Athlete of the Week: Dante Balestracci '04

Harvard football has been around longer than the Internet, television and even radio. After hundreds of games and thousands of plays, it seems odd that any current Crimson player could perform a feat which had not already been done many times over.

Yet this weekend at Dartmouth, freshman linebacker Dante Balestracci found a new record to break. In one game, Balestracci returned two interceptions for touchdowns while leading a Crimson defense that put away the Big Green, 49-7.

That effort makes Dante Balestracci the Harvard Crimson's Athlete of the Week.

Harvard has now won two straight Ivy League games and picked up the momentum necessary to make a run for the league title. A big part of the team's success has been on the defensive end, and Balestracci is quickly becoming the Crimson's most impressive linebacker, and, more importantly, a team leader.

Consider that Dante is Harvard's leading tackler, with a total of 59 tackles (five on Saturday), 39 coming unassisted. At 6'2, 225 pounds, Balestracci is both quick enough to rush the pass and strong enough to jump in and stuff the run. Even before the Dartmouth game, opposing teams realized this new young player was a force to be reckoned with.

They'll be even more worried now.

In the second quarter, with the Big Green already down 21-0, Balestracci applied the nail in the coffin. Dartmouth tried some trickery, lining up in a "diamond" formation that put receivers all over the place and the quarterback in the shotgun. With all the post-snap confusion caused by this offensive creativity, Dartmouth tried to run a fairly safe play, a shovel pass. It should have worked.

But Balestracci was there, getting in between the QB and tailback and tipping the ball in the air, then concentrating and pulling it in before outrunning the Big Green into the end zone.

"I just played in between the QB and back," Balestracci said. "It was just a natural read into the backfield."

A natural read? On that formation? That's good.

Balestracci picked off the ball in more conventional fashion later in the game, plucking the pass out of the air and running down the field untouched for a 53-yard score. And into the Harvard history books.

With his first two collegiate interceptions under his belt (and first 12 points), Balestracci has added another page to his scouting report. More importantly, he's an irrepressible defensive force on a team that lost eight defenders to graduation last year-- and he's only a freshman.

Maybe the only criticism that can be leveled at the Crimson's Athlete of the Week is one that is reminiscent of the Minnesota Viking's Chris Carter: Balestracci only catches touchdowns.