Tropical Sounds Pretty Good Today

Mickey Grace, Dartmouth quality control assistant, will be on the sidelines today at the Spiral Tropical Bowl all-star game at Camping World Stadium in Orlando,  Fla.

Grace is officially the Bowl's Lori Locust Women's Coaching Internship Award Winner. (Locust, by the way, spent several days observing Dartmouth place a few year ago. She's currently on staff of the Tampa Bay Bucs.) Read a little more about Grace here (LINK).

While there are no Dartmouth players in the game, Grace may recognize several names. Yale receiver/returner Melvin Rouse is on the National team and former Bulldog tight end John Howland is on the American team. Sacred Heart offensive lineman Josh Sokol is also in a game that features players from Oklahoma State, Pitt, Texas, Auburn, Michigan, Ole Miss, Michigan State, Syracuse and Vanderbilt all the way down to Vermont's DIII Castleton State.

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Speaking of Dartmouth coaches, now it is Crescent City Sports reporting on New Orleans native son Cortez Hankton being courted by LSU. Should he make the move he'll do so with a national championship ring in his possession after serving as wide receivers coach at Georgia for several years. (LINK)

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Temple has made the appointment of Adam Scheier official. The onetime Dartmouth special teams ace who spent a year on the Big Green staff after graduation is making the short trip from Rutgers to Temple, his 11th stop in 26 years per a release out of Philly. As reported earlier, Scheier will serve as both special teams coordinator and tight ends coach. From the release (LINK):

"I'm really excited to have the opportunity to be a part of Coach Drayton's staff," said Scheier. "I've heard nothing but great things about him from so many people in the profession. I'm excited to be at Temple, and in the city of Philadelphia. This city holds a special place in my heart, so I'm excited to represent Temple, represent the city of Philadelphia, and bring that Temple TUFF mentality back to this program."

Find Scheier's full Temple bio HERE.

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To John Paul Flores' lengthy list of offers as a grad transfer, add home state SMU. Per Twitter the 6-foot-5, 300-poundish offensive lineman is mulling at least 17 offers with Virginia perhaps the most eye-catching.

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Yesterday's list of offers for linebacker Jalen Mackie's services missed the CAA member University at Albany. The All-American and Buck Buchanan finalist who probably should have been in New York City as a finalist at the Bushnell Award presentation got a little boost yesterday from an acquaintance who Tweeted:

Ran into Jalen tonight. The portal is so saturated, a lot of guys are getting overlooked. Jalen is a South Florida bred LB prospect. 2x Ivy League Champion, All American. Just passing his reel along. A homecoming would be awesome. Young man is a star.

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Will there be baseball this year? We won't know for a bit but if there is, Dartmouth grad Brad Ausmus will be in Oakland, where the longtime big league catcher will serve as the Athletics bench coach. (LINK)

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EXTRA POINT
If it's going to be really cold in these parts, it might as well be really, really cold. Bragging rights at at stake, after all. The coldest our digital thermometer ever showed when we lived on Moose Mountain, the highest part of Hanover, was 24.9 below. After several days recording that low temperature I got suspicious and with a little sleuthing discovered that was as cold as that thermometer would read. Very disappointing.

We didn't get anywhere near that cold here on our Vermont hillside last night. Nope. The thermometer bottomed out at exactly 16.0 below zero. I suppose that's cold enough.

Anyway, I'm going to give it a little time to warm up before I hit the trail today – if I hit the trail today ;-) Here's how I was dressed for my hike yesterday:

In case you are wondering, from bottom to top I had on heavy-duty wool winter hiking socks, hiking shoes with microspikes, sweatpants underneath snow/rain pants, a long-sleeved dri-fit shirt, down vest, LL Bean jacket, gloves with fully charged USB handwarmers tucked inside, and a brand new Appalachian Trail "Buff" that came unannounced in the mail (thanks) that I pulled up above my nose. Topping everything off was a goofy knit hat with flaps covering the ear buds through which I listened to a podcast. I only rarely add them, but when it's really windy or snowy I sometimes add ski goggles.