Karl Lindholm: Caroline Leary Dowd – a free spirit and fierce competitor

Heart. Determination. Relentlessness. Effort. Caroline Leary Dowd, class of 1992 at Middlebury College, had all these capabilities in abundance.

What is perhaps most striking about Dave Saward’s soccer career is his “coaching tree,” that is, the extraordinary number of his players who have decided to pursue a career in coaching and have succeeded at such a high level.

Nine years before his crowning achievement at Bates, Dave Morey’s Middlebury team “defeated” the other national powerhouse, Harvard, 6-6, before 25,000 fans in Harvard Stadium.

In its premiere showing at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival last April, “Alaskan Nets” won the Audience Choice Award, the festival’s top overall prize. Here in Middlebury, it won the Best Documentary Feature Award — the best among the 36 feat … (read more)

Last Saturday, I ventured to the Middlebury-Bates football game, the first athletic event at the college I have attended in more than year and a half.

I have wanted to go to a game in Holman Stadium in Nashua, N.H., for a long time because of the park’s historical significance.Finally, this summer I did, on Aug. 12, the very last day of the season for the Nashua Silver Knights of the Futures College Bas … (read more)

You want your kid to be a major leaguer, and make a ton of money, so you can retire and live on Easy Street?Well, turn him around!Make sure he bats left-handed, from day one, from the day he first picks up that fat red plastic kid bat, or some other kiddi … (read more)

As she was exploring the campus on her very first day at Middlebury College in August 1986, young professor Brett Millier encountered Frank Kelley, the director of residential life, who engaged her in lively conversation as was his wont.Frank learned that … (read more)

This week’s column is written in a similar spirit to those of the other sports columnist, the angler, who takes us to lakes, ponds, and streams through sylvan glades to his favorite fishing spots.He describes with precise detail the bliss he feels casting … (read more)

In the last game of his sophomore year at Michigan State in 1946, Robin Roberts lost 2-0 to archrival Michigan, coached by a 58-year-old Ray Fisher.At game’s end, Fisher asked the Michigan State ace if he would like to play summer ball in Vermont. After a … (read more)

Centennial Field in Burlington is Vermont’s baseball shrine.Constructed from 1904 to 1906, Centennial has been the site of stirring baseball action for nearly a century and a quarter. The Catamounts of the University of Vermont played their first game the … (read more)

OK, baseball fans, if you could build a ballpark, the perfect ballpark, and you had the money and the clout to make it happen, what would it look like? How would it reflect contemporary architectural amenities and still maintain an appreciation for baseba … (read more)

Second of two parts; read the first part here.A week ago last Sunday, the brilliant Shohei Ohtani of the Angels hit a game-winning homer with two outs in the 9th against ace Red Sox closer Matt Barnes.The Angels won 6-5. Exciting game. It took 3 hours 19 … (read more)

I never was good at math, ever. But I liked to read as a kid, and to write. I got that from my mom, who was the wordsmith in the family. When I asked her what a word meant, she just pointed to the dictionary on the music stand in the living room: “C’mon, … (read more)

The first of two parts So, baseball fans, what do think about starting extra innings in a tied baseball game with a runner on second, the way it works now in all of organized baseball? I love it. It opens up such interesting strategic options: who do you … (read more)