Sounds Promising

Dartmouth has had presidents who were gung-ho about sports, like Jim Kim. (CLICK HERE to watch a short, shaky video I shot of Kim throwing a football a dozen years ago.)

The College also has had presidents like James Freedman, who were significantly less interested in athletics.

With yesterday's announcement that Sian Leah Beilock would succeed Phil Hanlon next year and be Dartmouth's first woman president it is only natural to wonder what impact she will have on the largely struggling (apart from football) Big Green athletic program. One thing is certain: She's no stranger to the playing field.

Consider this from the book Psyched Up: How the Science of Mental Preparation Can Help You Succeed by Daniel McGinn:

Sian Beilock has spent twenty years studying how, when, and why people cause problems by overthinking. It's a topic she learned about firsthand as a teenager. At fifteen, she was a soccer goalie in the U.S. Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program, a path that could have led her to Olympic or World Cup competition. Then one day, with the Olympic coach watching from just behind her goal, she could feel her brain behaving differently. "I felt self-conscious," she recalls. "I had a total meltdown and let in two goals." Her dreams of playing soccer in the Olympics ended that afternoon.

And then there's this from a column she wrote at Barnard, where she serves as the president (LINK):

I believe in the power of athletic pursuit. In school I was always interested in math and science, but I was also an avid athlete, mostly playing soccer and then later, lacrosse. I loved the athletic field and was totally dedicated. I even had a chance to play soccer in the Olympic development program at some of the highest levels. 

In the video posted here yesterday she mentions that she "loves Dartmouth's focus on athletics."

Green Alert Take: Is there a chance she will recognize how wrong it is that every Ivy League sport except football is allowed to advance to the NCAA playoffs?

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This was Dartmouth football's Throwback Thursday Tweet and while it's only "throwing back" 10 months, it's worth another look:

#ThrowbackThursday to our 2021 Granite Bowl victory‼️#TheWoods pic.twitter.com/fRHTwK8aNJ

— Dartmouth Football (@DartmouthFTBL) July 21, 2022

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Former Dartmouth quarterback/athlete Jared Gerbino was the subject of a terrific WHAM TV piece about his international football success this year:

(After starting, click the little rectangle in the lower right corner to go full screen.)

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Another day, another Meet the Freshman graphic. Today's subject is 6-foot-4, 220-pound Sean Ward of Cleveland, Ohio and St. Ignatius HS. As noted in this space previously, he's not just a tight end but also a high school rugby national champion and bowling team captain.

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Just when you thought the sea change in college athletics might be slowing down comes this:

The Division I Council is recommending that the NCAA get rid of the “one-time” part of its transfer rule.

Anyone would be able to transfer and have immediate eligibility, if they meet academic standards. Athletes could transfer multiple times and play right away.

— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) July 21, 2022

Green Alert: True story. In addition to Dartmouth, I covered basketball at a Division III school when I was at the local daily. One year there was a player who competed against the team I covered at the end of the fall semester and was playing for the school I covered when the new semester began in January. I remember thinking that kind of thing could never happen in Division I. Now I'm not so sure.

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EXTRA POINT
We had an incredible series of storm cells blow through Vermont yesterday and I got caught up in one in during the early afternoon. Although there was rain in the forecast, when I hopped in the car for the two-mile drive to our little post office the skies did not seem particularly threatening. I picked up the mail and was just a half mile from home when the heavens opened up. First it was pounding rain and then hail. Or maybe it was hail first and then the rain. It was so dramatic and overwhelming I'm not sure which. All I'm sure of is that it was so blinding I almost pulled over to wait it out. Instead, I made it the final half mile home where I was relieved and surprised to find that my car was not dimpled like a golf ball from the pounding hail as I had feared.

As often happens, the storm at least temporarily cleared out the hot and hazy air. It was so crisp and beautiful when I did my morning hike that when I got back I headed a quarter mile up the road and shot this picture. The white stripe is fog arising from the Connecticut River. Our house is beyond the sugar bush to the right ;-)

Click photo to enlarge.