Q&A with Deputy Athletic Director Robert Ceplikas on the Northwestern Unionization Case and its Impact on Dartmouth

After football players at Northwestern University, with assistance from the National College Players Association advocacy group, moved in January to unionize, the university’s administration fought their efforts with legal action. I sat down last week with Dartmouth's Deputy Athletics Director Robert Ceplikas ’78 to discuss the Northwestern unionization case and its relation to Dartmouth athletics.

JS: How do you think the Northwestern Unionization case, which has received national attention, will impact Dartmouth?

RC: It won't have any direct impact because it only applies to athletic scholarships so the Ivies are immune from that since we don't offer athletic scholarships. Now this is my opinion, but I don't think it will hold up in the long run.

JS: There was an interview with the President Emeritus of Northwestern where he said the school could drop its sports programs. Do you think that would happen?

RC: I think that's a little extreme. I think it's a lot more likely Northwestern would maintain its programs and drop its scholarships.

JS: Could the right to unionize be extended to non-scholarship athletes?

RC: I have not seen any interpretation that would lead non-scholarship athletes to be affected by this anyway. The very basis of the ruling was that it's the scholarship that makes the student an employee.

JS: What if the case does make it's way to the Supreme Court and stands?

RC: Let's just say, hypothetically, that the ruling does get upheld all the way to the Supreme Court, then the main impact on the Ivies will be that the really selective, private institutions that are most affected, the Northwesterns, the Dukes, the Stanfords, they'll suddenly be looking for a very different type of athletic conference to compete in. They'll drop their athletic scholarships and they'll look for a conference like the Ivy League. It's not inconceivable, even though again I don't think this will actually happen to begin with, but if it did, it wouldn't be inconceivable that some of those schools would come knocking on the Ivy League's door and express some kind of interest, if not joining the Ivy League itself, in making some scheduling agreements because they'll be looking for competition from other non-scholarship schools that have similar academic philosophies. That could be a pretty major change if it ever came to that.

Dartmouth Softball Sweeps Yale Bulldogs, Improves Conference Record to 12-0

(via The Dartmouth)

Dartmouth softball continues to roll through its competition, extending its win streak to 13 and maintaining a perfect 12-0 Ivy League record.

One week after sweeping all for of its Ivy League South competitors, Dartmouth swept its first Ivy League North foe, establishing itself as the team to beat in the Ivy League.

Several Dartmouth players turned in big performances this weekend – Maddie Damore ’17, Kristen Rumley ’15 and Morgan McCalmon ’16.

Saturday was essentially Damore’s coming out party as she led Dartmouth with seven RBIs batted in on three home runs. Damore became the 63rd player in NCAA history to homer three times in a game and the first since April.

“[Damore’s] capable of it and we’ve known that,” head coach Rachel Hanson said. “She’s been having a little bit of a down time so this was kind of a good confidence booster for her. That’s the kind of hitter we know she can be.”

Damore is the first Ivy League freshman to homer three times since April 13, 2001, when Cornell’s Kate Varde registered three against Dartmouth.

Rumley hit the game-winning walk-off single that scored Damore in Saturday’s Game One. Rumley earned five hits on the day and pitched eight innings on Saturday before picking up wins in both of Sunday’s games.

"She's a great all-around player,” Hanson said. “She can hit, she can pitch, she can play defense. She's a great kid and very composed."

McCalmon picked up both wins Saturday and increased her hitting streak to 13 games, and provided crucial run support in Sunday’s Game Two. 

Dartmouth needed nine innings to pull off a 3-2 victory in Saturday’s Game One in what rapidly turned into a pitcher’s duel.

Rumley and senior Kristen Leung both turned in eight innings of work on the mound before being relieved. Although Rumley outperformed Leung, striking out more batters and allowing fewer hits, the score remained tied 2-2 entering the ninth. Rumley also pitched fewer times, 103, than Leung’s 118.

Normally, Dartmouth has been able to score early in the first or second inning, but Leung kept Dartmouth’s batting order shut down until the fourth. At that point, Karen Chaw ‘17’s double scored Katie McEachern ’16 before Chaw herself raced home on Kelsey Miller ‘16’s double to give Dartmouth a 2-0 advantage.

"We've got good athletes but approach is key,” Hanson said. “We're taking big cuts and swinging hard and they're looking for the right pitch to hit and swinging hard at it."

Rumley continued to shut down Yale’s batters until the seventh when sophomore Lauren Delgadillo belted a two-run humer to tie the score and send the game into extra innings.

After the game-tying homer, Hanson said she told her players to just come right back.

“After the game it was a message of 'we let them hang around a little too long,” Hanson said. “We gave them the opportunity to take it back. So we need to be a little more aggressive early in the game."

Rumley stayed in the game until the ninth when Hanson pulled Rumley, who was tired after throwing 103 pitched, for McCalmon, who retired the side.

McCalmon, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Week, then earned the win when Rumley continued to leave her mark on the game when she scored Damore for the walk-off run and win.

McCalmon continued to play from the mound for Game Two, throwing a complete game as Dartmouth dominated Yale 10-1, winning in six innings. McCalmon surrendered just one run all game in her winning effort – a second inning score off a wild pitch that tied the game at one.

Dartmouth’s batting order, led by Damore, controlled the rest of the game, starting with scoring on a walk in the first.

The fireworks really started in the fourth when Damore sent the ball over the left field wall for three. Damore homered a second time in the fifth for two more runs to make the score 8-1. She ended the game with one final home run to left-center to increase Dartmouth’s lead to nine.

"I was pretty calm,” Damore said. “I wasn't expecting to see any good pitches after the first two at bats but I was ready to go up there swinging and she gave me a nice one."

Moving on to Sunday’s Game One, Dartmouth defeated Yale 5-1, scoring all five runs in the third inning.

Yale actually led 1-0 after the first but that would be the only offense Rumley allowed as she pitched all seven innings, giving up just five runs and two walks.

In the third, Yale surrendered five runs on seven hits to Dartmouth. Dartmouth loaded the bases and scored with regularity as four different batters scored runners. 

Yale would shut out Dartmouth’s batting order for the final three innings but Yale’s batters were unable to mount a comeback. 

The sun finally started coming out for the final game of the weekend.

McCalmon started the game and pitched a clean first inning before surrendering a two-shot home run and a run off a single in the second to put Dartmouth in a 3-0 hole, Yale’s largest lead all weekend.

Hanson said she and the team don’t worry too much about the scoreboard.

“For us it’s just about playing at a high level every inning,” Hanson said. “When you have the ability to score runs, you’re not putting extra pressure on yourself and just focusing on the game.”

McCalmon would then cut the deficit to two when she scored on a double by Damore, just beating the throw to the plate. McCalmon almost missed out on the scoring chance when she barely reached first as the ball arrived. 

“First thing I did when I got to the dugout was tell my teammates, ‘and you said I was slow,’” McCalmon said. “It was a big moment and I trusted Coach and she made the good call. Anything could have happened and I got in there.”

The first-base umpire ruled McCalmon safe as Delgadillo’s foot was not on the bag, but from the home-plate umpire’s perspective, McCalmon was out. Both umpires met for a brief conference before ruling McCalmon safe, setting her up for the score.

McCalmon felt confident that the umpires were going to rule in her favor since the first-base umpire had the best vantage point.

Karen Chaw ’17 then scored Damore to cut Yale’s lead to one before Yale successfully retired the side.

In the fifth, Yale nearly expanded on its lead by loading the bases with two outs. Hanson pulled McCalmon for the final batter of the inning and replaced her with Rumley, who retired the side.

Momentum quickly swung Dartmouth’s way. In response, Dartmouth loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth with just one out as McEachern went to the plate. Unfortunately, McEachern never reached first by popping out, but right before McEachern’s pop-out, Megan Averitt ‘15 scored on a wild pitch, just beating freshman pitcher Lindsey Efflandt to the plate to tie the game.

McCalmon followed McEachern, and with two runners on base and two outs, McEachern singled, but more importantly scored both runners, to put Dartmouth up 5-3.

For the final two innings, Rumley was perfect, allowing not a single hit, walk or error to blemish her relief effort as she picked up her 13th win of the season.

Dartmouth Softball Squeaks Out Close Win Over Boston University

In preparation for a four-game series this weekend against Yale, Dartmouth squeaked out a close 5-4 non-conference win over Boston University Wednesday.

Three pitchers pitched from the mound with Ashley Sissel ’17 starting before ceding control to Alex Jarvis ’16, who picked up her second win this season. Sissel allowed six hits and two runs to go with four strikeouts, while Jarvis allowed just two runs on two hits. However, the two runs allowed BU to climb back into the game, and was what prompted the switch to Morgan McCalmon ’16.

McCalmon, the Ivy League Player of the Week for the past two weeks, earned the save by holding BU scoreless the final two innings. She finished having allowed one hit after facing seven batters.

Sophomore Lauren Hynes pitched an uneven, albeit complete, game in a losing effort to go 12-11 on the season. Hynes finished with 10 hits, five runs, six walks, three errors and two strikeouts.

As has been Dartmouth’s modus operandi since its conference schedule started, the Big Green started the scoring in the first with a Katie McEachern ’16 single down the right field line. Kristen Rumley ’15 beat the throw home to score and put Dartmouth in an early 1-0 lead.

Neither team scored until the fourth inning when BU took its first and only lead of the game.

BU manufactured its equalizing score by slowing working around the bases following a bunt by freshman Brittany Younan. Younan eventually scored before when freshman Gabi Martinez singled to left field. BU scored once more when senior Amy Ekart reached home after senior Brittany Clendenny hit into a double play.

Dartmouth responded almost right away when Alex St. Romain ’14 homered to center field to tie the game. Dartmouth slowly built a two run lead over the course of the inning as McCalmon and Alyssa Jorgensen ’17 scored an unearned run on a muffed throw.

After three quick BU outs, Dartmouth returned to the plate to score what would turn out to be the game-winning run. Rumley’s single to right field scored Jorgensen to make the score 5-2.

In a valiant effort by BU’s batting order, BU cut the deficit to one with scores by Ekart and Martinez. Ekart scored on a fielder’s choice while Martinez reached home on a fielding error by Karen Chaw ‘17. BU ultimately ended its attempt to tie the game in the sixth when senior Jayme Mask was called out at third for leaving the base early.

In the final frame, with the pressure cranked up high, McCalmon coolly struck out the first two BU batters before a ground out closed the game.

Dartmouth Defeats RPI in First Round Series; Advances to ECAC Quarterfinals Against Union

Courtesy of Big League Pics

The men’s hockey team advanced to the ECAC quarterfinals in dramatic fashion Sunday night, stunning Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 5-4 with three unanswered goals in the third period. Brad Schierhorn ’16 shot the game-winner with 3:14 remaining.

The 5-4 win was Dartmouth’s first win despite trailing after the first two periods in two years.

The overarching theme of the intense three-game series, and Dartmouth’s season overall, was resiliency. Dartmouth, who started 2-11-1 due to a rash of injuries, was the series underdog and at first it showed in Game 1.

RPI dominated Dartmouth 4-1 Friday in Game 1, bombarding February’s ECAC Goaltender of the Month Charles Grant ’16 with 33 shots. Senior Ryan Haggerty, RPI’s leading scorer, netted two goals.

Dartmouth rebounded in Saturday’s Game 2, as Eric Neiley ’15, the Big Green's leading scorer, netted two goals in a 3-2 win to force Sunday’s game. Jesse Beamish ’15 scored the equalizer before Neiley won the game.

Neiley was on fire, netting two goals and having a third called off. Neiley’s two-goal effort was his third of the season. 

The stage was set for an epic winner-take-all Game 3 and both teams exceeded expectations.

RPI led at the end of the first period 2-1 and the second period 4-2. All RPI needed to do to advance was maintain its lead for 20 minutes.

But Neiley disagreed, cutting the lead to one 2:10 into the final period before Brandon McNally ’15 nailed the equalizer with 11:12 remaining. 

Schierhorn completed the comeback with a wrist shot into the top right corner, sending Dartmouth's bench into celebration. 

The key matchup heading into this weekend was between Grant and Haggerty. In the end, Haggerty may have won the head-to-head match-up, scoring four goals on Grant, but Dartmouth won the series.

If there had to be a most valuable player, though, it would probably be Neiley. Without him, Dartmouth would remain home next weekend. Even more important was the outstanding first line play of Neiley, McNally and Grant Opperman ’17, who combined helped lead Dartmouth to victory. 

Clarkson University defeated Princeton University on Sunday, making Dartmouth the lowest remaining seed in the ECAC tournament. Dartmouth will play No. 3 Union College next weekend in another best-of-three series for the chance to participate in the semifinals in Lake Placid, N.Y.

Dartmouth Travels to RPI for ECAC Playoff Showdown

The postseason fates of Dartmouth and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute depend on the performances of Charles Grant ’16 and junior Ryan Haggerty, making the showdown between both players the key match-up of the series.

“The team’s been playing really well over the last few weeks so we’re confident that we can pull out a couple wins,” Grant said.

After earning the 10th seed entering the ECAC Hockey First Round, Dartmouth (8-17-4, 7-13-2 ECAC) will be on the road squaring off against RPI (14-14-6, 8-9-5 ECAC). The winner of the best-of-three series will advance to the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals.

Dartmouth heads to RPI who swept the season series against the Big Green, winning both matches 7-1 and 4-2. Dartmouth, however, has gone unbeaten in six of its past eight games and is a completely different team than it was when playing RPI earlier in the year.

By comparison, RPI has gone an improbable 4-4-2 over the past 10 games, oftentimes falling flat at inopportune moments. Last weekend, with the sixth seed on the line, RPI was annihilated 5-0 by Yale.

Dartmouth’s recent string of performances has given the players the confidence and the momentum to believe they can advance to the Quarterfinals with a couple good outings.

“ECAC Championship play is what we look forward to all year,” Tyler Sikura ’15 said.

This weekend will be the fifth time both teams have played each other in the playoffs. All-time, RPI is 7-5 against Dartmouth in playoff encounters, but split the series record 2-2.

“RPI is going to see a different team this weekend than they did earlier in the season,” Sikura said.

Dartmouth will try to take Haggerty, RPI’s biggest scoring threat, out of the game by keeping him away from the net, Grant said.

Haggerty leads RPI in goals, 24, and points, 14, with five game-winning shots while Grant has been one of the nation’s hottest goaltenders in recent weeks.

Earlier this week, Grant was named ECAC hockey men’s goaltender of the month for February, posting a 4-0-1 record, which included a historic shut-out of Cornell. Grant’s shut-out was the third shut-out all-time by a Dartmouth goaltender at Cornell in 54 years. The first ever shut-out occurred in 1927.

This weekend will also be the first time Grant will face RPI’s offensive lines this season as he was not in the net during both previous outings against RPI.

If Haggerty is effectively taken out of the game, senior Brock Higgs and junior Matt Neal, who have combined for 24 goals and 52 points, can fill in nicely for Haggerty, but they won’t be able to match his superior production.

Grant will need to maintain his stellar play to keep RPI from netting too many goals that could sink Dartmouth’s hopes. If Grant can keep RPI from scoring more than two goals in each game, Dartmouth can counter with its first and second lines.

For its first line, Dartmouth will likely keep Eric Neiley ’15, Brandon McNally ’15 and Grant Opperman ’17 together.

Together, the three forwards have been much more productive as a unit than when they’ve been split up. Unfortunately, although they combined for 26 goals and 55 points on the season, including 10 on the power play, their aggressiveness has limited their effectiveness at times.

McNally leads the team in penalties with 27 in 27 games while Neiley is third with 11 penalties.

For Dartmouth to upset RPI, the first line will need to avoid penalties yet somehow maintain the aggression that allows them to be effective.

Sikura serves as the nucleus of the second line and delivers a significant change-up. Although he was out for a large chunk of the season, Sikura has rebounded and provided much-needed depth for Dartmouth’s short-handed, injury-reduced squad.

Since returning, Sikura has notched two game-winning goals, including a dramatic overtime shot in the win over Brown two weeks ago.

Puck drop will occur both Friday and Saturday at 7:00 p.m., and if a third game is necessary, Sunday’s winner-take-all showdown will also be at 7:00 p.m.

Dartmouth Softball Goes 2-2 in James Madison Tournament

Cold weather in the mid-Atlantic gave softball a day off on Friday. Although temperatures remained relatively cool through the weekend, Dartmouth started heating up as the team competed in the James Madison Tournament in Harrisonburg, Virg., splitting consecutive double-headers on Saturday and Sunday.

“We made a little fire under ourselves to really get us going and get us playing as a team,” Kelsey Miller ’16 said.

Dartmouth bounced back from a rough weekend last week in the Florida International Tournament but, due to cold weather, had to wait until Saturday to play as both of Friday’s games were cancelled.

If anything, Dartmouth was more prepared to play in the cold than its opponents because of Hanover’s cold weather, Karen Chaw ’17 said.

Dartmouth went on to defeat Penn State 6-3 for its first win of the season before caving to Fairfield 7-3.

“It was really exciting to see the team improve from the changes we made since we last played in Florida,” Chaw said.

Chaw won the Ivy League’s first 2014 Rookie of the Week after hitting .333, with a two-run homer and three RBIs, last weekend in the Florida International Tournament. She continued to stand out in Dartmouth’s batting order this weekend, hitting a pair of home runs on Saturday for five RBIs.

Kristen Rumley ’15 and Miller also contributed with three hits each, and Rumley went on to earn her first win of the season, allowing three runs on 10 hits.

Chaw’s first homer couldn’t have come at a better against Penn State. Down 2-0 in the fifth, Chaw homered for three, putting Dartmouth into the lead. A solo shot to left-center allowed Penn State to tie the game, but Dartmouth seized the lead for good with an RBI double by Brianna Lohmann ’16.

In the top of the seventh, Dartmouth added another two runs to seal the game off Chloe Madill ‘17’s double.

The second half of Saturday’s double-header started badly for Dartmouth, as Fairfield jumped to a quick 3-0 lead with a three-run homer in the first. Dartmouth responded in the bottom of the inning with a two-run homer by Chaw, her second of the day.

Fairfield added another run in the fifth for a 4-2 lead before exploding for another three-run inning in the sixth.

With the game out of reach in the bottom of the seventh, Kara Curosh ’14 crushed a solo home run to left field.

Whereas Chaw was the offensive star for Dartmouth on Saturday, Miller took on the role Sunday, generating five hits on the day, including a lead-off home run against Fairfield. Chaw also performed strongly, notching two hits and two RBIs against James Madison University.

In the first game of its Sunday double-header, a rematch against Fairfield, Dartmouth avenged its loss the previous day with a 4-1 outing.

Rumley was the girl on fire in earning her second win, throwing yet another complete game with nine strikeouts, four hits and just the one run. Rumley’s afternoon was made much easier with excellent run support. She herself notched an RBI, scoring McCalmon on a double in the seventh to seal the game.

Fairfield responded to Miller’s lead-off homer in the bottom of the first with a triple that brought home Fairfield’s leadoff hitter.

Neither team could generate hits over the next five innings as Rumley and her Fairfield counterpart, senior Rebecca Trott, shut down the opposing offense until the sixth inning when Katie McEachern ‘16’s home run to deep center broke the tie, making it 3-1.

Dartmouth nearly eked out a victory over JMU, but a walk-off double stole Dartmouth’s moment and handed JMU a dramatic 3-2 win.

“We did a lot of the little things right such as stringing hits together,” Miller said. “Even though we ended up losing, it was definitely one of our best games.”

Rumley’s pitching services were once again called into action, and she held JMU scoreless for the first five innings. Unfortunately, Dartmouth’s batting lineup was also held in check.

Dartmouth finally scored in the fifth as Chaw’s hit to center field scored runners on first and second, putting Dartmouth on top 2-0 with two innings left.

Needing just six outs for another victory, Rumley tried to close the game but JMU finally scored on a single and a sacrifice fly, tying the game heading into the final inning. McCalmon then relieved Rumley, who ended her day after pitching almost 13 straight innings.

Dartmouth loomed with runners in scoring position but Chaw, who had been batting strong all weekend and was the reason Dartmouth was tied, popped out. After a sacrifice bunt to put a runner in scoring position, JMU would win the game with a double to center field that scored the winning run.

Dartmouth won’t play again until Mar. 14 when the Big Green heads west to compete in the University of California-Santa Barbara Tournament and the LMU Tournament.

“As a team we’re working in practice to get better and I don’t think this is the end of our improvements,” Chaw said. “The team will continue to progressively improve.”

Dartmouth Figure Skating Places Second at Liberty University

Sporting fluffy green stick-on mustaches off the ice, the club figure skating team placed second at the 2014 Liberty University Intercollegiate Competition in Lynchburg, Va. this weekend, behind only the University of Delaware. The team finished with 105 points, three points ahead of Boston University, but 36 short of the Blue Hens’ 141.

Dartmouth sent 18 skaters to the competition, earning a total of 18 medals in 16 events.

“Nearly all of our competitors scored points for Dartmouth, which was amazing,” team member Clara Guo ’17 said.

Early on Saturday, Dartmouth led in team points, which are awarded to skaters who place in the top five. Maddy Thornton ’17, Jojo Miller ’14, Caroline Knoop ’15, Alyssa Mahatme ’17 earned silver medals in their respective programs.

Katie Bates ’16 also finished third in the senior ladies long program.

Armin Mahbanoozadeh ’17 dominated the senior men’s short program, sweeping ordinals, while Thornton won the novice ladies long program, landing a double lutz-double toe combination to the music of Santana.

In the dance events, Kelsey Anspach ’15 placed third in the junior solo dance and first in the novice solo dance. Pinar Gurel, a Ph.D. candidate at the Geisel School of Medicine, placed second in the intermediate solo dance, and Victoria Rackohn ’14 and Iris Yu ’14 placed second and third, respectively, in the juvenile solo dance.

Despite leading for most of Saturday, Dartmouth fell behind at the end of the day, trailing Delaware 76-93 after the high team maneuver event, in which Dartmouth’s team of Mahatme, Mahbanoozadeh, Knoop, Kirsten Seagers ’15 and Gurel placed second.

On Sunday, Thornton, Guo and Miller competed in the intermediate team maneuvers, earning gold. Seagers and Knoop placed second and third, respectively, in the junior ladies’ championship long program.

“This competition showed us the depth of talent on our team, and it was inspiring for us to watch each other skate,” Miller, a co-captain, said.

The team has placed in the top three for the past two competitions and has a good chance to qualify for the national championships, Knoop, the other co-captain said.

“We are a team that improves throughout the season, and this weekend set us up nicely for the rest of the season,” she said.

Each season, the three colleges with the most points in each conference are invited to compete at the U.S. Intercollegiate Team Figure Skating Championships. This year, the national competition will be hosted by Adrian College in Adrian, Mich., from April 11-13.

In November, the team placed third at the Cornell University Intercollegiate Competition, 10 points behind Boston University and 35 points behind Delaware.

The team has improved since the fall competition, Miller said.

“We’re starting to find our footing on the ice,” Miller said. “There were a lot of breakthrough performances from our younger skaters who are becoming more and more confident on the ice.”

Later this month, the team will compete again, this time at the University of Delaware.

Dartmouth is developing a small rivalry with Delaware. Last season, Dartmouth defeated Delaware in fall 2012 by 14 points. Delaware would go on to avenge its loss with wins over Dartmouth in March 2013, 125-117, and in the national championships, 98-93. Prior to that, Dartmouth won nationals in 2012 and was the runner-up in 2010, behind BU and came in second place behind Delaware in 2011.

To qualify for the national championships, Dartmouth must remain in the top three schools in the Eastern conference. If Dartmouth places third or better at the Delaware competition, the team will qualify and return to nationals.

“I don’t want to jinx anything,” Yu said. “But I think we are pretty hopeful.”

This weekend’s competition provided Yu with plenty of fun, but also some bittersweet, memories, she said. She will cherish the moments of massage trains, eating dinner as a team and winning “Who want to be a millionaire?” while traveling. 

For Miller, his Dartmouth career has come full circle. 

“Oh my gosh, I’m feeling all of the feels right now,” Miller said. “Liberty was my first competition ever with the team my freshman fall.” 

Since his first competition, he has won gold and silver at nationals, competed in every competition over the last 3.5 years and helped organize nationals last year when it was held at Dartmouth with people he considers his family. 

“This weekend was a blast, full of nostalgia of past experiences with the team and getting to watch the team continue to grow,” Miller said. “The skaters are a riot, and it's always great to hang out and befriend skaters from other colleges. Layer the experience with lots of traveling and no sleep, and it provides for unforgettable times.”

Written by the same author, this story was originally published by The Dartmouth on March 4, 2014. 

Dartmouth's Representation at 2014 Sochi Winter Games

Starting as early as the Opening Ceremony, Dartmouth athletes have been representing their countries, and their school, with extremely solid efforts as the 22nd Winter Olympics in Sochi hits its midway point.

If Fox Sports could declare a winner of the Opening Ceremony, Tucker Murphy ’04 would receive a gold. In temperatures below 40 degrees, Murphy, Bermuda’s sole representative, wore Bermuda’s iconic red shorts and blazer while carrying the nation’s flag, even temporarily trending on Twitter.

Once the actual events started, many Dartmouth athletes have experienced success as well as heartbreak.

Murphy competed in the 15-kilometer classic race and finished 84th, an improvement on his 88th place result in Vancouver.

Hannah Kearney ’15 was the favorite to win the gold in the freestyle moguls, and seemed prepare to defend her gold after earning the highest score during the qualification round. Had Kearney, considered the top-ranked and most consistent skier in the world since Vancouver, earned gold, she would have been the first back-to-back winner of an Olympic freestyle event.

Kearney, however, earned bronze after losing her footing temporarily at the start of her run. Sisters Justine and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe earned gold and silver ahead of Kearney.

Kearney, the next day, announced her retirement on NBC Sports in an interview with Lester Holt. However, after the interview, she clarified that she will compete in more World Cup events but her Olympic career is over, forgoing the 2018 Games in Pyeongyang, South Korea.

Representing Dartmouth on the Canadian women’s hockey team, Gillian Apps ’06 looks to earn a third goal medal. Apps, a three-time Olympian, considers Turin, Vancouver and Sochi as being incredible and unique in their own way.

“It's an incredible honor to have had the opportunity to represent my country at three different Winter Olympic Games,” Apps said.

Canada is the presumptive favorite and has won gold the last three Winter Games.

So far the Canadians have defeated Switzerland 5-0 and Finland 3-0 before clashing against an equally powerful American team that defeated Switzerland and Finland by a combined 12-1. Canada triumphed over America in a physical 3-2 win that featured the Americans outplaying the Canadians for most of the first two periods before a dominant third period performance that put Canada on top.

“Our team is still working on improving little parts of our game as we go through the tournament,” Apps said. “We're looking to be able to play a full 60 minutes as a group. If we can get to that point, that is where you will see us play our best hockey.”

In the Semifinal, Canada, and Apps, will face Switzerland on Monday in a rematch.

Apps has contributed seven shots on and 32 minutes on the ice in the three wins. Right now, Apps hasn’t made a decision about whether Sochi will be her final Olympic Games.

“I’m just focusing on the task at hand right now and enjoying my Olympic experience,” Apps said.

Sophie Caldwell ’12 surprised the world with a sixth-place overall finish despite falling during the final sprint when her ski tangled with another skier’s pole. Caldwell’s finish is the best ever for a U.S. female cross-country skier.

“I went into the Olympics without many expectations,” Caldwell said. “I know I ski the fastest when I'm happy and enjoying myself, so the best I could do to prepare was to soak up the experience. I definitely wasn't expecting that result going into the day, but I felt great and was so excited about everything.”

Caldwell finished second in her semifinal heat to claim the sixth spot in the six-person final, and was the only American to advance past the quarterfinals. Gold medal contender Kikkan Randall, who previously held the best Olympic mark before the race, Ida Sargent '11 and Jessie Diggins all missed out on advancing.

Sargent finished 19th in the event.

Caldwell, who came just short of becoming the second-ever American medalist in cross-country skiing since Bill Koch’s silver medal and the first in 38 years, has been enjoying every minute of her Olympic experience and doesn’t want it to end.

“I've received so many supportive messages from people back home and I think that's been one of the coolest things,” Caldwell said. “It's awesome to see people getting excited about the sport of cross-country skiing and I'm extremely grateful to have such a strong support crew!”

Caldwell and her teammates have also had a chance to enjoy the weather, which has been extremely warm for a Winter Games.

During some events, such the halfpipe, the snow has turned into slush, forcing the snow to be chemically treated until its hardened for snowboarders. And some skiers have been seen racing in topless or in t-shirts.

“We raced in tank tops yesterday because it was in the 50s,” Caldwell said. “It’s been so hot, but really beautiful weather.”

Susan Dunklee ’08 finished 14th in the 7.5km sprint to post the top Olympic sprint finish ever by a U.S. woman. Dunklee also ties Joan Smith, who finished 14th in the 1994 15km, for the best Olympic finish by a woman.

“I have never been so nervous before a race as I was yesterday morning,” Dunklee said. “However, once I started warming up and zeroing my rifle, everything felt very routine, which is exactly what you try to create on race day.”

Dunklee was 41.5 seconds behind first place biathlete Anastasiya Kuzima, and might have earned the bronze medal if Dunklee had not missed her final shot. Dunklee’s miss cost her 20 seconds as she completed a penalty lap.

“Missing my last shot was a little heartbreaking, but I was able to laugh it off, ski hard, and turn in one of my strongest performances of the season,” Dunklee said.

Sara Studebaker ’07 and Hannah Dreissigacker ’09 finished 44th and 65th in the sprint.

Studebaker had previously competed at the Vancouver Olympics, but for Dreissigacker, the sprint was her first ever-Olympic competition.

Understandably, Dreissigacker was nervous but not as much as she was during her trials races. In fact, she felt more excited and happy than apprehensive.

“I was thinking about my various goals and focuses for the race as well, and I definitely thought about how I wanted to do well, since so many people at home were watching and following me,” Dreissigacker said.

During the race, all Dreissigacker thought about was what she was doing at the moment and what she needed to do next. But after the race, she was mad and frustrated about how poorly she shot and, as a result, missed the cutoff for the 10-km pursuit. Dreissigacker had missed one shot prone and three standing.

“I haven't been competing in high-level biathlon races for that long, but I've been shooting well in practice, and I really expect better of myself than missing 3 in standing,” Dressigacker said. “I was really frustrated about that, and feeling a bit down, to be honest. But then I had to remind myself that I was at the Olympics, racing against the best biathletes in the world, and I was in a beautiful place having lots of amazing experiences, and so I had a lot to be happy about and couldn't give myself too hard of a time.”

All three biathletes agree that the biathlon course is challenging but the organizing committee has made the course safer after their test event by improving the banking downhill turns.

“Our course is hard, but really everything is great up here,” Dressigacker said. “Its not harder than other hard world cup courses. The stadium is big and really nice, and it’ss so beautiful up here! There's lots of snow, and it’s all very professional.”

Officials have been dealing with the warm conditions by salting the uphills to maintain firmness and prevent deterioration during the race. Competitors are then forced to ski in snow conditions, but conditions they consider normal for warmer weather.

The venue itself, according to Dunklee, suits her strengths as it’s loaded with hills.

Dunklee and Studebaker’s finish qualified them for the 10km pursuit two days later.

“I've felt very relaxed during these Games,” Studebaker said. “I feel well-prepared and confident and am really just enjoying the atmosphere of being at the Olympics. It's so exciting to see our team performing well and some of my teammates being so close to medals! I'm enjoying it and am trying to transfer that excitement and relaxed energy into my races.”

Dunklee continued to perform strong, moving up to the top-5 before she missed three shots, dropping her to 18th in the spring. Studebaker missed five of 10 shots as she finished 51st.

After the sprint, Studebaker was excited to have shot well and qualified for the pursuit, and was happy with her effort as it was her best result all season. But following the pursuit, she was disappointed because she had skied well and registered three solid rounds of shooting, but her first attempt went badly.

Dreissigacker had the best result of U.S. women in the 15-km Biathlon women’s individual, finishing 23rd with two penalties. Dunklee finished 34th with five penalties and Studebaker was 55th with four penalties.

Then on Sunday morning, Andrew Weibrecht ’09 stunned the world with a silver-medal finish in the men’s super-G, coming just fractions of a second ahead of more-heralded teammate Bode Miller who tied for the bronze.

Weibrecht’s top finish this season was 20th place at Beaver Creek, and he was never considered a medal favorite in Sochi. Weibrecht won a surprise bronze medal in Vancouver in the super-G but had been beset by injuries in the interim and was even dropped from U.S. Skiing’s “A” roster.

After a fast start that had him ahead of the gold-medal pace by over three-tenths of a second, Weibrecht faded over the last split, slipping into second place with a time of 1:18.44.

Weibrecht told NBC that he knew he had skied well but was surprised by his result. “I took a couple seconds and looked at the time,” he said in an interview with NBC. “I saw ‘2.’ I looked away. I looked again. I thought, ‘You have got to be kidding.’”

Preview: Dartmouth Women's Hockey Prepares for Friday Night Conference Tilt with Harvard

Dartmouth women's hockey gets to enjoy a relatively light week with just one match-up. However, before Dartmouth can rest, the Big Green must square off against No. 5 Harvard (17-2-3, 13-2-2 ECAC) on Friday night.

For the past four weeks, Dartmouth (7-15-1, 6-10-1 ECAC) has played two games every weekend, which means a one-game weekend is a welcome relief so that players may use the extra day to nurse any injuries.

Last weekend, Dartmouth lost both its games against Quinnipiac and Princeton. Harvard fared much better, defeating Princeton and tying Quinnipiac. However, Harvard is coming off a very short week as it played Northeastern on Tuesday night and lost 4-3. Once the final buzzer sounds on Friday, Harvard will have played four teams over the course of a week.

In the first match-up between both teams, Harvard shut-out Dartmouth 5-0.

As with the first game, Dartmouth's top line of Laura Stacey '16 (12 points), Lindsey Allen '16 (13 goals) and Catherine Berghuis '16 (nine points) will be hard pressed to score on Harvard's goaltending, which has an impressive 95.3 percent save percentage.

Harvard's offense can be just as intimidating as its goaltending, averaging 2.8 goals per game, as well as succeeding on 15 percent of its power-play opportunities. The Crimson also have three skaters with double-digit goals and seven with double-digit points.

Harvard currently maintains the #1 seed in the ECAC while Dartmouth is tied for #8 seed with RPI.

A win for Harvard would keep Harvard at least two points ahead of No. 3 Clarkson for first in the ECAC, whereas a Harvard loss and Clarkson win would cause a first-place tie. Dartmouth arguably needs the win more to keep pace with RPI, or to start distancing itself from RPI in an effort to seal the final playoff spot.

Puck drop is at 7:00 pm at Thompson Arena.

Preview: Dartmouth Men's Hockey Looks for Big Friday Night Conference Win Over Harvard

Dartmouth men's hockey travels to Harvard Friday night for a conference clash between two teams experiencing rough seasons.

A win over Harvard would cause a 10th place tie in the ECAC, though a Dartmouth win and a St. Lawrence loss would create a three-way traffic jam for ninth. Otherwise, a Harvard win and St. Lawrence win wouldn't have any major effect on the standings, while a Harvard win and St. Lawrence loss would simply break their current tie at ninth.

“We’re looking forward to them,” Eric Neiley ’15 said. “Harvard’s a fun team to play and a fun place to play. They’re a good team that’s playing well right now.”

Last weekend, Dartmouth (4-15-3, 3-11-1 ECAC) rebounded from a manhandling by Quinnipiac on Friday to explode offensively for a 5-3 win over Princeton that propelled the Big Green out of last place in the ECAC. Harvard (6-11-3, 3-9-3 ECAC) had a short week, defeating Princeton 3-2 on Friday before being shut-out 6-0 by No. 11 Northeastern in the opening game of the 62nd Annual Beanpot Tournament.

“These Ivy League games are important in and of themselves just because of what they represent, but I think these ones are really fun for the guys,” head coach Bob Gaudet said. “I know the team is really going to be energized going in Harvard.”

In the win over Princeton, Dartmouth played with a lot of energy and emotion that had been lacking for most of the season. As a result, Dartmouth jumped out to a 4-0 lead early and a plus-20 shot advantage in the second period and never looked back as it held off a Princeton rally with a fifth goal that sealed the game.

In order to win its second consecutive game, Dartmouth needs to maintain the high level of play and avoid an emotional letdown from the big win.

“When our feet are moving and when we’re moving the puck and doing the right things, we’re having a lot of fun,“ Grant Opperman ’17 said. “When you’re having a lot of fun, you’re going to have a lot of emotion.”

Offensively, Harvard is a very middle-of-the-pack team, averaging 2.38 goals and 26.9 shots per game. Harvard also has an average penalty kill (86.2 percent) and power-play success rate (13.5 percent). 21 of the team's 50 goals comes from sophomores Jimmy Vesey and Kyle Criscuolo, which means Dartmouth's key to shutting down the Harvard attack is to stop Vesey and Criscuolo cold. 

Dartmouth was once considered the third best team in the ECAC during the preseason before injuries decimated the line-up. A win over Harvard, according to Opperman, would send a statement to the rest of the ECAC that Dartmouth is still very much alive and dangerous enough to mount a deep run in the playoffs.

All that's needed is some consistency.

“We got to put a string together and be more consistent than we have been but if you look at the standings of the Ivy League, we’re still in the race,” Opperman said. “In the ECAC, all the teams are pretty good and anyone can beat anyone in the playoffs and we hope to do that.”

Puck drop is at 7:00 pm at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center.

Dartmouth Survives Princeton Rally to Win 5-3

Photo courtesy of The Dartmouth

Dartmouth (4-15-3, 3-11-1 ECAC) rebounded from last night's embarrassing loss to Quinnipiac with a big 5-3 win over Princeton (4-17-0, 3-11-0 ECAC). Princeton also lost its Friday night game, a 3-2 affair that Harvard had led 3-0 late in the third. Dartmouth’s win lifted the Big Green out of last place in the ECAC.

Dartmouth exploded in the first period, racing out to a 3-0 lead in the first 20 minutes. In the first six minutes, Dartmouth took numerous close shots, keeping the sell-out crowd in Thompson Arena on the edge of its seat.

The Big Green looked like a completely different team compared to Friday night, and played how the preseason polls predicted.

In his first home match against Princeton, Grant Opperman ’17 netted a well-placed shot 5:57 into the game over senior Sean Bonar’s shoulder, igniting the crowd and causing a rain of tennis balls onto the ice.

“It was awesome,” Opperman said. “It was a good play on the power play. There was a great screen. I was lucky enough to be the guy on the spot and pick up the puck and get it in the back of the net. But it was awesome seeing all the tennis balls coming down.”

Opperman’s power play goal was Dartmouth’s first of the calendar year and first in its last 24 opportunities. Dartmouth would go on to add another power play goal in each successive period.

It also turned out to be Eric Neiley ’15’s first time on the ice for the tennis ball toss. Saturday night was Neiley’s first action since the 1-1 Cornell draw as he served a two-game suspension.

“It feels good,” Neiley said. “You never want to sit out. You just want to help the team in any way you can. It’s good to be back and I’m glad I could help out. Tonight was a fun game to be back for.”

There was a momentary scare when Neiley was crosschecked from behind which knocked him down into the net. The goalpost struck his neck, stinging it and sending him to the bench for the rest of the first period. He would later return after the period break and play a big part.

Dartmouth finished the first period with a major 22-5 shot advantage.

45 seconds into the second period, Brandon McNally ’16 redirected a shot from Neiley, netting Dartmouth’s second power play of the night. McNally’s goal would prove to be the game winner.

From there, the second period proved to be Princeton’s.

“Princeton took advantage of some of our turnovers in the second period,” Gaudet said. “We made a few of them in the offensive zone while trying to make a play.”

Princeton refused to give up, battling back with three goals from senior Alec Rush, junior Tyler Magueri and senior Andrew Calof before the second period ended. Several other shots threatened to enter Dartmouth’s net but didn’t.

“I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t nervous, because it’s funny how the game ebbs away a little bit and it’s not from a lack of effort,” Gaudet said. “But to regroup going into the third period was really important. We just kept the play in front of us. I thought Princeton played a good game but they weren’t a threat in the third period.”

Jesse Beamish ’15 proved to be the hero of the night, netting his second goal of the night on the power play during the third period. Beamish’s shot from the left circle bounced off Bonar’s leg pads and rolled slowly into the net, sealing the win.

“In a one-goal game, they’re a power play or a shot off a bad angle that hits somebody and it doesn’t have to be a pretty goal,” Gaudet said. “That was just a huge play to get a puck into the net.”

Princeton would pull Bonar from the net to add an extra skater with 2:22 left but never managed to score. Unfortunately, Dartmouth was unable to get a good shot off at the empty net but successfully prevented Princeton from getting multiple shots with the extra skater.

Dartmouth would finish the third period with a 19-3 shot advantage, finishing with a 48-20 advantage.

Dartmouth’s penalty kill also rebounded from the previous night’s Quinnipiac game, thwarting all four of Princeton’s chances.

Kruger allowed three goals in 20 shots but was able to pick up his first career win with Dartmouth’s offensive outburst. Kruger’s Princeton counterpart, Bonar, matched his career high with 43 saves as Dartmouth attacked the goal all game long.

Dartmouth’s 48 shots set a new season high. Its previous high this year came in the season opener when Dartmouth managed 40 shots against Princeton.

Both sides played aggressive all night long, and it showed in the combined 10 penalties both teams took.

Dartmouth travels to Harvard next Friday for its only game of the week. A win over Harvard and a St. Lawrence loss will create a three-team logjam for ninth place in the ECAC.

As for Princeton, the Tigers will prepare for two home games against St. Lawrence and Clarkson.

No. 3 Quinnipiac Annihilates Dartmouth to Seize Conference Lead

No. 3 Quinnipiac overwhelmed an injury-decimated and over-matched Dartmouth squad 8-1. The game was a microcosm of Dartmouth's entire season, and was the hockey equivalent of a perfect game for Quinnipiac.

The rout started from the very first face-off as senior Connor Jones scored the game's first goal in just eight seconds, setting a school record for fastest goal. The Bobcats never looked back, reeling off another five goals by the end of the second period and forcing Dartmouth to change its goalie.

Three of Quinnipiac's goals were scored in a timespan of just three minutes.

"Quinnipiac is an excellent team," Dartmouth head coach Bob Gaudet said following the game. "I thought from the opening face-off Quinnipiac was outstanding. We didn't have any answers and that's my jobs."

Dartmouth's lone goal came long after the game's outcome was no longer in doubt. The point seemed to only antagonize Quinnipiac as they would net another two easily before the night's end.

Dartmouth entered the game needing to capitalize on power play opportunities to remain competitive. Except Dartmouth couldn't score on any of its power plays as Quinnipiac's penalty kill was too good. Quinnipiac entered Friday with a penalty kill of 91 percent, while Dartmouth is now scoreless in its last 23 power plays.

"We're better than we showed but they have an outstanding team," Gaudet said. "They presented us a lot of problems in terms of their skill level and quickness."

Dartmouth hopes to rebound from tonight's defeat with a win against Princeton tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. The game will be well attended by Dartmouth students because of the traditional "tennis ball toss" after the team's first goal.

Quinnipiac's win and losses by Union and Colgate means Quinnipiac holds sole possession of first place in the ECAC. 

Dartmouth Men's Hockey Faces Tough Conference Battles This Weekend

Dartmouth men’s hockey is entering the final month of the regular season with match-ups this weekend against two teams experiencing very different seasons. Dartmouth goes from playing No. 3 Quinnipiac, the second-ranked team in the ECAC, on Friday to playing Princeton Saturday night.

“We’re looking at Quinnipiac first,” Grant Opperman ’17 said. “They’re a pretty good team and they play an offensive game. They’ve got a lot of skill on their team but I think we match up well with them skill for skill. It should be fun. It could turn into either a big shootout or a big defensive game.”

Dartmouth (3-14-3, 2-10-1 ECAC) is going to face an extremely tough battle against Quinnipiac (18-4-5, 8-2-3 ECAC), who will approach Friday with a must-win attitude. Quinnipiac is in a three-way race for first place with Union and Colgate, tying Colgate in points and trailing Union for first in the ECAC by just one point. 

“We’re pretty excited,” Geoff Ferguson ’16 said. “Quinnipiac’s always a fun game. It’s always good to test yourself against one of the best teams in the nation. I think we’re right there with them if we play our game.”

Quinnipiac had been No. 4 last weekend but after remaining idle over the weekend, Quinnipiac rose one spot after RPI stunned Union 3-2. Now Union sits one spot behind Quinnipiac.

Yet in the end, very few people believe Dartmouth will upset the third-ranked team in the nation on Friday, but don’t tell that to Dartmouth’s players. They’ll approach every game from here on out as a must-win regardless of how strong the teams they face are.

“Every game is crucial,” Ferguson said. “We just got to get better every night especially with where we are right now. What we need to do is improve each night and we’ll be there by the end of the year.”

Statistically speaking, the odds are not in Dartmouth’s favor for Dartmouth is heading into the jaws of a team averaging 3.52 goals per game and allowing only 1.82 goals. 

Freshman Sam Anas has stormed onto the collegiate scene, and leads Quinnipiac in both goals (16) and points (32). Anas currently ranks as the top-scoring first-year player in the nation, holding a three-point lead on St. Lawrence’s Matt Carey (29).

In order to have a chance at winning, Dartmouth must capitalize on every power play opportunity against Quinnipiac who has a penalty kill percentage of 90 percent. Otherwise, the Big Green may never have another chance to score.

Dartmouth’s last power play goal came on Dec. 30 in a wild 8-8 contest with then-No. 17 Northeastern. Since then, Dartmouth has gone 0-of-20 in its last six games.

Opperman, architect of the most exciting play in last week’s game against RPI, hopes to repeat his performance with another goal in, ideally, both of this weekend’s games. Against RPI last weekend, Opperman had scored right out of the penalty box, fielding a pass from Connor Dempsey, dekeing out the RPI goalie and knocking the puck in. His performance caused him to be nominated as ECAC Rookie of the Week.

“I hope if I score it’s not out of the penalty box before it happens but you have to love breakaways whenever they happen,” Opperman said.

Princeton (4-15-0, 3-9-0 ECAC) is ranked 11th out of 12 teams in the ECAC standings. Dartmouth sits last at No. 12. Princeton won both early season match-ups in overtime, 3-2 in October and 5-4 in November, explaining why Dartmouth is one spot behind the Tigers in the standings.

Dartmouth currently leads 95-86-15 in the historic rivalry, which dates back to 1907. Princeton will visit Hanover for the second game of a two-game road trip this weekend, the first being at Harvard on Friday night.

The good news for Dartmouth is that Eric Neiley ’15 will make his return. Neiley, one of Dartmouth’s top scorers, will have finished serving a two game suspension he receiving for a late-game altercation with a Cornell player two weekends ago. 

If Dartmouth can stun Quinnipiac on Friday, the Big Green can climb out of the ECAC cellar with a win over Princeton. Unfortunately, Dartmouth will need a surprising turnaround if head coach Bob Gaudet’s squad wants to host a playoff series in Hanover. 

“The Princeton game is always one of our highlights of the year,” Ferguson said. “The tennis ball toss and all the fans in the stands. It’s always a good night.”

Princeton has had little to smile about this season since squeaking by Dartmouth 3-2 to start the season. One of its few highlights was a surprising 3-2 upset over Quinnipiac. But overall, Princeton has been blown out in most of their losses, including being outscored 12-3 in two games by Michigan State.

Princeton has had a weak scoring offense all season, totaling just 35 goals. The Tigers leading scorer is senior Andrew Ammon but he has only six goals on the year. The power play offense is just as weak, scoring 11 goals on 69 opportunities.

Dartmouth should be able to harass Princeton’s goaltender all game long with Princeton’s poor defense, which has allowed 3.74 goals per game.

“I haven’t been around for a Princeton game yet but I hear it’s a lot of fun,” Opperman said. “I’m really looking forward to it.”

Puck drop for both games is 7:00 p.m. If you’re in the Hanover area, don’t forget to bring your tennis balls for Saturday’s Princeton game.

A Brief History of Dartmouth College in the Olympics

Dartmouth owns a long and storied history of sending athletes to the Olympics, starting in 1908 when Arthur B. Shaw ’08 won a bronze medal in the 110-meter hurdles at the Games of the Fourth Olympiad in London. Since then, Dartmouth has sent over 150 athletes to the Games, including all but one Summer Olympics since 1908 and to every Winter Olympics since the founding on the Winter Games in 1924. 

Through 2010, Dartmouth athletes have claimed 28 gold, 22 silver and 13 bronze medals.

Unfortunately, for Dartmouth’s impressive Olympic history, there is no single, easily accessible, easily searchable, record of Dartmouth Olympians, their involvements and their performances. Students interested in the history of Dartmouth at the Olympics must rely on a scattering of articles released by Dartmouth Now, U.S. News & World Report and press releases from the Dartmouth Athletics Department.

Normally, those sources provide satisfactory coverage for readers but there is a surprising amount of inconsistency and incompleteness. The Athletics Department press releases provide the most complete record of Dartmouth Olympians, but the ones they have published, when pieced together, reveal a partial list of athletes and events. Not enough medals are listed to correlate with the amount claimed, not all events are listed, etc.

Only one known collection of first-hand accounts from Dartmouth Olympians exists, a 2013 Masters Thesis written by Jennifer Titus Johnson. Johnson also made it clear that there was a stunning lack of documentation and data collection.

Her thesis currently resides in Rauner library, waiting for a single page to be reprinted so that the entire work can be bound. Until then, it sadly remains a pile of unbound paper. Its one saving grace? Any student interested in reading personal recollections regarding Dartmouth’s Olympic history can read it during Rauner’s open hours.

Despite the lack of a clear history, Dartmouth deserves a lot of credit for the assistance it provides to Olympic athletes. In all actuality, Dartmouth’s assistance in ensuring education for athletes is more important than documenting their performances.

One of the many ways Dartmouth has supported athletes is the so-called “15-year plan,” which allows athletes the flexibility to take numerous off-terms to train and participate in the games. Some winter sport athletes take classes during the spring and take off-terms during the fall, winter and summer.

According to her thesis, Johnson indicated many Dartmouth Olympians are thankful that Dartmouth didn’t force them to choose between their Olympic dreams or completing their education. Many lament that nowadays, young athletes are forced to choose one or the other.

Furthermore, athletes are provided superior training facilities, excellent coaching and a natural environment conducive for Winter Olympics practice. 

Aided by the Dartmouth Skiway, Dartmouth is considered a premier college for aspiring winter Olympians. A 2010 U.S. News & World Report article called the Dartmouth Ski Team “a pipeline of Olympic talent,” in part because “the program’s leaders have strongly encouraged their student-athletes to focus on school while still maintaining their athletic careers.” 

Laurel Anderson ’14, a Cross-Country skier, agrees that Dartmouth is a great location for prospective Olympic skiers.

“The Dartmouth Ski Team has a great record of sending athletes to the Olympics,” Anderson explained. “Two of the cross-country skiers going to Sochi are women I skied with as a freshman and sophomore, and several of our top skiers each year have opted to continue racing professionally, and that’s not counting the biathletes. The coaches work hard to make sure everyone on the team can do every workout, despite any conflicts with classes or labs. Dartmouth professors are usually very accommodating when it comes to missing class for races.”

In return for its efforts, Dartmouth holds the distinction of most Olympic appearances out of all the Ivies with 110 appearances in the Winter Games. Harvard, the next closest Ivy, has just 71 appearances.

However, here occurs some disagreement depending on which news source you read. Dartmouth College claims 110 appearances, but IvyLeagueSports.com indicates Dartmouth has 124 Olympic alumni. Additional disagreement also occurs regarding Harvard’s numbers as U.S. News reported Harvard has 77 athletes with Olympic appearances. 

Overall, Dartmouth Olympians have represented 15 different countries, most playing for the United States or Canada. Other countries include Great Britain, Japan, Bermuda, Norway, Switzerland, Argentina, New Zealand, France and Italy. 

Many Dartmouth Olympians never had the opportunity to participate in the games despite having qualified. Instead, world events have changed the lives of many athletes. 

Ten Dartmouth Olympians, in men’s hockey and men’s skiing, never when the 1940 Helsinki Winter games were cancelled due to World War II. 

Six other athletes, including the Geer sisters, were prohibited from the 1980 Moscow Summer games when President Jimmy Carter boycotted the games in response to Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan. All six athletes would have competed in crew.

Luckily for Carlie Geer ’80 and Julia Geer ’75, they both had second chances to compete. 

Julia competed in two other Olympics, but even if she had been able to participate in the 1980 games, she still wouldn’t have surpassed Cameron Myler ’92 for the most Olympics appearances. Myler competed in four consecutive Winter Games from 1988 to 1998. 

Carlie would become the first Dartmouth woman to win a medal, taking silver in crew at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. It wouldn’t be for another 14 years, at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, that another woman would win a medal. Gretchen Ulion ’94 and Sarah Tueting ’98 won the gold medal that year with the U.S. women’s hockey team, becoming the first Dartmouth women to win a medal in the Winter Games. 

Shaw was the first Dartmouth athlete to win a medal, while John Shea ’34 (gold – speed skating), Robert Minton ’26 (bronze - bobsled) and Douglas Everett ’26 (silver - hockey) were the first men to win medals in a Winter Olympics during the 1932 winter games in Lake Placid. Shea actually won two gold medals, making him the first multi-medal winner for Dartmouth. 

Shea holds the distinction being the only non-hockey ice skater from Dartmouth to compete despite Dartmouth’s reputation as a superior location for prospective Winter Olympians. No figure skater and no other speed skater has appeared in the games before or after Shea.

Jojo Miller ’14, one of Dartmouth’s leading figure skaters, believes there are several different factors explaining the lack of Dartmouth Olympic non-hockey skaters, such as physical abilities and time prioritization.

“Girls hit their prime in their late teens and early twenties,” Miller continued. “Michelle Kwan stopped competing when he was 26, which is considered 'old' in skater years. Men hit their prime a few years later. Our current champion, Jeremy Abbott, is 28 and is planning on retiring after the Olympics. The guy who came in second is 18-Jeremy is considered really old. So pretty much, by the time people are graduating college, that's the age where skaters have stopped competing.” 

The amount of time spent training to become an Olympic-caliber figure skater would jeopardize a student’s academics. But focusing on academics ruins the opportunity to become an Olympic skater.

“Skating is an all-or-nothing sport,” Miller explained. “You can’t be doing school if you want to be good enough to go to the Olympics. You have to be at the training facilities with the top coaches and best skaters, like in Colorado Springs or Boston. All the best skaters devote most of their days to training on and off the ice, and you can't do that at Dartmouth. There’s no way you could come to Dartmouth, graduate, and go on to train for the Olympics like hockey skaters or skiers. They have way longer shelf lives to be able to do that than figure skaters. With skating, you have to be going full force with it by the right coaches and facilities until you stop competing to be Olympian worthy.”

Dartmouth women’s hockey can make a strong argument for having the best athletic program that produces Olympic talent and medal winners.

Cherie Piper ’06 and Gillian Apps ’06 were members of the gold medal-winning Canadian woman’s hockey team. They both earned points when Canada routed Slovakia 18-0 as the Canadians outshot the Slovakians 67-9. Piper registered a goal and an assist while Apps had two assists.

The 18-point differential was the largest margin of victory in the history of Olympic women’s hockey, which has been an event since 1998.

The Canadian women’s hockey team won gold after taking out Switzerland 10-1, Sweden 13-1, Finland 5-0 and the United States 2-0. 

The 2010 gold medal was Piper’s third and Apps’ second. Apps and Piper won a gold medal in the 2006 Torino Winter Games and Piper won her first gold medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games. Interestingly, Piper’s Canadian team defeated Tueting’s U.S. team in the Americans’ bid for a second consecutive gold.

Although women’s hockey possesses the most medals for an Olympic sport, men’s hockey has had its fair share of Olympic representation, including eight players on the 1948 American hockey team.

Current men’s hockey players value the legacy their predecessors have left behind.

“It’s awesome,” Geoff Ferguson ’16 said. “We just got to try and live up to the tradition and respect the place and respect the program, and just look up to those guys and try to get better.”

Still, players are mindful to not lock themselves in the past and always towards the future.

“We try to do our own thing,” Ferguson said. “Obviously those guys paved the way for us and we can try to follow the path and use Dartmouth to improve like they did.”

During the most recent Olympic Games in London two years ago, Dartmouth was represented by four alumni – Sean Furey ’04 (javelin), Evelyn Stevens ’05 (road cycling), Eric Storck ’07 (sailing-49er class) and Anthony Fahden ’08 (lightweight crew-men’s four). 

Abbey D’Agostino ’14 and Ben True ’08 barely missed out on the 2012 games for the 5,000-meter race. 

Nine Dartmouth athletes qualified for the Vancouver Olympics, the most recent Winter Games, in 2010. Athletes from Dartmouth have participated in the Olympics as early as the 1920 Summer Games in Antwerp.

Dartmouth’s connection to the Vancouver games ran even deeper than athletic participation. The former Vancouver mayor who helped lure the games to the city was Gordon Campbell ’69, and Scott Blackmun ’79 was designated the U.S. Olympic Committee CEO during the games. Several more Dartmouth alumni assisted with the games in varying capacities.

It remains to be seen how current potential Dartmouth Olympians will perform in the upcoming Sochi Olympics and build upon Dartmouth’s heritage. Currently, 25 Dartmouth athletes are striving to qualify for the 2014 Winter games and carve their own legacy into Dartmouth’s Olympic history.

Fanni Szabo Remains Humble While Bolstering Dartmouth's Women's Basketball Team

Fourteen games into the season, injuries and illnesses have seemingly crippled the Dartmouth women’s basketball team’s chances of an Ivy Championship. But don’t tell the players that. For a team that hasn’t finished a season with a winning record since 2008-2009, Dartmouth is mathematically alive to make a surprise run for the title.

Dartmouth has played just one conference game, a 73-63 loss to Harvard last Saturday. Szabo was the team’s second leading scorer with 10 points, all in the second half, while Nicola Zimmer ’14 scored 16. Lakin Rowland ’16 was third, earning nine points and seven rebounds until she fouled out late in the contest.

However, Dartmouth’s downfall was allowing 52 points in the paint and a 9-0 run by Harvard midway through the second half. Harvard further sunk Dartmouth’s chances for a stunning comeback by hitting 92.3 percent of its free throw attempts.

But all is not lost. Two major factors support a potential Dartmouth conference title. First, the team has started to get healthy at just the right time to make a run, and second, the team will rally around the extraordinary season of Fanni Szabo ’17.

Szabo has quietly had a phenomenal freshman year, leading the team with 17.6 points per game. She has three games of 30-plus points, two of which were Dartmouth’s only wins so far.

Her propensity for scoring aligns well with her preferences. If she had to choose between playing offense or defense, she would choose offense. And her favorite defensive move? The steal, so that she can go back on offense.

However, her favorite part about the game, and playing for Dartmouth, is her teammates.

But you could never guess that Szabo was the team’s offensive star just from talking to her, a testament to her team-first attitude.

“She’s so skilled that she automatically makes everyone better in practice, and when she scores like 30 points and she acts like she didn’t even play in the game,” Lakin Rowland ’16 said. “I think she’s just a ball player and she makes it more about the team than her personal performance. She just wants to win.”

Szabo’s unselfish demeanor also translates into a humble demeanor off the court.

“She’s very sincere and modest,” Ruby Hopkins ’17 said. “It’s really refreshing to have her around to give a perspective on life. I never knew about how well she’s performed in basketball until I heard about her performances from other people. When I congratulate her on them, she redirects the attention away from herself by saying nothing could have occurred without the team.”

Szabo entered Dartmouth with a long list of accomplishments and accolades for both her basketball skills and for academics.

Szabo was born and lived all her life in Hungary. Basketball wasn’t her only sport growing up, nor was it the first sport she loved.

She participated in Track & Field as a sprinter but stopped after the fourth grade, but she recalls more fondly her attempt to play tennis. She wanted to play tennis in order to emulate her brother who was also a tennis player. However, the tennis coach told Szabo that she was too young at the age of six and that she should return when she was older.

As you can guess, she never returned and the rest is almost history. Szabo started to play basketball and gradually fell in love with the sport, following a path that eventually led her to Dartmouth.

Along the way, Szabo attended Britannica International School, which is the longest established British school in Hungary. While at Britannica, she was named the Top Student and Top Athlete in Hungary in 2012 and received an award for Academic Excellence.

She played three seasons with UNIWA Euroleasing Sopron where she won the First League National Hungarian Championship and the Hungarian Cup. She finished second in the First League Hungarian-Slovakian Championship, was named to the U18 All-Tournament Team and the list goes on, the entirety of which can be found on her Dartmouth Athletics Department biography.

Szabo was talented enough to attend any number of schools and could have become a star player for premier national powerhouse programs like Baylor University or the University of Connecticut. Instead, she chose Dartmouth, in part because of how important her academic progress is to her.

“From the first moment I decided to come to the US, I told myself that I would only come if both academic and athletics were a high priority,” Szabo explained. “When I looked at schools, I only looked at schools where both areas were important. When Dartmouth reached out to me, I knew I wanted to come here. The fact women’s basketball didn’t do well last year didn’t affect my decision.”

Szabo has only been in the United States since August but she’s enjoyed her time at Dartmouth. She loves her classes and right now she’s trying new subjects to discover her academic interests in addition to a psychology major. While at Britannica, she was restricted to four subjects and couldn’t explore different subjects.

“I love Dartmouth,” Szabo exclaimed. “It’s so much colder here than in Hungary but I’ve gotten used to it. I love the people here and they’re just so helpful and supportive. My teammates and my floor-mates, all the people I’m friends with, make me feel like I’m at home.”

Her teammates have also enjoyed spending time with her as they watch her experience new holidays and new events for the first time.

“It’s fun to be with her when she experiences new things,” Rowland said. “Like Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving isn’t something that occurs in Hungary, so she went to a teammate’s house for thanksgiving. She’s been very open about it.”

Hopkins lives on the same freshman floor as Szabo and, as a result, has developed a nice friendship with her.

“It’s always fun to talk with her,” Ruby Hopkins ’17 said. “She’s one of the people I’ve really been glad to get to know on the floor.”

As much as Szabo’s teammates have taught her, Szabo has enjoyed giving her teammates the occasional lesson in Hungarian which has the additional side effect of making her feel more at home.

“She really loves her team and they’ve been able to get along well,” Hopkins said.

For instance, Szabo teaches her teammates the occasional Hungarian phrase. After several attempts, the women’s basketball team learned how to say “Believe in yourself,” although initially, their words, according to Szabo, sounded like the complete opposite.

For her next challenge, I suggest she might try teaching at least one of her teammates the 40-plus letter Hungarian alphabet. But she probably won’t submit her teammates to learning the alphabet though considering how much she loves her team.

“I love how I’m able to see my teammates every part of the day,” Szabo said. “Last term, I took a class with one of my teammates, and this term as well. In Hungary, we didn’t have that in high school. I was always far away from my team when we weren’t practicing. It’s nice to have my teammates here all around me because it makes us know each other better.”

Szabo has been the driving force for Dartmouth’s offense and, in some ways, the fortunes of the women’s basketball team rise and fall based on her performance.

Szabo scored more than 30 points during both of Dartmouth’s victories. In her second career game, she scored 31 points, setting a new freshman scoring record in a thrilling 66-62 victory over Vermont.

Ten games later, Szabo broke her own record with 34 points in Dartmouth’s 76-72 victory over UMass in the Blue Sky Classic. Szabo registered one more game of 30+ points when she scored 33 against Providence in a 72-82 loss.

Dartmouth’s offense completely disappears when she’s been shut down by the opposing defense. When Syracuse shut out Szabo for the entire game, Syracuse won big 88-47. The two other games Szabo scored fewer than 10 points were against La Salle and Hartford, both Dartmouth losses by double digits.

“Everyone has those games where it’s just not falling for you but she just continues to play,” Rowland said. “I think it’s indicative of her character as a person and her style of play. Even if it’s not going in offensively, she can still find ways of contributing defensively.”

Every time after a lackluster performance, Szabo has bounced back with a vengeance and demonstrated a clear positive growth mindset.

“She plays smart. She doesn’t really get into foul trouble,” Rowland said. “She leads by example. She’s not one to criticize or be very vocal. When she is vocal, it’s more of a positive tone. I think the coaches appreciate her. She plays a lot and she’s a great ball player.”

Now at the halfway point of the season, the team has started to gel, in part, according to Szabo, due to the coaching efforts of first year head coach Belle Koclanes.

“I believe in the new coaches and I believe in my teammates,” Szabo said. “I love playing for my coaches. They are just so positive and they bring this high energy to every practice and every game. I really think we’re getting better as a team. I really like the new culture they’re creating. I think it’s going to show how much effort they put into making us better.”

Even if Dartmouth’s season continues to unravel, the team has a bright future thanks to Szabo, Koclanes and the rest of the underclassmen. And despite the abysmal record, the women’s basketball team has yet to give up.

“We work every day to make winning an Ivy Championship possible,” Szabo said. “Our record doesn’t show it because we’ve had a lot of sicknesses and injuries. Now, all of us are able to play and it’s going to make us a better and more consistent team. I see the improvement we’re making as a team on and off the court and I know we’re able to win it.”

Szabo and the Big Green return to action on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m., traveling to Newark, N.J. to take on the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the first match of a six-game road slate. Dartmouth’s next home game won’t be until Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14 against Cornell.

The Story of Joe Moglia: From Defensive Coordinator to CEO to Head Coach

From 1981 to 1983, Joe Moglia was Dartmouth’s defensive coordinator, coaching the defense as Dartmouth earned two Ivy Championships. But by season’s end, Moglia abandoned football for the financial sector in order to support his family, and now, 30 years later, Moglia returned to the sidelines, achieving his lifelong dream of coaching a college football team.

Moglia’s story came to national prominence when Sports Illustrated’s Monte Burke featured Moglia when his Coastal Carolina Chanticleers prepared to take on the 11^th ranked FBS-program South Carolina Gamecocks.

Coastal Carolina was a trendy upset pick against the rising SEC power only to be demolished 70-10 by South Carolina. Despite the lopsided defeat, Moglia’s legacy and inspirational story remain untarnished. Few would have expected a person of Moglia’s background to live the life he has enjoyed.

The oldest of five children, Moglia grew up in New York City where his father operated a small fruit stand and his family lived in a small, two-bedroom apartment. By the time Moglia graduated high school, he knew he wanted to become a head football coach.

Equipped with a bachelors in economics from Fordham and a masters in secondary education from the University of Delaware, Moglia worked his way through the assistant coaching ranks, making stops at NYC’s Fordham Prep, Delaware’s Archmere Academy and Pennsylvania’s Penncrest High School.

He moved on to his first defensive coordinating position at Pennsylvania’s Lafayette College before directing Dartmouth’s defense under head coach Joe Yukica, who coached Dartmouth from 1978 to 1986.

Moglia’s defense was considered one of the best in the nation, helping Dartmouth to consecutive Ivy Championships in 1981 and 1982.

Despite his professional success, Moglia’s personal life was starting to crumble as his wife, who he had married at 19, divorced him. Moglia was forced to live in the unheated storage room at the top of the Davis Varsity House as he couldn’t afford a separate apartment on his $33,000 salary.

In 1983, Moglia’s final year of coaching, Dartmouth tied for third in the Ivy, going 4-5-1 (4-2-1 Ivy).

During the offseason, Moglia was offered a defensive assistant position at the University of Miami who was coming off its first national championship title in school history after winning the Orange Bowl under head coach Howard Schnellenberger.

Schnellenberger then left Miami for the ill-fated United States Football League and was replaced by Jimmy Johnson. Johnson would go on lead Miami to a second national championship before moving on to the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys where he won two Super Bowls. The core players Johnson built around at both Miami and Dallas would combine for another three national titles without Johnson.

Moglia turned down the Miami job in order to make the jump to the financial world so that he could provide the financial resources to raise his four children. At 34 years old, Moglia entered the financial sector, enrolling in a financial training class at Merrill Lynch that included 24 MBA graduates and one former defensive coordinator.

In his 17 years at Merrill Lynch, he climbed the ladder until he was a member of the executive committees for both institutional business and private client business. He was responsible for all investment products, the insurance company, 401(k)s and the middle-market.

Moglia, who was quickly making a habit of taking risks, abandoned his lucrative position at Merrill Lynch to become the CEO of TD Ameritrade in 2001, an online broker that had barely survived the dot-com bubble bust. It was a move many considered crazy but Moglia couldn’t climb any higher up the ladder at Morgan Lynch.

During his seven-year tenure as CEO, TD Ameritrade’s assets grew from $24 billion to over $300 billion and its market capitalization increased from $700 million to $12 billion, all the while recording five consecutive years of record earnings. Capitalizing on merger and acquisition opportunities, he led TD Ameritrade in two of the largest acquisitions: Datek Online Holdings in September 2002 and TD Waterhouse in January 2006.

“If we were a football team, it would be like we won two championships,” Moglia said according to a 2010 article published by Joe Wertheim. “And it wasn’t like we were doing it as USC or Nebraska. It was like we were Wake Forest.”

Thanks to Moglia’s leadership, TD Ameritrade sidestepped the 2008 Financial Crisis when he refused to deal in subprime mortgages despite intense pressure from investors. While E-Trade lost $1.3 billion and Merrill Lynch, Moglia’s former employer, lost $28 billion, TD Ameritrade recorded an $800 million profit.

Just as he was at the top of the financial world, in March 2008, Moglia announced he would step down to pursue other interests, officially vacating the CEO position in September 2008. He still stayed with the company as chairman.

One of Moglia’s claims to fame was the he was one of a few people who published books on football and finance. He wrote The Key to Winning Football: The Perimeter Offense (1981) and Coach Yourself to Financial Success: Winning the Investment Game (2005).

Originally intending to take an extended vacation, Moglia politely refused numerous job opportunities. But when a friend who was a Yale alumnus called to inform Moglia that the Yale head coaching position was open, Moglia was intrigued.

He took a couple months to decide whether he wanted to coach or not, but he eventually decided yes, much to the chagrin of most of his work associates and part of his family. Moglia knew he wasn’t going to be offered a position at a major FBS school, but he believed he was good enough for teams in conferences like the Ivy or the Patriot.

He started shopping his resume around to different college programs, but few were interested because of his 25-year hiatus. He made regular calls to Athletic Directors (ADs) as well as Yale, but Yale never returned the call and decided to hire Tom Williams (Williams has since resigned after a season that featured a scandal regarding a Rhodes Scholarship application).

Terry Holland, then the athletic director at East Carolina, said Moglia’s candidacy raise more questions than it answered, and the only thing working against his resume, which demonstrated all the skills necessary, was the lack of recent experience.

ADs are naturally risk-averse because they need to select coaches that can win games or risk losing their jobs. Moglia’s lack of experience meant few would consider biting.

Kevin White, the AD of Duke University, met with Moglia in early 2009 but decided not to hire him.

“He would be a non-traditional hire,” White explained. “A university would have to see him as a risk that makes sense to take.”

Perception was working against Moglia, who was perceived as a rich person looking for a Saturday hobby.

Eventually, the University of Nebraska allowed Moglia to work as an unpaid voluntary assistant coach and mentor for two years. He broke down game film, attended practices and coaches meetings, wrote copious notes and religiously studied the Cornhuskers’ playbook.

Moglia estimated that he worked 70 hours per week for free, a massive departure from his salary at TD Ameritrade which averaged $14 million annually, topping out at $21 million in 2008.

Eventually, Moglia was hired to his first head-coaching gig, but it was for the Omaha Nighthawks of the now-defunct United Football League. He coached the Nighthawks to a 1-5 record, losing games to Marty Schottenheimer and Jim Fassel, but beating Dennis Green.

Then the UFL folded and Moglia was on the job search again, giving college football one more try. Fordham and Florida Atlantic expressed interest but they hired different candidates.

In 4^th & Goal, a biography of Moglia written by Monte Burke, Moglia admitted, “as much as I wanted to spend the rest of my life coaching, I did not want to spend the rest of my life looking for a job.”

And then Coastal Carolina of the FCS Big South Conference called.

David Bennett, the school’s first head coach, had been surprisingly fired despite Coastal Carolina’s 7-4 record and 3-3 conference record. Bennett had become more recognized for a viral video than as a serious head coach, leading to his termination.

David DeCenzo, Coastal Carolina’s university president, hired Moglia to be the school’s second head football coach in the school history, with a five-year contract that paid him $175,000 annually.

An agent for former Coastal Carolina players now in the NFL called the hiring “an insult to the entire coaching profession.”

DeCenzo was fully aware of the potential repercussions of his gamble and willing to accept them.

“This is either the smartest or dumbest decision I’ve ever made,” DeCenzo said at the time.

White, Duke’s AD, had been completely right. Only a school willing to break tradition could hire Moglia.

Coastal Carolina was a unique situation because it started its football program in 2003 and lacked the major traditions of other Division I programs. There were no major boosters available to protest and withhold money because the program was still building itself. Hiring Moglia wouldn’t torpedo recruiting efforts like it would at major schools like Alabama or Texas.

Even then, Moglia was filling big shoes. Bennett had, quite literally since 2003, built a winning program out of nothing.

Alan Black of the Bleacher Report heavily criticized Moglia’s hiring. Black wrote that the obvious reason Moglia was hired was due to his wealth and connections to the financial sector.

“It’s a shrewd business deal, but completely tramples the integrity of college sports,” Black wrote. “If the NCAA is all about athletic and academic integrity and amateurism, it sure doesn’t show in Coastal Carolina’s hire… How are the Chanticleer football players supposed to trust their own head coach when they know that he isn’t qualified to lead them and essentially bought his way into the position?”

As it would turn out, Black’s analysis was wrong and Moglia continued Coastal Carolina’s winning ways. But at the time, little evidence suggested Moglia would exceed Bennett.

Bennett coached Coastal Carolina to a 63-39 record, a 27-16 conference record, two FCS playoff appearances and four conference championships, three of which came in the program’s first four years. He also defeated traditional FCS powers like James Madison, Furman and Wofford.

However, Bennett was unable to win a playoff game, something Moglia achieved in his first year, defeating Bethune-Cookman 24-14.

But Moglia’s short tenure hasn’t been a cakewalk.

His first season at the helm started out rocky as Coastal Carolina went 2-4, including an embarrassing 55-14 defeat to Appalachian State. Just as naysayers seemed right, Moglia’s team started clicking, reeling off five wins by an average of 30 points.

Moglia finished his first year with an 8-5 record, including the school’s first playoff victory before losing 63-35 to Old Dominion in Round 2. He was named the Big South Conference’s Coach of the Year.

Expectations were higher for Moglia his second year, but he met them, registering two playoff victories and a 12-3 record.

Coastal Carolina recovered from the embarrassing loss against South Carolina by advancing to the FCS Playoff Quarterfinals.

In the playoffs, Moglia defeated Bethune-Cookman and Montana. Moglia’s season ended after a 48-14 Quarterfinals loss to North Dakota State. NDSU just won its third consecutive national championship after defeating Towson on January 4^th to extend its winning streak to 24. Despite the lopsided loss, Coastal Carolina still finished the season ranked seventh in the FCS.

As Moglia’s success continues, it will become a matter of “when,” not “if,” Moglia will receive a call from an FBS program.

Disclaimer: The quotes presented in this article are courtesy of 4th&Goal (the biography of Moglia) and different articles published by Sports Illustrated, the Bleacher Report and U.S. News. URLs will be provided upon request.