DARTMOUTH COLLEGE

Harry Sheehy is in his sixth year as Dartmouth College’s athletic director, and the Big Green is certainly in better shape since his arrival. The football team recently won a share of its first Ivy League title since 1996, joining baseball, softball, men’s soccer and men’s and women’s tennis as teams in consistent contention for space atop the Ancient Eight standings. Memorial Field’s west stands were successfully remodeled and a new press box was constructed during 2015. The softball stadium, opened in 2012, offers the best setting in the league, and a $20 million indoor sports facility is on the way. Dartmouth led the nation’s NCAA Division I programs in graduation success rate for a fourth consecutive year, with 99 percent of student-athletes who began college during 2008 earning a degree. Challenges, however, do remain. The Ivies’ athletics facilities arms race shows no sign of slowing down. Dartmouth still has woeful teams in sports such as men’s and women’s swimming, men’s track and field, women’s golf, women’s squash and men’s lacrosse. And contending for public recognition in a grouping that includes national names Harvard, Yale and Princeton will never be an easy task. -Tris Wykes, Valley News, Read More