Still Here

TigerBlog's daily arrival at work ritual goes something like this:

1) turn on the lights
2) turn on the little fan next to his desk, a fan, which, by the way, dates back to his college dorm rooms
3) get a diet peach Snapple out of the fridge and replace it with another one
4) check some basic information on the web, including who won the Padres' game the night before (not the Pads, who enter September with a dwindling lead on the Giants), some fair and balanced news headlines, the Ivy League message board, a lacrosse site or two, that kind of stuff
5) get to work

So imagine this morning when the first name that TB saw in his stroll through the web was that of Jamie Zaninovich, commissioner of the West Coast Conference.

Jamie's league is in the headlines for scoring a major coup in the world of conference realignment when the WCC took in BYU for all sports other than football, which the WCC doesn't have anyway. BYU is one of the top non-BCS schools in the country, and its presence immediately raises the profile of the league, especially in basketball.

As for BYU, it enters a league that's already way more competitive in basketball than the Mountain West (its current league) or the WAC (a possible option BYU had considered). It's also a nice fit with the existing schools in that it is a private school with a strong religious affiliation, though BYU's enrollment is higher than the next four schools combined.

Before Zaninovich became the commissioner of the West Coast Conference, he oversaw many external operations here at Princeton.

Since TB started working at Princeton, he's seen many co-workers go on to other positions all over the country. Among that group is George VanderZwaag (now the Director of Athletics at Rochester), Jim Fiore (AD at Stony Brook), Jim McLaughlin (AD at Union) and Michael Cross (AD at Bradley), in addition to Zaninovich. Amy Campbell became the AD at Bryn Mawr, and she is now back at Princeton working out of athletics in Nassau Hall. Chuck Yrigoyen used to work here in the OAC, and he is now the commissioner of the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, with a long tenure in the Ivy League in between.

As an aside, the new 4,200-seat Bradley Arena has just opened as the home for the Braves' women's volleyball and women's basketball teams, as well as a practice home for the men's basketball team. It came at a cost of $55 million and would be a perfect fit, at least according to TigerBlog, on this campus as well.

Back at today's subject, beyond just the ones who have gone to become ADs and to run conferences, there have been all kinds of people who have gone on to administrative and coaching positions at other schools after working here at Princeton.

On the other hand, there is also a long list of those who haven't left.

TigerBlog and Director of Athletics Gary Walters started on essentially the same day. In the 17 years since, the entire athletic administration of Princeton has turned over several times, with the exception of Senior Associate AD for Finance Inge Radice, event manager Karen Malec and facilities/grounds director Jeff Graydon, who have all been here long than TB and GW.

There are others who were already here when TB showed up, including ticket manager Stephanie Sutton, travel coordinator Phyllis Chase and others like Nancy Donigan (compliance/awards), Gary Mosley (equipment staff), Stacie Traube (football) and Carol Weston (administrative assistance). TB is sure he's probably forgetting someone, and for that he apologizes.

As for coaches, there are nine (eight head coaches and one assistant) who predate TB and another (Gail Ramsay, women's squash, who started on the same day as TB and Gary. Again, apologies if that is incorrect.

The annual department kickoff meeting is next week, and the overwhelming majority of coaches and staff in attendance will have started after TB. When TB looks around the room, will he be able to predict those who will stay for decades and those who will be heading off to newer challenges?

Put another way, if you could go back to the early 1990s and ask TB how long he thought he would be at Princeton, would he have said that he would still be here in 2010? Probably not, but then again, he probably wouldn't have been able to anticipate the radical changes that have occurred in athletic communications in general and Princeton's OAC specifically that have helped keep him here all this time.

The new Princeton athletic year starts in two days. As with every other year, it is a fascinating time for TB, who loves to think of the previous years in review that he's written and how each year is unique. Who knows what direction this one will go in?

Thinking about the people on staff, TB can't say for sure what motivates each one who stays and each one who goes. He can only think about himself.

Princeton Athletics remains an interesting place to be, a place filled with constantly evolving issues to be dealt with, a place with great coworkers and coaches, a place where a huge part of the job is going to game, a place that's just plain fun to work at - and of course place with a neverending stream of amazing young people who come here to compete and to learn.

When TB looks out his office window, he sees a track complex and a football stadium; his office ceiling slants upward as part of the seating area for a basketball arena.

What could be so bad about that?

That's what's kept TB here all these years.