Hot And Cold

Miss TigerBlog had a lacrosse tournament this weekend.

This is not a rare phenomenon, of course. Between MTB and her brother, this marks the eighth straight year where TigerBlog has spent many of his summer weekends on steamy lacrosse fields.

TigerBlog can't count the number of times he's done this.

It's a simple process really. There's a schedule, with games usually spread across both days of a weekend, with an hour, two hours, three hours in between games.

It's a weekend where the heat takes its toll on everyone. It's a struggle to find shade, stay hydrated and fed and reapply sun screen all while waiting for the next game to start.

TigerBlog has been to these tournaments from Massachusetts to Virginia and basically everywhere in between. The all have common denominators, and near the top of the list is how hot it's usually been.

TB has always wondered what those who've never seen one of these events would think. They'd be shocked, he supposes, to see what it's all about, with a bunch of parents and young athletes baking in the summer sun, all in the name of playing lacrosse.

Oh, and you do this for games that often start at 8 am or even earlier? Are all of you people insane?

For the record, MTB's team won the tournament this weekend.

TigerBlog wonders how many hours he's spent on fields in the summer. The answer is somewhere around a ton.

He's learned a lot in all these years. First, never wear a black t-shirt. It absorbs the sun. And never wear a gray t-shirt - you can sweat all the way through those.

Second, when possible, wear a Princeton Lacrosse t-shirt. When he does, everyone thinks he's a coach there scouting. If nothing else he can use that to get access to the coaches' only parking areas.

One thing TB would say is that if parents are getting their kids involved just to get college scholarship money, then they're doing it for the wrong reason.

TigerBlog Jr. played on the same club team for seven summers, and the kids - well, they're now 18 and headed to college, so they're not kids anymore - are almost all playing in college. But that's not what they'll take away from their time together.

No, they'll remember their time together and the friendships they made, and they'll all have 100% positive memories of their summers together.

To cool off this weekend, TigerBlog read the stories on goprincetontigers.com about the release of the women's hockey and men's hockey schedules for 2015-16.

As an aside, it's already 2015-16? How nuts is that? TigerBlog remembers a lot of years when everyone used to talk about what age they'd be in the year 2000 and how far in the future that seemed to be, and now it's 2015-16?

Anyway, as hot as it was on the fields at West Chester University this weekend, that's how cold it can get in Baker Rink.

All of Princeton's venues have their charms, but there really is something special about Baker Rink.

It's old. It's wooden. There isn't a bad seat in the building. The action on the ice moves really quickly, and being that close to it - even in the last row - makes it an amazing place to see a game.

The only drawback, though, is that it gets really, really cold in there.

Anyway, looking at this year's schedules, there were three things that really jumped out at TB.

First, opening day for the women's hockey season is just three months and 10 days away. By then, of course, the fall season will be in full swing, and yet the overlap with the winter will be beginning.

And here it is July.

Princeton opens the women's hockey season on Oct. 23 and 24 at Mercyhurst. The home opener will be the first weekend of November, when Cornell and Colgate come to Baker Rink.

Then there are two parts of the men's schedule that are pretty interesting.

First, the Liberty Hockey Invitational at the Prudential Center in Newark has been replaced by the Capital City Classic, which will be held at the Sun Bank Center in Trenton on Oct. 30 and 31. Princeton will be joined by Yale, UMass and Maine.

Then there is the game on Dec. 11.

On that night, Princeton will play at the beautiful Pegula Ice Arena, home of Penn State hockey. And when TB says beautiful, he means beautiful.

Penn State, of course, is coached by former Princeton head coach Guy Gadowsky. TigerBlog can't think of too many examples of a Princeton team who has played against a former coach.

One of the only examples he can think of is when Princeton played against Don Cahoon, its former men's hockey coach, after Cahoon went on to coach UMass.

There were other times in rowing, at least with Dan Roock. The field hockey team played against former coach Beth Bozman.

Are there any others? Off the top of his head he can't think of any. He has to be missing some, no?

Anyway, it'll be Princeton versus Guy Gadowsky on Dec. 11.

Competitive guy, that Gadowsky.