Like father, like son. Late Thursday night, high school junior center Ryan Donato announced his commitment to play hockey for his father, Harvard men’s hockey coach Ted Donato. The highest ranked prep school player in New England, per the NHL Central Scouting’s Midterm Report, Ryan ranks 54th among all North American skaters.

“He expects himself to do great things every time he’s on the ice, that’s the sign of a great player,” Dexter head coach Dan Donato, Ryan’s uncle, told ESPNBoston. “I’ve been really fortunate to have coached three players that have gone on to the NHL, but in some ways, Ryan’s on another planet. I truly believe his best hockey is ahead of him.”

The senior Donato has coached at Harvard for the last 10 seasons after being part of the school’s final national championship team in 1989.

“There can only be one!” So sayeth Connor MacLeod in Highlader and so sayeth the Crimson sports board. So without further ado, here are the two runner-ups in the latest edition of Athlete of the Week.

Maksim Korolev, Men’s Track and Field

From cross-country in the fall and straight into the winter track season, this wiry senior hasn’t slowed down at all. The Harrisonville, MO product didn’t just break a Harvard record on Friday at the Terrier Invite in Boston – he broke the Ivy League record for the 5K run.

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With the rest of the College off for break, the Back Page is keeping up with the Harvard men’s basketball team (14-3, 1-0 Ivy) as it finishes the remainder of its winter schedule. With Harvard starting Ancient Eight play with a 61-45 win Jan. 11 against Dartmouth, staff writer David Freed previews the Crimson’s rematch against the Big Green in Hanover.

After a disappointing road loss to Florida Atlantic—the Crimson’s first to a team worse than it, per Ken Pomeroy’s rankings—Harvard will take to the road to finish a home-and-home against the Big Green.

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With the rest of the College off for break, the Back Page is keeping up with the Harvard men’s basketball team (14-3) as it finishes the remainder of its winter schedule. With Harvard starting Ivy League play with a 61-45 win Jan. 11 against Dartmouth, staff writer David Freed previews the Crimson’s rematch against the Big Green in Hanover.

After a disappointing road loss to Florida Atlantic—the Crimson’s first to a team worse than them, per Ken Pomeroy’s rankings—Harvard will take the road to finish a home-and-home against the Big Green.

Coach

Head coach Paul Cormier is in his second term with the Big Green, having rejoined the program in 2010 after being the head coach nearly two decades earlier, from 1984-91. Cormier has lead the Big Green to three winning seasons, including consecutive second-place Ivy League finishes in 1988 and 1989 seasons. The 2012 season was a marked improvement over the first two in Cormier’s return, with the team winning five league games after posting consecutive 1-13 seasons. Already this year the team has seven wins after posting just four victories in each of the previous three nonconference seasons.

Roster

Junior forward Gabas Maldunas, the Big Green’s best player, is out for the season with a knee injury after averaging 11.2 points and 8.5 rebounds through the team’s nonconference schedule. Minus Maldunas, the team will rely on a trio of sophomore starters—forwards Connor Boehm and Tommy Carpenter and guard Alex Mitola. Mitola and Boehm each average more than 10 points per game and bring a powerful inside-outside threat to the Big Green attack.

The team’s lone senior is guard Tyler Melville, who averages seven points a game on 42.5 percent shooting from long range. As a team, Dartmouth is shooting 36 percent from behind the arc and 46 percent overall. By contrast, the Crimson enter the game shooting 35 percent from three and 45 percent overall.

Early Season Play

Dartmouth finished its nonconference season with a .500 record, highlighted by a late-December stretch of four wins a row and six in nine contests. The new year has not been kind to the Big Green, however. Dartmouth is 0-4 in 2014, including a 14-point loss to St. John’s its last time out. The Big Green shared only two common opponents with Harvard, falling to both Vermont (62-53) and Bryant (87-77).

Sunday’s game kicks off a five-game Ivy League homestand for the Big Green, who—with Maldunas out for the season with a knee injury—will need to perform well at Leede Arena to keep alive any hopes of an Ivy League championship. Dartmouth went 5-3 in nonconference at home, but finished with consecutive losses to Vermont and Hartford.

Series History

Dartmouth may have a 94-83 advantage all-time against Harvard but the Crimson have won the last nine encounters, including its Ivy League opener, 61-45, behind 17 points from co-captain Brandyn Curry. Since 2000, the Big Green have won just five of 28 matches against the Crimson and its last win in the series came five years ago at home, 73-56.

Overall Matchup

Harvard enters this game leading the Ivy League with a plus-11.4 point differential and should be able to bump that up Sunday at Leede Arena. A 15-point loss to Florida Atlantic aside, the Crimson has been one of the nation’s most consistent programs. Harvard has not lost consecutive games since last season’s road trip to Penn and Princeton and, determined not to let one loss balloon into two, should rebound with a victory over Dartmouth on Sunday.

With the rest of the College off for break, the Back Page is keeping up with the Harvard men’s basketball team (14-2) as it finishes the remainder of its nonconference schedule. With Harvard starting Ivy League play with a 61-45 win Jan. 11 against Dartmouth, staff writer David Freed takes a look at the Crimson’s final nonconference opponent—the Florida Atlantic Owls (6-11).

In its final nonconference matchup of the year, the Crimson hope to put the finishing touches on a solid, if not spectacular, first half to the season. Harvard has beaten every opponent it should so far this season, but was unable to raise its game in its two contests against top 25 teams, falling to Colorado and Connecticut on the road.

Coach

Owl head coach Mike Jarvis is trying to make history with this year’s Owl squad. Jarvis, who has already led three programs to the NCAA tournament—Boston University, George Washington, and St. John’s—is looking to become only the second coach in history to win 100 games at four different schools.

Jarvis’ forty-five year coaching career has taken him across the country, including a stop in Cambridge. Starting in 1973, he served as an assistant coach for the Crimson for five years before taking his first head coaching position in 1978 at his high school alma matter. From there, Jarvis moved on quickly to the collegiate ranks and has won over 400 games as a coach—making the Elite Eight once and the NCAA tournament eight times.

Roster

Senior guard Pablo Bertone has burst onto the scene for the Owls this year. After serving mostly as a spot-up shooter for the team in years past, Bertone has taken on the leading role for Mike Jarvis—averaging 18.2 points per game, nearly double his average from last year. However, this rise in volume has coincided with a drop in efficiency. After shooting 35 percent or better from three in his first three years, Bertone has dropped to 29 percent while shooting more than twice as many triples (more than five a game).

Behind Bertone, fellow international and junior forward Justin Raffington provides the main inside presence for Florida Atlantic. Raffington nearly averages a double-double (9.2 ppg, 9.0 rpg) and is the only player on the team to make at least half of his shots. Raffington, like Bertone, is turnover-prone, however. The pair averaged a combined 4.7 turnovers a game while the Owls average 13 turnovers (against just four steals) a game.

Early Season Play

After opening the season with a 35-point win over Ave Maria, the Owls’ stumbled in the team’s next contests. FAU lost its next six games, including three decisions by at least 20 points. Against its most noteworthy nonconference opponent, the Owls fell by 33 to Jabari Parker’s Duke Blue Devils.

The Owls rebounded to win its next two home matchups, but its streaky play continued with four more losses. It has won three of four following the losing streak, and picked up its first road win of the season with a 73-68 win against the Rice Owls on Jan. 11. Exactly one week after the Crimson went into Houston and came away victorious, the Owls made eight threes and forced 16 turnovers to beat Rice.

Series History

The first-ever matchup between the two schools occurred in 2011 as Harvard defeated the Owls, 61-53, behind 12 points and 11 rebounds from then-senior Keith Wright ‘12. Harvard shot 55 percent from the field overall and outrebounded the Owls by 14 in the winning effort. The teams did not play each other in 2012, making this the first visit that the Crimson will take to Florida to play the Owls.

Overall Matchup

While Harvard’s offense has suffered without leading scorer junior Wesley Saunders, out the last two games with injury, the defense has stayed strong. The Crimson held Dartmouth to 45 points and a potent Connecticut attack to just forty percent shooting from the field. Harvard will once again need seniors Brandyn Curry and Kyle Casey to step up if Saunders cannot play. If they can shut down Bertone and Raffington, the team will be able to muster enough offense to take out the Owls, whose 5-2 home record comes without a win of any consequence.