News Items

In a perfect world, Chris Eubanks would have won his Wimbledon quarterfinal match yesterday and then TigerBlog would have found out that he had played against Princeton at some point during his college career.

Unfortunately, neither of those things happened.

If you've been paying attention to Wimbledon the last 10 days or so, then you know that Eubanks has gone from someone very few people had heard of to the story of the tournament to date. Eubanks is a 27-year-old American who played college tennis at Georgia Tech and who didn't break into the top 100 of the world rankings until this past March.

In fact, his career had stalled to the point where he actually was thinking about giving up. He was even working in TV, for the Tennis Channel.

Then Wimbledon started, and his game skyrocketed. Along with it, so did the obvious joy with which he plays, and the crowds immediately responded. It was clear there was a connection between Eubanks and the fans. All you had to do was see any clip of him around the crowds to see it.

It ended yesterday in five sets against third-seed Danill Medvedev, after Eubanks won the second and third and looked like he might be able to do it. Medvedev, a former US Open champ, held it together and turned things around.  

It'll be interesting to see what he does moving forward. He certainly has the name recognition now.

With the loss and with no connection to Princeton, TB had to find something else to write about today. Fortunately, there were two news items that he stumbled on that set him back on the right path.

In addition to all of her responsibilities at Princeton, Jennifer Caputo is also a sports fan, including as a Princeton Athletic Fellow, with the women's squash program.  

Before she came to Princeton, she spent several years working for Major League Baseball, ultimately as VP of Human Resources for MLB Advanced Media. 

TigerBlog is also pretty sure she's a loyal reader here.

Caputo was in the Princeton news yesterday, when the announcement was made that she will be assuming the title of Deputy Vice President for Alumni Engagement in the Office of Advancement. The full University announcement can be seen HERE.

As you well know, the alumni group at Princeton is unlike that of pretty much anywhere else. It is a fiercely loyal, very supportive, very active group of people whose connection to the University dates back a few years, a few decades and everywhere in between.

To have a very high leadership position in that organization is very impressive. Caputo deserves all the congratulations in the world as she starts her new role. 

Included in the release was a quote from the new president of the Alumni Association. And who would that be? 

Well, that would be Monica Moore Thompson, Class of 1989. Monica, of course, is the wife of John Thompon III, the former Princeton men's basketball player and coach. 

Any group that has Monica as its president is headed for success. If you know Monica at all, you know what TB is saying.

TB first saw the news about Caputo's new position on Twitter. The tweet he saw before that came from the College Sports Communicators group, and that one included a link to a story with this title:

Gen Z workers don’t love their jobs—so, they’re changing work culture
Gen Zers are quitting traditional corporate cultures. If companies want to woo and retain young talent, Gen Z-led companies reveal how to inspire, motivate, and reward Gen Z employees.

It was worth a click, TB thought. He's glad he did.

The website was fastcompany.com, which is a business, technology and innovation site. The first three words of the story are: "When Charlie Durbin ..."

Hmmm. Charlie Durbin? The former Princeton men's lacrosse player? 

Yes, it was the same Charlie Durbin, a member of the Class of 2019 who had a very solid career, including a 21-goal senior season.

The premise of the story is pretty much what you would think. In Durbin's case, he was working in M&A (TigerBlog learned that means Mergers and Acquisitions) before he left to launch his own start-up.

This is a paragraph from the story:

According to LinkedIn data, 72% of Gen Zers are considering quitting their jobs. Gen Z currently make up just 8.5% of the labor pool, and if bosses are having trouble managing Gen Z now, what happens when that number swells to 30% by 2030 as the rest of the approximately 70 million members of this generation follow suit and as baby boomers continue to retire?

That's interesting stuff. You can read the whole thing HERE.