DocBarrister wrote: ↑Wed Jun 09, 2021 1:43 pmPlus, Dartmouth recruits have to be comfortable risking their lives on a potentially deadly flight into the tiny airport in Lebanon, NH.MDlaxfan76 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 09, 2021 11:03 amYes, there have only been 3 periods in which Dartmouth Men's Lacrosse was 'relevant' in discussions of Top 20/Top 10 'success. '50's/early 60's, late 70's/early '80's under Hendrick/Ritch...I'm an '80, and early 2000's under Sowell :Wheels wrote: ↑Wed Jun 09, 2021 9:31 amI think it's been discussed on these threads before, but I am still struck by Dartmouth's lack of success in lacrosse. Is it just funding/support? Seems like everything is there to be successful.MDlaxfan76 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 09, 2021 8:44 am
Yes, a young man, who I coached as a kid, classmate/teammate of my son's, undergrad/player at Dartmouth, son of one of my Dartmouth teammates, did the Tuck summer program. Not a 'major'.
Summer is very beautiful in Hanover...All sophomores/rising juniors are required to take a summer trimester together; I liked it so much, I did two.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xp ... story.html
I won't belabor the travails of getting the program back to where we're now, 'on the rise', but there certainly has been a lot of frustration, coaching snafus, administrative mistakes...but the Friends program is by far the strongest it's been in my nearly 40 years of involvement on it, recent fundraising has been excellent. And the new indoor facility is a huge plus. Being so far north and out of the way has always been a drag on recruiting and preparation, and the school was slow to recognize this (though coaches and alums and players were not!). Overall the facilities are fantastic now, funding support first rate....though it doesn't compare to the magnitude of the Yale endowed funding....few do anywhere.
The perception challenge from not winning is not insignificant when recruiting blue chippers...it's relatively rare to pull a player who has lots of Ivy options, plus Duke, UVA, ND, etc. But nevertheless doable. So, the sales pitch has to be tailored to those who will appreciate the smaller school, tight knit outdoorsy atmosphere of Dartmouth with the heavy emphasis on undergrad education with profs actually teaching, dinners at their homes, yet top notch lab opportunities, computer science, arts, etc. Gotta flip the script to explain how the winters bring the student body closer, more tight knit, how alums stay close, the incredible % of Dartmouth marriages (I met my bride freshman week)..etc...but if a kid is looking for urban or south not for him.
Toughest part for a lax player is the perceived weather, the reality that you're not in Virginia or North Carolina! So, the indoor facility just opened is really important, IMO.
Gotta remember that Dartmouth can't take just any player; no insult to Albany, which I'd say has even worse weather, but very few of their players could be admitted to Dartmouth. Same for for Vermont. Same for a whole bunch of schools with some darn fine lax players. And among those qualified academically, other schools, (except for those periods I mentioned) have better records of producing winning teams...and players with individual accolades. For a 30 year period, I was the only multi year AA...blue chippers do look at that sort of thing. Yet, under the Sowell regime several guys did so. Team needs to win.
So, Dartmouth competes for the Ivy athlete amongst a group of peer schools, each of which has some relative advantages for a specific slice of players. Which also means that the Dartmouth recruiting staff needs to pick up the late blooming athlete who is qualified academically and show them a path to contributing quickly at the next level. Looking for the guy who 'has something to prove'...
IMO, it requires great coaching (including assistants); the biggest challenge for us has been keeping coaches, the right coaches...had not been enough financial support and commitment from the school, recognizing the challenge to do so, particularly in lax, men's lax. There have been some regrettable choices, both with head coaches, but just as importantly not great assistants (we feel very good now). I don't know that we'll do better attracting and keeping good coaches going forward, but the Friends program has kicked this up two gears, and the new AD may be helpful; last was weak. Our current HC continues to grow as a coach and person and he has an excellent AHC/recruiter. Strong team. We need to keep them, develop them, support them. For instance, had we been able to keep Sowell ($ and wife didn't like being away from friends/family), I think we'd be having a very different conversation about Dartmouth's relevance, with a bunch of Ivy titles and NCAA runs over the past two decades.
The Women's program, which is equally supported by the Friends program, has certainly proven over many decades of success what's possible to do at Dartmouth. The Men's alums have been most of the funders, however the Women are beginning to kick in more and more share of funding. Frankly, it had been frustrating to see the funds split the way they were, while the women had lower expenses and more outside support (winning brings the corporate support!). But this is beginning to balance better, which helps the Men's program as overall funding continues to rise well.
First step for the Men has been to get out of the basement of the sport overall. We saw significant on-field progress in '19 and came out of the gate really well in '20. The program survived Covid largely in good spirits (though some disgruntlement of course), so it will be interesting to see how they do this next year. The second step is to begin to knock off, regularly, the Ivy rivals and ultimately to compete for Ivy titles and NCAA tourney progress...ala what Sowell proved could be done. Indeed, he did it rather swiftly. Not saying that the current regime's rise will be as swift this go round, as I think the competition has stepped up a notch as well, but it really takes just a handful of special players to make that happen.
I remember flying in for a medical school interview. We were in complete white-out for more than an hour. Then, when we finally came out of the clouds, it appeared our tiny plane was pointed straight to the ground. I have never seen a plane descend so quickly. We landed on a snow-covered runway and were immediately informed the airport was now closed. I have never forgotten that flight and now refuse to get on anything that small.
So, other than near-certain death flying into the local airport, there is absolutely nothing holding back the Dartmouth lacrosse program.
DocBarrister
In my day we took the over nighter train "the Montrealer" into White River Junction...I remember my freshman trip up on January 2nd '77, arriving to 10 foot snow banks...took big old yellow cabs, '50's style, with chains on tires...unbelievably beautiful, like out of the movies...The only time I took that puddle jumper, I broke an eardrum on the descent...not a fan, though lots swear it's no sweat. If we don't drive up these days, we fly into the Manchester Airport, southwest, super easy and cheap and rent a car. As to puddle jumpers and small strip landings, I also fly into Montrose rather than the Telluride Airport...no way I want to take the risk of a white out and what's a little drive...
