Banquet Time

The etiquette of Lot 21 is by now an established part of every morning for TigerBlog.

Lot 21 is the parking lot outside Jadwin, and technically TB is talking about Lot 21A, which is the small part of it in the front that is reserved for athletic department staff.

Upon arrival, it is good manners to wait a moment or two for anyone else who has similarly arrived, rather than sprinting on ahead. It's possible to judge people based on how long they'll wait for someone in the parking lot, and the greatest sign of respect is to wait for someone who is just pulling in even on a rainy day.

Of course, the group mentality can get you a bit stacked up in the parking lot. If A waits for B and then C arrives almost immediately thereafter, it becomes proper to wait for C as well. Eventually, when D and E get there, it gets way out of hand and someone has to make a decision.

As for the inverse, the walk from the building to Lot 21 is about a three-minute venture, yet it is customary to identify someone who is leaving at the same time and then walk out in pairs or groups.

TigerBlog arrived this morning to find the parking lot almost completely empty, which is a rarity, and he walked in alone.

As is standard, he went in the side door and then was faced with the same two options that he's had for two decades: walk up the stairs on the immediate left or go straight and then to the stairwell on the right past the business office. This is always a tough choice.

Today TB went past the business office, and, as the door was open, he poked his head in to say hello to Phyllis Chase and Ryan Yurko, who along with Jon Kurian make up an ultra-friendly, ulra-welcoming group.

The business office today was cluttered with gigantic trophies, a sign that tonight must be the Princeton Varsity Club Senior Athlete Banquet. The trophies will make their way over to the grad college for the event, which unlike the last few years, figures to be held on a picture-perfect weather evening.

The trophies represent this year's championship teams, and while Princeton's Ivy League titles dropped from a record-setting 15 a year ago to 10 this year, judging by the looks of the trophies, the gross weight might be greater this year.

Either way, TB is glad he's not the one dragging them over there, especially the men's cross country one, which looks to be the size of a small car.

It's wild to TB that it's time for another PVC banquet, since the last one seems like it was 20 minutes ago, not 52 weeks ago. Of course, that's how it is in college athletics.

TB has two main jobs for the banquet, writing the script and putting together the slideshow/video of the senior athletes.

Last year's script ran 7,000 words, and TB resolved this year to substantially cut that count back, which he successfully did, coming in at just under 5,000.

The night always ends with the video, which has the live-action part to start  and then one action picture of every senior athlete, set to music. TigerBlog chooses the music, and here's a hint for tonight - one of the songs if by a group that is somewhat famously associated with the Jersey Shore.

Anyway, putting together one picture of each senior athlete is always an amazing process.

There are usually right around 200 senior athletes each year, and each one of them is represented, across 38 sports.

As TB goes through the task, he's always struck by the overwhelming diversity of athletic experiences, backgrounds, sports, athletes and all of it.

When you field 38 varsity teams, you're going to have athletes who have come here from wildly different backgrounds and who have competed here in wildly different ways.

How can the track and field athlete and the basketball player and the golfer and the hockey player have the same experience? They can't.

Team sizes differ. Attendance at events differs. Practices, team dynamics, squad sizes, skill sets - all of it varies from sport to sport.

And yet, as he puts the video together, TB can't help but be struck how all of these people come together under the banner of "Princeton Tigers."

The athletes always cheer for their teammates and friends when their names and pictures come up during the video. The pictures, by the way, are put in a completely random order, so there's no rhyme or reason to who will be next, until the end, when the award-winners appear.

TB also hopes that as they watch it, they see the big picture, that they've been part of something bigger than their next practice or next competition of next time they traveled together.

They were 1/38th of Princeton's program, one that's been in the intercollegiate athletic business since 1864.

Hopefully they realize that as the pictures go by, one after another. TB assumes they will.

Well, he hopes they will. He thinks they will.

But they definitely won't unless TB finishes the thing.