deer's gait 18 inches. I didn't measure my stride yesterday but I know it was significantly less than 29 inches because of the difficulty going uphill in the snow.
