The Stubbie Pearson Award

During halftime of the Dartmouth spring football game, junior wide receiver Tanner Scott was presented with the Stubbie Pearson Award. Perhaps because it is given in the spring – unlike the other team awards – it flies a little bit under the radar. From the Dartmouth press guide:

Established in 2007 and presented to an underclassman on the football team whose character, leadership on campus, high academic standing and performance on the playing field most resembles that of Charles (Stubby (sic)) Pearson '42, captain of the 1941 football team who died while serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II. He was also captain of basketball and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and valedictorian of his class. Gift of David Little '44 and Peter Little '81.

The reason for bringing up the Stubbie Pearson Award again is a note earlier this week out of the News-Press down in Fort Myers, Fla., that Stubbie's brother, Curt Pearson, 80, got a hole in one on the 144-yard, par-3 at Miromar Lakes. What makes it more interesting is that Curt Pearson's ace came on what would have been on Stubbie's 88th birthday, and the short capsule about the hole-in-one reprises the story of the former Dartmouth great.

That sent me off looking for a little more info on the older Pearson, whose name is spelled Stubbie. (It's wrong in a lot of places, including earlier BGA posts.) I found a page about him on the Minnesota Historical Society Minnesota's Greatest Generation site. Dartmouth's Rauner Special Collections Library also has a page that includes a picture and reference to his scrapbook, which the library has.

Previous winners of the Stubbie Pearson Award, by the way, were Andrew Dete and Timmy McManus.

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The Daily Dartmouth has a follow story on the college naming a search committee to help identify candidates for the athletic director position. Acting Dean of the College Sylvia Spears told the school paper:

“It is consistent with Dartmouth practice to have a search committee in place, as they understand the specific needs and interest of the community. Once the firm has given us a pool, the committee will do selection processes and interviews and see whether the candidates are a match for us.”

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Former Dartmouth men's basketball player DeVon Mosley has been awarded a $10,000 Kathryn Wasserman Davis Project for Peace grant for a project. From a story in the Daily Dartmouth:

Through sports clinics, music lessons, and time and stress management workshops, Mosley's Desoto Peace Project aims to motivate at-risk youth to stay in school and resist gang membership.

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The intercollegiate weight room at Penn's new George A. Weiss Pavilion under the eaves of Franklin Field is already in use. From the school web page:

More than 18,000 square feet has been dedicated to Penn's varsity intercollegiate athletes, with state-of-the art equipment, running areas, and setups that are unique to the University.

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The Boston Globe takes a look at what it terms "risky" investments by money managers at Harvard and Dartmouth among others. The story is spun out of a study, "partially financed by the Service Employees International Union." From the story:

Large endowments like those at Harvard University and Dartmouth College took on too much risk and helped fuel Wall Street’s meltdown, according to a new report, which charges that such schools threatened their financial stability by abandoning their historic mission to preserve assets.

The Globe story then takes aim at Dartmouth. From the story:

The Dartmouth board, (Joshua Humphreys, a Harvard history lecturer) argues, is laden with conflicts of interest because a half dozen trustees work at firms that have managed more than $100 million of the endowment’s money.

Dartmouth defended its practices, saying it applies high ethical standards to the board of its $2.8 billion endowment.

“We see no reason to disadvantage Dartmouth financially by refraining from any investments’’ with ties to trustees that are legal and proper, the school said in a statement. “To do so when we are following appropriate ethical standards would do nothing more than negatively impact the returns on our endowment and the good work that we do with those returns.’’

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And finally, after yesterday's softball game the coach of the other team made it a point to pull that Certain Hanover High Senior aside and said of course she is going to play in college, right? No, she told him, she is going to run. He had some kind words for her and then told her that she really should play softball in college. (She very well might have if she'd decided to go to a Division III college, but Division I running coaches aren't very keen on their athletes switching sports for the spring.)

Anyway, today is Senior Day for the Hanover High team and it will be difficult for at least one onlooker. I missed Senior Day for cross country because of Dartmouth football and there really wasn't much of a Senior Day for indoor track because she had qualified for New Englands and we already knew she would run in college. But this is different.

This will bring back memories of all those sweet days out in the yard playing catch. About helping a little girl learn not just to "throw like a boy," (sorry about that) but better than an awful lot of them. About her turning her nose up at softball and playing baseball with the boys right up until ninth grade. About her returning to baseball to play Babe Ruth in the summer after ninth grade softball and this doubtful dad thinking there was no way she was going to catch up to a fastball in her first game back against a hard-throwing 6-foot-2 pitcher only to see her line a shot to center field in her first at-bat.

It will bring back memories of her explaining the "double switch," learning how to keep a detailed scorebook and soaking up the rules to such an extent that last week she was able to get the umpires to change a decision, a development that was chronicled in the newspaper story about the game. Life goes on and and it will be fun to see her run in college, but you'll have to excuse me late this afternoon ( 6 p.m. actually) if I shed a tear or two.

Pretty As A Picture

Working my way around the internet a few days ago I stumbled across this wonderful aerial photo showing Memorial Field and its environs. Unfortunately the photo wasn't credited so I have no idea where it originated and can't credit it myself.

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The FCS playoffs kicked off yesterday and while 2021 Dartmouth opponent Sacred Heart came up short at undefeated Delaware, 19-10, the Pioneers showed they belonged. They had a 17-14 advantage in first down, outgained the Blue Hens, 236-199, and held the CAA team to 2-of-13 on third down. Standout tailback Julius Chestnut had another solid outing for SHU, rushing for 138 yards and a touchdown on 31 carries.

Sacred Heart, which finished the spring season 3-2, is scheduled to help Dartmouth open the home season on Sept. 21.

In another game of interest to longtime followers of Dartmouth football, traditional opponent Holy Cross had a tougher time against South Dakota State (6-1), being outgained, 439-198, in a 31-3 loss. The Crusaders closed out the spring at 3-1.

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Dartmouth athletics made its long-awaited return to competition yesterday with the softball team splitting a doubleheader at UMass and the track teams competing in the UNH Pre-Conference Invitational. The tennis teams, slated to host Colby-Sawyer, saw their contests canceled because of a COVID-19 issue with the nearby DIII opponent.

Women's lacrosse has Tufts on the schedule at Scully-Fahey Field at 11 today while the men are slated to face the Jumbos at home at 3 p.m.

(A reminder: No fans are allowed at Dartmouth home contests this spring.)

In coming days the men's lax team has a game at Saint Anselm in Manchester, N.H., Tuesday evening and the softball team travels to Boston College Wednesday.

Green Alert Take: The Ivy League's inflexibility is maddening. Per Ivy League rules this spring only "local" competitions are allowed and conference games are verboten. If softball can play Boston College in a so-called "local" game someone please explain to me why Dartmouth and Harvard shouldn't be allowed to play each other? Oh yeah, because the Ivy League said so.

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EXTRA POINT
Although we are fully vaccinated we're still not quite ready to go the the movies – if there are any worth seeing these days. That being the case, with That Certain Nittany Lion '16 stopping by for a cookout, last night we rented The Godfather to give him a taste of a movie classic.

But here's the thing.

I'd seen so many clips from The Godfather while channel surfing over the years, was so familiar with Marlon Brando's marble-mouth performance, and read so much about it, that something surprised me.

Turns out, I had never actually seen the entire movie, either.

Having now watched the whole thing, I understand what the fuss was all about. But I'm not in any hurry to rent either of the sequels.

Take A Look

Click (Mac users can click a second time) for a panorama view of Saturday's practice.

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In 2008 defensive lineman Rich Cummings of North Syracuse, N.Y., won Dartmouth's 12th Man Award, one of my favorites. It is presented, "to the varsity player who shows hard-working dedication without regard to playing time."

Rich is bringing the same selfless attitude to this summer's New York City Triathlon in hopes of raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphma Society and he'd like your help. It would say a lot if former classmates, teammates, family members of teammates, and friends of the college and Ivy sports would read his note, check out his website and consider making a pledge.

By the way, Rich reports that he's gone from a playing weight of 265 pounds to 215 and from a 38-inch waist to 33 inches ;^) 

Rich's note:

Friends and Family, 

Rich Cummings

I am participating in the 2013 New York City Triathlon on Sunday, July 14th, with Team in Training, on behalf of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). I will be swimming 1500m (~1 mile) in the Hudson River, biking ~25 miles on the West Side Highway, and will end by running a 10K (~6 miles) on my home turf in Central Park. 

My mission is simple: (1) to raise money to help improve the quality of life for patients and their families, and (2) to challenge my mind and body past my comfort zone.

To learn more about my experience with the The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and Team in Training, please visit my fundraising website.

After 25 years, 570,000 participants and $1.3 billion raised, let's keep fighting. Please fight with me by making a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission. 

"Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone" 

Thanks! 

-Rich 

#GET INVOLVED

Team In Training: Together We Train to Beat Cancer from LLS NYC Chapter on Vimeo.

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Dartmouth baseball improved to 25-6 overall and 10-4 in the Ivy League with 9-1, and 7-3 wins over Yale yesterday.

The softball team also swept Yale go to 10-4 in the Ivies and 20-17 overall.

Ivy League Baseball Standings

Red Rolfe Division

1. Dartmouth 10-4/25-6

2. Harvard 6-8/9-25

3. Yale 5-9/8-23

4. Brown 2-12/4-27

Gehrig Division

1. Columbia 11-3/19-16

2. Princeton 8-6/11-24

3. Penn 7-7/22-15

4. Cornell 7-7/19-14

Dartmouth holds the tiebreaker with Columbia so should the two teams hold on and the Big Green have the same or better league record than the Lions, Dartmouth would host the Ivy League Championship Series in two weeks. Dartmouth plays two more at Yale today and Columbia has two more at Princeton.

Surprisingly, while the baseball standings have been updated the Ivy League softball standings have not. Nor are they presented in the North-South form on the Ivy League website. Here are the top three drawn from individual reports:

Partial Ivy League Softball Standings

1. Penn 11-3

2. Dartmouth 10-4

2. Harvard 10-4

Mud Season Football Talk

Our road on Moose Mountain gives a clue that mud season has arrived. It's getting a little soft, but it's nothing like it was a few years ago when our four-wheel drive was stuck in mud up to the body of the car and we had to be towed home -- from a mile down the road. For two days that spring not a vehicle could go up and down our road, even town trucks. We couldn't get to work and the kids couldn't go to school, much to their chagrin. (Not.)

I was at Borders yesterday and while flipping through Street & Smith's draft issue I found that Brown linebacker Zack DeOssie is listed among the top-10 linebackers. I can't remember if that was for inside or outside linebackers because a Patriots.com report has me confused. It said he is an inside linebacker but is projected as an outside linebacker in a 3-4 scheme. Either way, this story has him as potentially a fourth-round pick. In case you are wondering, the NFL Draft is April 28-29.

DeOssie was joined by Harvard tailback Clifton Dawson and a bunch of Massachusetts-area players this week in a well-attended pro day at Boston College as reported by the Boston Globe. There's a story in the Boston Herald on the pro-day as well. The lede of the Herald story amuses me: "Boston College is known as O-Line U because of its penchant for producing NFL linemen ..." Hmm. And BC is known as O-Line U by whom? Nebraska has slipped in that regard, but if anyone is "known as O-Line U," its the Cornhuskers not BC. Take it from a graduate of Linebacker-U (and you know who that is). ...

Still on the subject of the draft, a subscriber sent along this link to a mention of New Hampshire's David Ball that is less than optimistic about his chances. Writes the Sports Illustrated columnist: "The record setting I-AA receiver ran poorly and was unable to break 4.7. Most surprisingly, a high jumper on the New Hampshire track team, Ball was only able to reach 33 inches in the vertical jump."

A Newsday story on Stony Brook football joining the Big South perfectly characterizes Athletic Director Jim Fiore, a mover-and-shaker who was formerly an administrator at Dartmouth: "He knows where he wants to go and may have the perfect blend of ambition and impatience to make it work."

And finally this ... that certain Hanover High School freshman learned yesterday she made the cut for the school's varsity softball team (and will be a teammate of Cassie Hodgson, daughter of Dartmouth offensive coordinator Mike, who is headed to UMaine on a softball scholarship next year).

Given that the certain freshman played shortstop and centerfield with the boys baseball team last year it wasn't a huge surprise. But when tryouts are just a week long and indoors you never know. She's determined to return to baseball this summer in league that will allow her to play on a boys team, which is not allowed by the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association. ... After a terrific indoor track season, she's continuing to train with the track team whenever possible. This morning she's practicing with softball -- including the team's first "distance" run -- and then heading over to Lebanon to compete in a 5-K postponed by last week's snow.

Schedule Talk

2010 Non-Conference Ivy League Football Schedules
(with 2009 records)

Brown
Stony Brook 6-5
at Rhode Island 1-10
at Holy Cross 9-3

Columbia
Fordham 5-6
Towson 2-9
Lafayette 8-3

Cornell
at Wagner 6-5
at Bucknell 4-7
Colgate 9-2

Dartmouth
at Bucknell 4-7
Sacred Heart 2-9
Holy Cross 9-3

Harvard
at Holy Cross 9-3
at Lehigh 4-7
Lafayette 8-3

Penn
Lafayette 8-3
at Villanova 14-1
at Bucknell 4-7

Princeton
at Lehigh 4-7
Lafayette 8-3
Colgate 9-2

Yale
Georgetown 0-11
Albany 7-4
Fordham 5-6

Combined records of opponents:
Penn 26-11
Princeton 21-12
Harvard 21-13
Cornell 1914
Brown 16-18
Columbia 15-18
Dartmouth 15-19
Yale 12-21

(Record of Dartmouth opponents for 2010 if the schedule had not been changed: 28-7)

Non-Conference Home-Away for 2010 (in order)
Yale H, H, H
Columbia H, H, H
Dartmouth A, H, H
Princeton A, H, H
Penn H, A, A
Brown H, A, A
Harvard A, A, H
Cornell A, A, H

Dartmouth's first game, of course, is now against Bucknell. Chuck Burton over at Lehigh Football Nation takes a look at Bucknell's offseason developments including the naming of Dr. John C. Bravman as president. Bravman came to Bucknell from Stanford. Chuck writes:

... Bucknell's selection of Dr. Bravman has the potential to be a giant step forward for Patriot League athletics - while, importantly, still not taking the eye off the academic ball. It's hard to envision him arguing against the merits of merit-based athletic aid for football, for example, or letting the Bison football program slide into obscurity. In a very short time he had a key role to in the resurgence of Stanford's athletics programs - and did so while maintaining Stanford's excelsior academic requirements.

Also ...

He's living proof that you can root, root, root for the home team on the weekend and be serious about square roots during the week. Loving academia and athletics are not mutually exclusive.

Sounds like Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim, although I doubt he has President Kim's arm ;-)

More specific to football, Chuck writes:

... (T)he Bison are abandoning the triple-option ... to run a more balanced offense, and the return of junior DT Josh Eden to the lineup as he returns from his Mormon mission means an already good defense could be even better next year.

And he adds this final, interesting twist on the new matchup:

When Bucknell hosts Dartmouth this fall, it could very well be that the new (Bucknell) president will be sending what he knows about Big Green head coach Buddy Teevens' coaching style to his football coach, fresh off the staff at Rutgers. A date which was for a long time a void in the schedule is now an intriguing must-see matchup - and a home game, too - for the new president of Bucknell. It's not hard to see why Bucknell fans are optimistic.

It is one thing to have "live" quarterbacks in a spring game. It is another thing to call a play that sets the quarterback up for a killer hit. Check out what happens to UMass quarterback Octavious Hawkins in this 22-second YouTube clip. (Seriously, don't miss this one.)

Former Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph, a thorn in Dartmouth's side the past four years, didn't last long with the New York Giants. (link)

Looks as if Dartmouth is getting a new assistant basketball coach with a familiar name. This story says Patrick Beilein, son of Michigan coach John Belein, will be heading to Hanover. He was a 1,000-point scorer (actually 1,001 ;-) under his dad at West Virginia.

If you happen to know anyone looking to get off the Dartmouth waitlist you might want to tell them not to get their hopes up. Today's Daily Dartmouth reports the college has experienced perhaps its highest ever yield and that, "any wait list activity will be very limited," according to Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Maria Laskaris.

Um, speaking of That Certain Senior, she and others in her class at Hanover High are participating this spring in an annual rite called, unfortunately, Assassin. It's a water pistol-gun-water balloon game where teams of four seniors try to eliminate a designated opposing team of four seniors with one team surviving to move on in the "bracket" each week. It's a pretty crazy deal with kids sleeping over each other's houses for protection (those with attached garages are preferred) and getting up in the wee hours to stake-out their "victims."

Last week TCSenior returned from a softball game to see her car (MY car, actually!) wrapped up in blue masking tape (fortunately the kind that doesn't peel paint) to try to delay her access to the car long enough to soak her. She connived a couple of younger kids into undoing the tape while she waited safely in another car. Last night she wasn't as lucky. She arrived home from an away softball game to find all the windows of her car (MY car again!) covered with shaving cream. Windshield, back windows, side windows. Again she thought she'd dodged the (water) bullet only to have the perps surprise her. On the plus side, she "took one out" just as he took her out.

(By the way, there's a story, perhaps apocryphal, about a Hanover High mother one day going out to the trash barrel only to find a shooter in the barrel waiting to soak down her kid. No word on whether the shooter was successful or whether anyone sat next to him/her in class later that day.)

Back to our story. The nice part of TCSenior being "eliminated," is that after the soaking, the soakers all joined in to help her remove the shaving cream from the car. In the interest of honesty, if you looked closely you could see some remnant of the affair this morning, but it was sweet that they stuck around to help.

Speaking of TCSenior, her softball team is now 0-7. Hanover has tremendous success in virtually every sport over the years but this is one of the few exceptions. They've been outscored, 83-12. Yesterday it was 10-1 with a certain two-year captain having one of the two hits, a sacrifice bunt and scoring the only run. She's played every inning over her four-year career and made the all-state second team last year, but for a competitive kid who played baseball with the boys into her freshman summer, this is really hard. She's looking forward to running track in the spring at college.

That Certain Soph, meanwhile, has been enjoying the move from catcher to second base this year with the Hanover jayvee baseball team. Yesterday he turned a doubleplay for the first two outs of the final inning and then snagged a liner to end the game. He's always been a catcher before, but with a logjam behind the plate he's making a nice transition to the field, and that has carried over to a solid year at the plate as well.

Shuffling Recruit Positions

Started filling out your brackets yet?

It's a seriously quiet day on the Dartmouth football front. You might want to click on this House Resolution of the 117th Session of the South Carolina General Assembly and scroll down a bit to see a pretty neat honor for incoming Dartmouth linebacker recruit Carter Scott. ...

As we try to sort out recruits and where they may play at Dartmouth, this story says Hinsdale Central (Illinois) recruit Steve Morris, "is slated to play defensive back in college." Last week's Green Alert posting had him listed with the running backs, a position he also played in high school. ... This Washington Post piece lists Washington, D.C., running back/linebacker/kicker Pat Scorah as a linebacker recruit for Dartmouth, so shift him from running back as well. ... And finally, Tim McManus, who helped quarterback his Minnesota high school team to the state finals, will probably get his first look at defensive back according to a reliable source. ...

What else? I'm happy to report no cars were overturned or burned in Hanover over the weekend in celebration of the ski team's national championship. ... The women's basketball team learns its WNIT opponent tonight or early tomorrow. It could be Bucknell or Iona. ... The men's hockey team, meanwhile, will play Clarkson in the the ECACHL semifinals Friday in Albany.

With temperatures in the mid-40's over the weekend, the basketball hoop came out of winter hibernation in our garage. It took lots of chipping and shoveling, but the driveway now has a relatively cleared 3-point arc. There are 3- to 5-foot sloped piles of snow behind it which very nicely deliver airballs back to the shooter. We could be getting more snow up here on Moose Mountain at week's end, so stay tuned. A certain Hanover 7th grader, by the way, was shooting hoops at 6:55 this morning before the bus came.

And finally, captains' practices started for softball at 6 this morning. It will be interesting to hear the thoughts later today of a certain Hanover High freshman who is making a very reluctant transition from playing shortstop and centerfield on the boys baseball team to playing softball. Unfortunately, in New Hampshire (unlike Vermont) you can't compete in two sports in a season, so while she's continuing to train in the afternoon with the track team, she won't be allowed to run in any meets. She'll instead run road races, beginning Saturday with the 5K Shamrock Shuffle in nearby Lebanon.

One more note: Voting in the Green Alert mascot/nickname poll will end later today and a new question will be posted. Be sure to check back.

An Omen?

Click to enlarge (and Mac folks can click again to supersize.)

I wish I could take credit for this shot of a double rainbow over Moose Mountain, but give the nod to Dave Harrison, a letterman on Coach Buddy Teevens 1990 and '91 Ivy League championship teams.

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The forecast for Green & White spring football at Memorial Field today was dicey early in the week and got better as today drew closer. It's gorgeous up here on the shoulder of Moose Mountain right now but we could have a quick sprinkle at 1 if the forecasters have it right.

The team is supposed to be on the field at 10 with action slated to being shortly thereafter. As noted on BGA Premium, the Big Green will not be tackling.

Check BGA tonight for statistics and a full report on the action as well as the announcement of captains and spring award winners.

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The Dartmouth softball team will host a doubleheader against Penn in the Ivy League Championship Series this afternoon at 1. If you are in town for football and want to take a look, the softball stadium is behind the football practice field across the road from Leverone Field House. Admission is free. Should the teams split, they will play again tomorrow. The Dartmouth baseball team also plays Sunday in a one-game playoff for the Red Rolfe Division championship here in Hanover.

Another Name

Another day, brings another recruiting target, for another year down the road. And this is no small target.

According to Yahoo.com and Scout.com 6-foot-8, 311-pound Brian Moran of Atherton, Cal., and Sacred Heart High School already has offers from Dartmouth and Stanford. Moran's father, Matt, was an offensive lineman for the Cardinal. Find an early list of schools that have shown interest in him here. If nothing else, the list shows Dartmouth is in good company.

The Dartmouth Friends of Football Golf Classic is set for June 19 at Hanover Country Club. Find information about the event here and you can download the brochure/flyer on the event here. (I get a chuckle out of the use of the term Classic. I've seen the swings some of the football Friends have, and classic isn't the first word that comes to mind ;-)

Down at Penn work on the $25.7 million George A. Weiss Pavilion project making adaptive reuse of the area under one side of the Franklin Field grandstand is wrapping up. Check out the first few pictures of slide show in the Daily Pennsylvanian. For more information on the project, the news release announcing it can be found here. It will be interesting come Oct. 2 to see how this ambitious and innovative effort turned out.

Kudos to Dartmouth football opponents Brown, Penn, Yale, Holy Cross and Colgate for their efforts in helping build up the national bone marrow registry. No one asked, but it just seems to me that coordinating a league-wide effort is something the Ivy League office might think about in the future.

No news on the Dartmouth men's basketball coaching search. Yesterday the Cornell Sun had piece about candidates in Ithaca. Today the Columbia Spectator reports that sources have indicated interviewees include, "current NJIT head coach and former Columbia assistant Jim Engles, St. Mary’s associate head coach Kyle Smith, and University of New Orleans’ head coach Joe Pasternack."

Judging by the names that have surfaced for the three Ivy League openings, it doesn't appear that any of the schools has decided to follow the Harvard model and go after a big-name coach.

Another big day on the diamonds for Dartmouth as the baseball team notched an 8-2, 3-2 sweep of Yale and the softball team knocked off the Bulldogs, 7-3 11-3. Both teams are tied for the lead in their divisions. The baseball team is knotted with Brown (with a nod to Harvard, which swept the Bears yesterday) while the softball team is all-square with Harvard.

Spring practice No. 4 for the Dartmouth football team at 4:45 this afternoon. The goal, as it is after every practice from the preseason through the final game in November, is to have a full story on BGA by 10 p.m. Eastern. Sometimes it is a little later than that but it's always the goal ;-)

Keeping Tab On Recruits

Spotted this potential O-lineman on the drive home after Monday's practice.

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Recruiting classes will be trickling out now that May has rolled around. Dartmouth's class hit this electronic space yesterday. Yale's class is listed here. ... The New Haven Register has a story about the Yale class that includes the name of a famous Bulldog of yesteryear. ...

Princeton coach Roger Hughes details the Tiger offense for 2007 in the second half of his annual spring chat. Hughes confirms what I expected: Bill Foran -- a transfer from Purdue in everyone's book except Princeton's -- will be the starting quarterback heading into fall camp. Hughes: "(H)e is a great athlete who has now become a quarterback." No doubt, the Tigers will miss Jeff Terrell, but Foran has the tools to step right in and be a premier Ivy League quarterback.

A Cornell Sun reporter enjoys meeting and interviewing former Big Red lineman Kevin Boothe, now a starter with the Oakland Raiders, at the spring game in Ithaca.

The Stamford Advocate writes about Harvard defensive tackle Mike Berg getting an invitation to the New York Giants camp.

The Ivy League web site crows, "(T)he NCAA has released the Division I Academic Progress Rate (APR) Conference information and Ivy League student-athletes once again lead the rest of the nation." Also ... "The Ivy League is the only conference to have commendations for all of its football and men’s basketball teams." That's all fine and dandy (and expected) but I do have a bit of a problem with the hokey "1st Place" blue ribbon that accompanies the story. It reminds me of those "My Child Is An Honor Student" bumper stickers. Or worse yet, one of those yellow caution "Show Dogs Aboard," signs. Gotta make sure I don't hit that car.

MSNBC.com has a Newsweek story about the Carlisle Indian School and its legendary football team spun out of Sally Jenkins' new book on the subject. ... I was sports editor at the Carlisle Evening Sentinel for a short time and had a chance to interview Jim Thorpe's son once. It was eerie because he looked like a clone of his famous father. ...

Finally, and I mean finally, the Hanover High School softball team won its first game since 2005 yesterday over on the New Hampshire Seacoast. It's the first win the Marauders have had in the two years Cassie Hodgson (daughter of Dartmouth football assistant coach Mike) has been on the team. Cassie is the first player in memory from what we call the Upper Valley to be awarded a Division I softball scholarship. She'll be playing at Maine next year. It was also the first victory in the career of a certain freshman centerfielder, who celebrated the win by hitting a grand slam. ;-)

Way Too Early Is Right

NCAA.com has a story under the headline, Way-too-early 2022 FCS playoff bracket predictions. In addition to playoff participants, the piece predicts "Other conference winners."

As for the Ivy League, it sees Dartmouth finishing off a three-peat this fall. (LINK)

Green Alert Take: That "way-too-early" bit is spot on. Guaranteed, writer Stan Becton hasn't a clue which "super seniors" are returning at the eight Ivies and very likely isn't aware of all of the defections as grad transfers. That said, the fact that he's picking Dartmouth speaks to the respect the Big Green program has earned in the football  community.

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The Rams.com website has a story headlined, Where are they now? Former Rams DE & Super Bowl XXXIV Champion Kevin Carter. From the story (LINK):

A consensus first-team All-American as a senior at the University of Florida, Carter, taken sixth overall, was the first defensive player chosen in the 1995 NFL Draft.

Carter tells the site . . . 

"The NFL is not the easiest way to make a living. It's hard on your life, it's hard on your kids, your marriage and everything else. And when the music stops, we all have to transition to being regular people and find our way economically, socially. And as history has shown, that's not always the easiest transition for football players to make."

And here's why it's relevant on BGA Daily:

Carter, who has been married to his wife, Shima, for 26 years, and has a son, Zion, who will be a senior at Dartmouth in the fall and plays tight end for the Ivy League university, has made the transition, and is a college football studio analyst for CBS Sports.

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A note tacked on to last night's BGA Premium story a note about some fun the Big Green had at the end of the final regular practice of spring football:

ONE MORE THING

At the end of the final regular spring practice (Coach Buddy) Teevens had the boom box on the field play Take Me Out to the Ballgame and the baseball song, Put Me In Coach while sending his team to the corner of the field near Leverone Field House. Then he had a baseball “L” screen wheeled onto the field, stationing undergrad recruiting assistant Mia Bagatourian behind it with a glove on her left hand and a yellow softball in her right.

Bagatourian, a recruited pitcher for the Dartmouth softball team before choosing to pursue other interests, fired several pitches at an impromptu backstop before a few football players stepped in to see if they could hit her offerings.

Whether intentionally or not, Bagatourian got the players’ attention when her first fastball soared over the backstop as well as the heads of the players huddled behind it. The first player to make contact swung late, lashing a low drive that would have ended up in the home team dugout. That sent a "giggle gaggle" of football players scrambling to the safe haven behind the screen.

Perhaps a half dozen players took cuts against Bagatourian with a lot more whiffs than foul balls and just two had hard hits. One was a liner to center and the other a towering fly ball Tyron Herring hit over the wall and into the home grandstand. With that he ran the imaginary bases along with a phalanx of teammates, finishing in a mosh pit at the imaginary home plate as ​Bagatourian laughed. 

Be sure to visit BGA Premium tomorrow for a recap of the Green-White spring game as well as an announcement of Dartmouth's 2022 captains and spring award winners.

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EXTRA POINT

Although I do this page and the BGA Premium site, I'm not a social media person. Yes, I have a Twitter account but since the first year or so I've posted on it about two or three times a year and look at it only for work purposes. I don't have a Facebook account and while I have Instagram, I've never posted on it and use it only for finding blurbs for this page.

That said, there's one sorta social media account I check with regularity and it's That Certain Dartmouth '14's Strava page. For the uninitiated, here's how Wikipedia describes Strava (which by the way has roots in Hanover):

Strava is an American internet service for tracking physical exercise which incorporates social network features. It is mostly used for cycling and running using GPS data.  

I went to the page earlier this week and was interested to see the 5.5-mile trail TCD'14 ran while in Utah for work. It's called the Athena Missile Loop. Here's how the trail is described (LINK):

The Athena Loop is located at the old White Sands Missile Range on the west side of Interstate 70 near Green River, Utah. The trail, which gets its name from one of the Cold War Era missiles that was launched from the Green River Site, was designed with mountain bikers in mind but gets a lot of use from hikers and horseback riders.

Running at distance powerhouse Hanover High School and then for a bit at Dartmouth, TCD'14 has put thousands of miles under her feet but it's probably a pretty good bet this is the first time she's run in the shadow of a missile range ;-)

For what it's worth, she's training for Colorado's San Juan Solstice 50, a 50-mile jaunt described as "one of the most beautiful loops you'll ever do, replete with all those adventurous components that go along with a long day in the high mountains: stream crossings; ridge running; mega-altitude; huge views; heat and/or rain, sleet, and snow; route finding; and, of course, potentially life-threatening thunderstorms.”

Probably no missile base there, but the FAQ's for the race (which you need to qualify to enter) include this:

Will I get lost or die? You may get off trail, but if you've studied the map and have a reasonably good sense of direction, you probably won't die.

And yeah, I'll be checking her Strava after that . . . 

Diamond Gems

The big news yesterday was the Dartmouth softball team claiming its first Ivy League championship by winning the final game of the Ivy League Championship Series against Penn (LINK) and the Big Green baseball team – which was hanging by a thread a few weeks back – beating Yale in a one-game playoff to clinch its seventh consecutive Red Rolfe Division championship (LINK).

The softball team will learn its opponent in the NCAA Championships on Sunday. The baseball team, meanwhile, will be heading to New York City to renew its rivalry with Columbia in the Ivy League Championship Series with a date in the NCAA's awaiting the victor.

And the football team that wrapped up spring practice Saturday? Just watching, because while every other sport in the Ivy League is allowed to go on to the postseason, the football team isn't.

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Speaking of football, I ran into an old friend at the post-Green & White pig roast Saturday who mentioned he has forwarded the story reprised below to friends considering their career choices. I thought about that last night when That Certain '14 called in advance of a full day of interviews for a corporate position in a big city (they are all "big" when you grow up on the shoulder of Moose Mountain ;-)

When I walked down the driveway this morning to get the newspaper and was greeted by the view pictured here I knew I had to post the story once again.

Click photo for a better look

I first read this on the wall of a sandwich shop in State College, Pa:

The investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked.

Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The investment banker complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The fisherman replied, only a little while.

The investment banker then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish?

The fisherman said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs.

The investment banker then asked, but what do you do with the rest of your time?

The fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life, señor."

The investment banker scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat.

"With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You can leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."

The fisherman asked, "But señor, how long will this all take?"

To which the American replied, "15-20 years."

But what then, señor?

The American laughed and said that's the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.

Millions, señor? Then what?

The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

As much as I don't like quoting myself, here's what I wrote the last time I posted this story, and nothing has changed:

Over the years I've been asked why I stuck around this scenic little valley of ours instead of trying to work my way up the newspaper ladder so that I could perhaps cover Super Bowls and the World Series, NCAA championship games and the Stanley Cup.

Well, I did leave once, and I didn't like what I found, so I came back.

So no, I'm not reporting on BCS bowls. I'm not living in the big city. And I'm certainly not making the big bucks. But guess what? You make your choices and I'm happy with those I've made.

My family and I live in beautiful, peaceful part of the country. I write about accomplished student-athletes who play for the right reasons and will do great things in their lives. I work with coaches and administrators at the college who trust me and treat me with respect.

As an aside, several folks who worked hard to earn the big bucks left the big city and moved to our quiet dirt road over the years. When I walk outside on mornings like this I feel a little like that fisherman ;-)

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A visitor who to our yard this morning . . .

Saturday Ramblings

Driving home yesterday evening after a certain softball game the golden light and dark skies over the green in our village of Etna made such a beautiful scene that I stopped to take a picture. That's a rec ballfield in front of the village church.

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A little digging uncovered more information on 6-1, 240 New Orleans lineman Bruno Vetter, a late addition to the recruiting class. Stick with me now ...

Turns out Vetter's head coach at Newman School in New Orleans is a former Tulane offensive guard named Nelson Stewart (Tulane bio). One of Stewart's teammates at Tulane was an offensive tackle by the name of Cyril Brockmeier, who of course is the offensive line coach at Dartmouth. And just for good measure, the head coach of Stewart and Brockmeier at Tulane and soon Vetter at Dartmouth: Buddy Teevens. ...

Nelson Stewart was a high school teammate of Peyton Manning at Newman and he's quoted in this New York Times story about Peyton's days at Newman. ... Eli Manning also played at Newman. ...

Vetter helped Newman to the Louisiana quarterfinals this fall and to a No. 5 ranking in the state power ratings. Along the way he forced a fumble and returned it 75 yards for a TD, a notable accomplishment for anyone, but in particular for a 240-pound lineman. The play was the Times Picayune Play of the Week. ... Vetter was chosen All-New Orleans first team.

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Yale coach Jack Siedlecki gets mentioned only in the last paragraph of a first-person piece by Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis in the South Bend Tribune about four football coaches visiting the troops in the Middle East, but it's worth reading to get a sense about the trip.

Former Harvard wide receiver takes a look at - and a few pictures of - cheerleaders in the latest installment of his ESPN The Magazine series, An American Footballer in Parma.

Former UNH quarterback Hank Hendricks will stand trial with others in the beating death of a professional surfer in the San Diego area. Fosters Daily Democrat has a story. More in the Union-Tribune.

And finally, that certain Hanover High sophomore softball player had a terrific final home game of the season with a triple, a line single, a ground single, a hit-by-pitch and three runs scored in a 5-4 loss yesterday. She also had a very good game behind the plate for Hanover, which had the tying runner on third when the game ended. A disappointing loss, but when you've dropped nine lopsided games in a row and take a 14-4 team to the final out, that's something.

The eighth-grader, meanwhile, came home grumpy after a rare hitless afternoon in his baseball team's win. When I asked how he did, he told me he hit the ball hard, but right at people. I tried to explain that there's nothing wrong with hitting the ball hard - and in some ways you should feel better if you are making solid contact than if you are dribbling balls in the hole - but that's not the kind of thing you want to hear when you are 14. Not from your dad, at least ;-)

Enjoy the long weekend and be safe...

Athletics On Alderson's Agenda

Milan Williams (3) squeezes through the middle for a gain Wednesday.

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Sandy Alderson '69, the CEO of the San Diego Padres and the parent of Dartmouth grad Bryn Alderson '03, has a pretty slick web site up promoting his candidacy as a Dartmouth trustee. Find it here.

Here's part of what Alderson has to say about athletics on the site:

Admissions is always an issue with respect to athletics. Coaches must live with Dartmouth standards, but they have a right to know the standards will be consistently and predictably applied. A Trustee can help ensure that coaches have a set of clear and reliable recruiting parameters, which would go a long way toward eliminating unpredictable admissions decisions. It is demoralizing for coaches and athletes to see student-athletes competing successfully for other Ivies who were, inexplicably, denied admission to Dartmouth.

A decision on the initiative introduced by the Ivy League to ban text messaging in recruiting is expected today according to this story. Oregon coach Mike Bellotti's sentiments in the Oregonian might pertain to Dartmouth as well:

"(A ban) hurts every program from a non-highly populated area. When you're not in a populated area, you have to find some way to bridge the gap and create relationships with young people, with their parents and with everybody. When you limit the number of contacts, limit the number of communication opportunities, then yes, it's going to hurt us."

Roger Hughes, the former Dartmouth assistant who guided Princeton to a share of the Ivy League title last fall, offers up the first part of his annual spring "chat." He discusses last year's success and the coming season's defense.

There weren't any Ivy League head coaching changes since last year but Matt Dougherty's look at the FCS schools that made changes is worth checking out on the Sports Network page.

The Providence Journal offers the definitive look at Brown linebacker Zak DeOssie in the run-up to the NFL draft. ... I agree with this Maryland newspaper writer who says that New Hampshire wide receiver and NFL hopeful David Ball, "... plays the game like a real receiver should. He doesn’t get by on athletic ability. Instead, he utilizes fundamentals to be such a force. You want your son or player to be a great wide receiver? Watch Ball, he puts on a clinic every time he plays."

Yesterday was opening day for the softball and baseball teams of a couple of certain Hanover schoolkids. They enjoyed different results. The 7th-grader celebrated his first game on the 90-foot bases by lashing a walk-off double to help his team to victory and then getting mobbed by his teammates coming off the field. The Hanover High freshman hit leadoff and played center field but struggled against the fastest (softball) pitching she's ever seen and then, after playing well in the field, muffed a couple of balls in the final inning. It took a lot of consoling for a kid who I can't recall ever making a miscue in the field playing baseball with the boys right through last year.

Connection Helped Lead To Commitment

Patrick Lahey, the 6-foot-3, 285 high school junior who recently made a verbal commitment to Dartmouth, is a student at the Brooks School in North Andover, Mass. He's quoted by a recruiting analyst as saying, "I’ve always had a connection with (Dartmouth) because an assistant coach of mine at the high school level played there and has talked about them since I was a freshman." That got me wondering so I Googled my way over to the Brooks School football page and checked out the coaching roster. I couldn't find a former Dartmouth player among the listed coaches but I did find: "Dan A. Rorke -- Consultant: Quarterbacks, Offense, Defense." Rorke, the former Brooks head coach, is the father of Chris Rorke '89, a Dartmouth quarterback under Buddy Teevens and a Brooks grad. Chris, by the way, is now an assistant coach at Trinity. Find his bio here.

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UPDATE: Just got an email reminding me that former wide receiver Mike Bobo '92 has worked with the Brooks team in recent years. I knew that but didn't make the connection when I didn't see his name listed with the Brooks coaches. Mike remains close to the Dartmouth program and played a significant role in promoting Dartmouth to Dallas-area players while serving as the offensive coordinator at Greenhill School in Dallas.

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Also of note in the story about Lahey, he is said to have received recruiting interest from Georgia Tech, Northwestern, Virginia, Boston College Columbia, Harvard, Princeton and Cornell. He attended Dartmouth's summer camp last year. The story goes on to say he's an accomplished wrestler who "hasn’t mentioned if he’ll continue that at the collegiate level." Hmmm. If he's going to wrestle collegiately it won't be at Dartmouth, which dropped the sport some years ago.

Former Dartmouth running back and coach Jake Crouthamel, later the acclaimed athletic director at Syracuse, was super scout Gil Brandt's first free agent signing with the Dallas Cowboys according to this story in the Star-Telegram.

Brown's Zak DeOssie is profiled in this Kansas City Star story about the NFL hopeful. I like this quote he offered about being in the position he's in:

“Going into college, you can’t expect to be here. My education and my degree were the most important things to me. You can’t predict being here in four years. If you’re good enough, you can make it. They’ll find you. I don’t think it’s been an imposition on my NFL aspirations whatsoever.”

The scoreboard at Penn State Saturday. Check out this Centre Daily Times story for more about the outporing of support for Virginia Tech during our visit to the Penn State spring game.

A subscriber sent over this link to a story about the inventor of Gatorade making it into the University of Florida Hall of Fame. Find it here.

Gatorade might come in handy today. One week after we got close to eight inches of snow up here on the mountain the forecast is for 85 degrees today. The usually shadowed half of our yard is still covered in snow so the golden retriever better get out there and enjoy rolling in it while he can. The high temperatures are supposed to be back to the normal mid-50's for the rest of the week. ...

While spring football is on the mind, baseball is in the air. That certain Hanover High freshman will have her first varsity softball game Wednesday, the 7th grader will have his first 90-foot baseball game the same afternoon (his first practice is today) and yours truly will be running a Little League practice the same afternoon. I hope to catch a little softball before heading over to Memorial Field for practice.

Note: After missing Friday's practice while we were at Penn State, a full practice report will be posted on the Green Alert premium site after each remaining spring session.

Cutting Edge

Taking part in the NFL's Women's Careers in Football Forum in Indianapolis in advance of the Combine were head coach Buddy Teevens along with offensive quality control assistant Callie Brownson (right) and junior Tessa Grossman, an outfielder/pitcher on the Dartmouth softball team and a strength and conditioning intern.

Although the Dartmouth contingent didn't get a mention in the story above (LINK), Brownson is cited in a Charlotte Observer story (LINK) as well as in a Portland Press Herald story (LINK) about a college softball player in Maine who headed out for the forum.

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Dartmouth grad Rahn Fleming ’81, an undersized linebacker from St. Francis High School in Sunnyvale, Calif., is the new head football coach at Vermont's Champlain Valley Union High School. Find a story HERE.

Fleming is in his 13th year at the school, serving as strength and conditioning coach and heading up the junior varsity program. He previously served as Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention Educator/Counselor at Dartmouth from 1987-91, working with athletes, freshmen, peer-counselors, fraternities and sororities among others.

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ESPN has a story about former Penn linebacker and current New York Jet Brandon Copeland serving as "co-professor" of a course at Penn titled, Inequity and Empowerment, Urban Financial Literacy.

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The Ivy League has announced the venues for its four-team men's and women's basketball tournaments through 2025 and the 2024 venue is Dartmouth's ±2,000-seat Leede Arena. Next year it will be at Harvard's 2,100- 1,635-seat Lavietes Pavilion. (LINK)

All credit to the Ivy League for finally starting a tournament in 2017 but as I've written here before I'm not a big fan of the four-team format, I'm less of a fan of having it at a "neutral court" (which isn't neutral at all if the host school happens to make the field) and I believe combining the men's and women's events is a Division III idea that even Division III thinks better of.

I've written this before but if you happen to be new to this electronic neighborhood, here's what I would have liked to see:

A six-team tournament that rewards and protects the teams that finish 1-2 with byes and home court, while at the same time giving teams 7-8 hope they can continue on if they rally at the season's end. With that format, the Dartmouth men's team would still be in the fight. The setup:

FIRST ROUND

• Teams 1 and 2 get byes

• Team 6 plays at Team 3 (rewarding the latter for a better record with a home game)

• Team 5 plays at Team 4 (rewarding the latter for a better record with a home game)

SECOND ROUND

• Lowest remaining team plays at Team 1 (which is rewarded with a bye and now a home game against the lowest seed still alive)

• Other remaining team plays at Team 2 (which is rewarded with a bye and now a home game)

CHAMPIONSHIP

• on home court of highest remaining team (which would guarantee a good crowd for TV)

This format protects the sanctity of what some used to call the "14-game tournament" and if the regular season champion couldn't advance with all of the protection earned by winning the regular season it didn't deserve to advance.

A Familiar Name

(Click to enlarge.) Courtesy of Hageman family

There were Atlanta Falcons hats galore when former University of Minnesota defensive tackle Ra'Shede Hageman was selected by the team in the second round of the NFL Draft. Hageman's father, Eric '90 (alongside the guest of honor) was a Dartmouth defensive back from Wayzata, Minn.

Find a pre-Draft story about Ra'Shede Hageman and how he uses the difficult childhood he endured before being brought into the Hageman home here.

Falcons Blogs has a story about the impact the 6-foot-6 310-pound Hageman could have in Atlanta. (LINK)

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Interesting that spring sports can play right through exams but football players can't. The Wall Street Journal writes about the Columbia men's tennis team under the headline: Econ, Chemistry and Columbia Tennis; The Team's Unprecedented Run Is Occurring Smack in the Middle of Final Exams

Green Alert Take: I'm not an Ivy League grad, so perhaps one of the Ivy presidents can tell me if I am spelling the word hypocrisy right.

Green Alert Take II: Oh wait a minute. Dartmouth football did play right through exams. Scratch that as a reason for the ban on the playoffs. The presidents must have another reason they aren't sharing.

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Chase Womack, who played last fall as a fifth-year senior gets a nod and a headline in the Austin Statesman for his selection to the National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society.

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Watched three former Green Machine Little Leaguers I coached help Hanover High School to a 1-0 win over archival Lebanon yesterday on Dartmouth's Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park. One played shortstop and scored the game's only run, one caught and one played left field. At the same time the Marauders were winning at Biondi, Hanover was defeating Lebanon at Dartmouth's softball stadium.

That Certain '14 had the opportunity to play a game for Hanover on Dartmouth's old softball field and That Certain Nittany Lion played for the Hanover baseball team at Red Rolfe. It remains a special memory for both.

Dartmouth deserves a big thank you for allowing the local rivals to hold their biggest games of the year in the college's beautiful facilities.

Bringing Back A Regula-r Memory

Just one quick dial-up-enabled link this morning before our Internet is (hopefully) restored ;-)

There's a story out of the Vancouver Sun about a Canadian Olympic softball pitcher named Lauren Bay, younger sister of Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Jason Bay. Actually, her name is Lauren Bay Regula, and if that last name sounds familiar to Dartmouth football fans, it should. Turns out, Lauren is the wife of former Dartmouth kicker Dave Regula '98. From the story:

Canada reaches the podium in women's softball at the Beijing Olympics, some credit may well have to go to a trader from Chicago who once kicked field goals for Ivy League college Dartmouth.

David Regula, the second-highest scoring kicker in Big Green history, is the husband of Canadian pitching ace Lauren Bay.

What the story fails to mention is that while Regula is indeed No. 2 on the all-time Dartmouth kick-scoring list (194 points on 38-of-53 field goals, 80-of-97 PATs), he also was involved in one of the most bizarre plays you'll ever see.

The year was 1997 and Dartmouth was playing Penn at Philadelphia. After kicking a field goal in what would be a 23-15 Big Green win, the left-footed Regula boomed a kick down the left sideline. The Penn return man coughed the ball up and into the hands of a hard-rushing Regula, who barely broke stride while returning his own kickoff for a touchdown. When he added the extra point Regula had personally scored 11 10 points (field goal, touchdown, PAT) in about seven seconds.

The play was subsequently broadcast nationally on an ESPN featured called, "Hidden Plays."

Regula finished the afternoon scoring 17 of Dartmouth's 23 points.

No Surprises At The Top

The Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings purport to identify the top college athletic programs in the nation by how they perform in the NCAA Championships. There are 288 schools in the Division I listing just released and the Ivy League was represented this way:

39. Princeton
53. Harvard
67. Cornell
84. Yale
86. Dartmouth
93. Penn
94. Columbia
108. Brown

To the surprise of absolutely no one who pays any attention to this sort of thing, Stanford came in at No. 1, as it has for the last 18 years. Princeton finished as the top FCS school and was atop the Ivy standings for the 16th time in the 19 years of the Cup.

Among those tied for last in the nation? Opening-week football foe Butler.

Demonstrating the difference between Division I and Division III, the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) – often referred to as the Little Ivies – had three schools in the Division III top five and four in the top 10, led by No. 1 Middlebury. Midd, by the way, ended a string of 12 consecutive victories by Williams, the former station of Dartmouth Athletic Director Harry Sheehy.

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Friday's Dartmouth newspaper had a look back at former college President Jim Kim's interest in and impact on the Dartmouth athletic program. The story includes several quotes from football coach Buddy Teevens. Find the story here.

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Saturday's edition of the local daily has a story on youth softball coach and former college standout Sharna Wilkerson, who just happens to be the wife of assistant football coach Chris Wilkerson. The story details how softball brought her from her native Australia to Eastern Illinois University. Unfortunately, the story is not online. Sharna Wilkerson is a talented photographer and you can see her work here.

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Our Senior Babe Ruth team kicked off the season last evening with an 11-6 win over the team it is absolutely guaranteed to battle for the top of the league standings. Why absolutely guaranteed? Because there are only two teams in the league this summer.

And Now A Word From The Coach

BGA Daily is something of a high wire act out-of-season and, as you might expect, particularly so this year. Will I be able to find something – anything – of interest to post for you today? If not, will I be able to manufacture something by digging into the record book?

Today was starting to look like one of the tough days and then, voilá, I stumbled across a "Teevens Teleteaser" posted by the Dartmouth sports information office. Whew!

Now I can start worrying about finding something for tomorrow . . .

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The Analyst (STATS) has dug up the top Returning FCS players for this fall who have the highest percentage of their team's scrimmage yards since 2019. Dartmouth will be seeing the player atop the list in the second week of the season (LINK):

1. Julius Chestnut, RB, Sacred Heart: 42.5 (2,700 of 6,348)

2. Quay Holmes, RB, ETSU: 33.2 (1,972 of 5,937)

3. Karl Mofor, RB, Albany: 32.6 (2,152 of 6,592)

Find Julius Chestnut's Sacred Heart bio HERE.

Green Alert Take: I had a chance to chat with former linebacker Will McNamara '16 at the wedding Saturday and told him a little about Chestnut. When I brought up how many times a player has come into the Dartmouth game with gaudy statistics only to end up looking pretty pedestrian the conversatio quickly turned to the genius of defensive coordinator Don Dobes. We agreed it will be fun to see what Double D cooks up for the Sacred Heart standout this fall.

 

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It wasn't surprising to find a Dartmouth name under the headline, Bengals Working With Five Coaches In NFL's Minority Fellowship Program. What was a little surprising was that the name in question belongs to a former Dartmouth softball player. From the story (LINK):

Tessa Grossman, graduate assistant and sports performance coach at Illinois State University. Grossman is a 2020 graduate of Dartmouth College, where she played first base on the varsity softball team. As a coach, she has worked as an intern with the strength staffs at Dartmouth (2018), the L.A. Rams ('18), University of California-Berkeley ('19) and Mamba Sports Academy ('18). She joined Illinois State in July 2020.

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Brown Stadium will have an artificial surface when Dartmouth travels to Providence in November and in advance of the installation the program has pulled together a quick video explaining the motivation for the move away from the facility's usually muddy and always infamously slow grass field:

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EXTRA POINT
For the past 14 days I've been listening to an audio book during my morning hike on Wright's Mountain, and while mowing the lawn. Correction. I've been listening to the book for 15 days.

I know this because the book, which I had downloaded for two weeks from the Green Mountain Library Consortium, expired yesterday before I had finished it. Eager to find out how the mystery ended, I dowloaded it again and tried to recall what chapter I was in when the loan expired. I figured I would have to fast-forward through sections I had already heard all the while being cautious not to go too far and give away the ending. I anticipated it was going to be a royal pain.

I needn't have worried. After the book downloaded for the second time it queued up right where I left off, all by itself.

Sometimes technology is wonderful ;-)

Athletic Director Posting

The job description for the Dartmouth athletic director's position has been posted here. Nothing really surprising but those of you with some institutional knowledge might find it interesting that under the Education heading it says, "Master's degree or the equivalent level of education and experience."

As for a timeline, the PDF says, "Confidential review of materials will begin immediately and continue until the appointment is made. It is preferred, however, that all nominations and applications be submitted prior to July 8, 2010."

Joe Asch over at Dartblog has a column under the headline, "Do You Want to Be Dartmouth's AD?"

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Fargo offensive lineman Connor McGovern, a 6-foot-4, 275-pound player called the prize of the North Dakota recruiting class, has Dartmouth, Brown and Harvard among his final eight schools according to this story. A Fargo-Moorhead newspaper blog says he plans to attend camp at all three Ivy League schools.

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As you know – or would if you visit this electronic neighborhood regularly – Dartmouth football is scheduled to play host to Butler in 2012 and to play the Bulldogs at Indianapolis the next year. For a look at how the Butler football program is doing in the shadow of a basketball team that came within a shot of winning the national championship a few months ago, click here. Craig Haley's story on The Sports Network site is headlined, Madness at Butler in the fall, too. ...

In the FCS notes at the end of the article Craig writes that Maine fullback Jared Turcotte will be back in action this fall after missing last year with a sports hernia. Turcotte, you may recall, was widely reported to have had his heart set on Dartmouth (link) before ending up at Maine. He was selected a preseason All-America before being hurt last year and has once again shown up on preseason All-America lists this spring.

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A blog post in January noted that Dr. Fred Radke '73 had been elected to the Maine Sports Hall of Fame. Now a surgeon in Portland, the former defensive end was the only sophomore starter on the legendary 1970 team. He started three games the next fall before being sidelined by a knee and returned to start as a senior in '72. His Dartmouth teams had a combined record of 24-2-1 and 18-2-1 in the Ivy League. (Thanks for the help ;-)

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And finally, the rain held off on our visit to Colgate yesterday and as an added bonus I stumbled into 'Gate athletic director Dave Roach outside Huntington Gym. It's always a pleasure to visit with Dave and we had a good chuckle about the irony of That Certain Senior being in Hamilton next fall while I'm out in Lewisburg, Pa. Speaking of TCS, the hard choice is made and I'll be missing my Little League playoff game tonight to see her play in the Granite State Games softball event at Plymouth State University. Barring a huge upset, our LL team will move on but this will be the final softball game for you-know-who unless she is chosen to the New Hampshire team that will play against Maine and can fit it into her busy summer schedule as a counselor at an overnight camp.