Happy Campers

TigerBlog spent the summer after his freshman year of college working in New York City for an organization called The Council of the Americas, which was located on the corner of Park Ave. and 68th Street, across from Hunter College and two blocks from Central Park (where TB would usually eat lunch).

As summer jobs go, it was okay, though rather than get TB interested in a career in international business, it merely scared him away from wanting to work in New York ever again. It was also TB's first experience using a word processor, which came in handy when he had to mail out hundreds of copies of books or newsletters or such.

By the summer between his junior and senior years, he was well-entrenched in the newspaper business. That summer consisted of covering District 12 Little League and Lower Bucks County American Legion baseball, primarily.

The summer in between, though, was spent as a vendor at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

Now, as summer jobs go, you really couldn't beat it. Sleep late. Have huge stretches of days off when the Phillies were on the road. Even when you were working, you were at a ballpark.

At a time when most of TB's friends from school were working at internships or jobs that would lead down a specific career path, TB was getting sticky soda in his shoes in the 500 level behind home plate. And making about $40-$50 a night doing so.

If anything, though, it did expose TB for the first time to the idea of pursuing a career in a sports related field, something that came to pass in earnest a few weeks later when he first started at the newspaper.

For that summer, though, he lived in a house on the Penn campus, on Chestnut Street near 38th. There was no washing machine there, so he had to drag his laundry to either one of the high-rise dorms across the street (longer walk, more machines) or next door to International House (shorter work, fewer machines, risk of getting shut out). Then, each day around 3 or so, it was off to the stadium.

Perhaps TB should have taken a class while he was there, since he clearly had the time. At Penn, like at most schools, there are summer classes offered for the same credit as classes during the fall or spring semesters.

As such, TB was on campus with plenty of college students who were doing plenty of regular college work.

It's not something you see here at Princeton in the summer much. In fact, each summer, TB comes in contact with almost no students, since there are no summer classes to take.

That doesn't mean that the campus is empty and the dorms are going unused. In fact, summer is an extraordinarily busy time on this campus.

As TB sits here, he can look out the window to a track filled with young athletes, and he can hear the sounds of basketballs bouncing and the buzzer sounding on the basketball court downstairs.

Why? Camps.

Princeton University has 38 varsity sports, about 1,000 varsity athletes and an undergraduate enrollment of 5,047.

In the summer, those numbers are replaced by different ones.

According to Andrew Dudley, the manager of sports camps at the University's Office of Visitor and Conference Services, Princeton offers 56 sessions of sports camps during the summer (and 10 during the academic year).

These 56 sessions bring more than 6,000 campers to the University, of whom about three-quarters, or 4,500, stay overnight in the dorms.

Add to this the 75 or so non-sports camps, and you can see how busy Princeton gets during the summer.

TigerBlog Jr. and Little Miss TigerBlog are both camp veterans, and TB is pretty sure that TBJ's three favorite nights of the year are the ones he spends in the dorms during camp.

There are all kinds of sports camps here. Day camps, with mostly younger kids. Competitive camps. Team camps. There is something for everyone.

They come from all over the country and even from other countries to attend.

Princeton rosters are dotted with athletes whose first night ever spent on this campus was at a sports camp.

These camps run from mid-June (when some kids haven't even finished school yet) through early August. This week, TB has seen track-and-field camp, boys' basketball camp and baseball camp (which spilled over onto the football practice fields) on this side of campus alone.

Oh, and squash camp as well, something that has cut into TB's game the weeks the camp has been there. It's for a good cause, though.

And now it's winding down, but that doesn't mean the dorms will be empty for long.

It's Aug. 5. The first athletic events for the year are just 29 days away.

As always, TB will miss the season of summer sports camps here. It's as much a part of the Princeton athletic culture as anything else.