Dartmouth women's basketball head coach Chris Wielgus was recently honored as the 2008-2009 New England Coach of the Year. Last season, Dartmouth made its fifth-consecutive postseason appearance, going on to win its 17th Ivy League championship. During her career at Dartmouth, Wielgus has won 12 Ivy League championships, claiming at least a share of the Ivy League title in four of the last five years. Wielgus was inducted to the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004 and will be formally recognized in October for her latest achievement.
The Harvard men's ice hockey team will begin its season with new helmets designed to prevent concussions, according to WHDH, a Boston ABC affiliate. The Crimson will be the first Division I hockey program to use the new helmet, which was designed by Cascade, according to ESPN.com. "We had an opportunity to get the best protection against concussions and we jumped at the opportunity," Harvard's head coach Ted Donato told WHDH. Former NHL player Mark Messier has spearheaded a movement, The Messier Project, to promote safety measures for hockey players, according to ESPN.com.
The University of North Dakota is facing an Oct. 1 deadline to gain permission from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe to continue using the Fighting Sioux as its mascot, according to ESPN.com. Under the terms of a 2007 settlement between the state of North Dakota and the NCAA, the university must receive permission from both the Standing Rock tribe and the Spirit Lake tribe to continue using the mascot, The Dartmouth previously reported. Last week, the Spirit Lake Sioux tribal council voted to allow the university to keep its mascot, according to ESPN.com. The issue of American Indian mascots has been particularly controversial since the NCAA banned 18 teams with American Indian mascots from postseason play in 2005. Former Dartmouth athletic director Josie Harper received national media attention in 2006 after she issued a public apology for inviting the Fighting Sioux to participate in a Dartmouth-sponsored hockey tournament because of the University's mascot, The Dartmouth previously reported.
