Fall Indian Sports Preview

By Benjamin Flickinger | Wednesday, October 8, 2003

While no one is going to confuse Dartmouth athletics with those of Duke, Texas, or Michigan, opportunities exist to root for the home team and maybe even see a few potential professionals as well. Current Dartmouth alumni in the pros include Major Leaguer's Brad Ausmus '91 (C, Houston) and Mike Remlinger '88 (RP, Chicago Cubs) and NFL quarterback Jay Fiedler '94 with the Miami Dolphins.

Here is a quick recap and season outlook for the upcoming school year for the main spectator sports on campus with apologies to the hoops crowd—hockey reigns supreme these days.

Football

It's been a rough few years for Dartmouth on the gridiron. The team went winless at home in 2000 and 2001, with the '01s also becoming the only class in history to lose to usual bottom feeder Columbia all four years they were on campus. But last year's team showed promise, and, in all reality, should have finished closer to 5-5 than the 3-7 record they had. Five of the seven losses came by less than a touchdown, and with only a bounce here or one less bad break there, could have won a few of those games.

Led by pre-season All-American and twice All-Ivy tight end Casey Cramer, Dartmouth hopes to break back into the upper tier of the conference. The team will be returning a host of players, with 17 returning starters and 38 returning letterwinners. They will have to replace Brian Mann '03, however, last year's starting quarterback. Scott Wille '04, a transfer from the University of Wisconsin, who was the backup a year ago, will command Mann's former position.

Season Outlook

Dartmouth was picked fourth in the conference in the preseason media poll, and that sounds like a realistic goal for a team that is 6-24 over the past three years. Dartmouth was blown out only once last year at Philadelphia against the Quakers, and, with virtually the entire team returning, they should contend in every game this year. Second place is wishful thinking, but with a little luck, they can possibly creep up into third behind Penn and Harvard with a 7-3 season and a 5-2 Ivy record. Anything worse than 5-5 will be a huge disappointment.

X-Factor

Special teams were up and down last year. Dartmouth kickers made 12 of 16 field goals last year, including the only attempt from longer than fifty yards, but also missed six extra points. Those six misses came back to haunt Dartmouth more than once, most notably during the Brown loss in which they lost 21-18. It should have been a tie game and gone into OT, but they failed to convert all three times after scoring touchdowns, missing two kicks and a two-point conversion. Including failed attempts at two-point conversions, Dartmouth missed their conversion 11 times out of their 31 touchdowns.

If the the kicking game is consistent, the team should be back on the winning side of the ledger this year.

Men's Hockey

Last year was a banner year for the team both on and off the ice. Dartmouth won 20 games for the first time since the 1940's, finishing with a 20-13-1 record. The team finished 3rd in both the regular season and ECAC tournament behind Hugh Jessiman '06's record breaking freshman season. Jessiman, who became the highest drafted player in school and conference history when he was picked 15th overall by the NY Rangers, easily won the Ivy League's and ECAC's Rookie of the Year, scoring 23 goals and 24 assists for 47 points in 34 games, setting a new Dartmouth freshman scoring record in the process. Leading scorer Lee Stempniak '05 also returns after a high scoring campaign of his own, with 21 goals and 28 assists.

Other players to watch include forward Mike Ouellette '06 (14-21-35), defenseman Sean Offers '06 (ECAC All-Rookie Team honoree), netminder Dan Yacey '05 (.932 save percentage), and defenseman Brian Van Abel '04, who will captain the team this upcoming year.

Off the ice, attendance at the games improved for a third straight season, capped by a packed to the rafters crowd of 4,500 when Dartmouth upended then #1 Boston College 5-4 in OT. The team drew an average of 3738 fans per game, placing it 18th nationally, with every game attended by at least 3100 fans. By comparison, only four short years ago, the team was drawing less than 1000for some mid-winter games.

Season Outlook

Dartmouth should be picked to finish 2nd or 3rd in the ECAC when the preseason polls are issued. Harvard will be the prohibitive favorite, then it's a tossup between Cornell and Dartmouth for the second spot. Dartmouth will be young, especially on the blue line, where they lost 3 of their top 5 players to graduation, but have the strongest forward line in the conference in Jessiman, Ouellette, and Stempniak. Yacey was outstanding in the net when he played last year with the only blemish coming against Vermont, and should beat out Dan Gastrock '04 for the starting nod. If he shows any consistency at all, he might make fans forget Nick Boucher '03 by midseason. If the incoming freshmen provide even a fraction of the output that last year's crop did, the team could be headed to the NCAA tournament.

X-Factor

The schedule is absolutely brutal this year. Head Coach Bob Gaudet '81 deserves praise for scheduling Hockey East powers Boston U, Boston College, Maine, and New Hampshire, but it would be nice to have one of those games at home. Dartmouth has a .725 winning percentage at Thompson Arena over the last three seasons but will only play 12 regular season games there this year. Meanwhile, they'll play 17 games away from home, where they've only managed a .367 winning percentage over the same time span. That includes a stretch of nine straight games away from home over a two month period. If the team survives that trek without losing their confidence, however, then the second half should be a good one.

Women's Hockey

Dartmouth's best team over the last few years may not draw as well as its male counterpart, but it dominates its opposition the majority of the time. Dartmouth was ranked #1 for virtually the entire season in '00-'01 before being upset in the 2001 NCAA Frozen Four and finishing 4th in the country. Two years ago the team won its 2nd straight Ivy Title, but failed to reach the Frozen Four. Last season, they lost the Ivy Title to Harvard, but avenged the loss by taking the ECAC Crown en route to a Frozen Four berth and a 3rd place finish.

To reach the NCAA Frozen Four for the third time in four years, the team will have to overcome the loss of head coach Judy Oberting '91 and Patty Kazmaier finalist Carly Haggard '03, as well as outstanding netminder Amy Ferguson '03.

The team should be in good hands, however. New head coach Mark Hudak should provide a smooth transition, having been the associate head coach with the squad the last two years after joining the team as an assistant in 1998. Despite the loss of Haggard, the team should reload on offense, as two of the top four scorers last season were Katherine Weatherston and Gillian Apps, both '06s. And both returning goalies put up outstanding numbers in limited action last season, especially Stephanie Cochran '06, who went 3-0-0 with a .944 save percentage and a minuscule 0.85 GAA.

Season Outlook

The Ivy and ECAC battle should be between Dartmouth and Harvard once again, though up-and-comer Princeton could squeeze into the top two spots if either team falters, and St. Lawrence will likely get at least one upset win over the top two teams. Unlike the men's conference,where anyone can win on any given night, the women's conference is definitely split into the have's and have not's—with the top half last year earning 20+ wins and the bottom half all losing 20 or more games. And fittingly, middle of the pack Brown finished with a .500 record. That trend should remain virtually the same this year.

X-Factor

There don't appear to be any noticeable shortcomings for the team, which leads to the intangibles. The team has a new head coach and only three seniors on the roster this year, so if the team is going to stumble it may be early in the season as the team leaders find their voices and the team adjusts to their new coaches. But that really shouldn't be a problem, as all of the players have known Hudak since joining the squad, and if anything the youth should signal that the team will be a power for the foreseeable future. In the end, the season should be decided on the ice, with the key game coming when Harvard visits during the last homestand of the year in a game that potentially could decide the regular season title.

Fall Indian Sports Preview

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