Gengler-Smith, of course, is one of the three great Gengler sisters, along with Nancy and Louise, who played sports at Princeton in the 1970s, during the earliest days of women's athletics here. In fact, Gengler-Smith was one of the first two women to compete for Princeton, when she played in the Eastern tennis championships with her partner Helena Novakova back on October of 1970.
It was only when he looked a little closer at the picture that he saw all these other people were in it:
Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, Benedict Cumberbatch, Margie's husband Stan Smith ... and, oh yeah, Princess of Wales Kate Middleton, Princess Charlotte and Kate's sister Pippa.
That's the effect of being at Princeton for as long as TigerBlog has been. Hey, it's Margie and a bunch of other people who look somewhat familiar.
The Wimbledon men's final saw Carlos Alcaraz defeat Novak Djokovic for the second straight year and do so in dominant fashion, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6. Djokovic held off three straight match points on Alcaraz's serve in the third set, but that was it.
Afterwards, in his on-court interview, Djokovic was asked about playing against an opponent who was so "hot." Djokovic played it off well.
Then Alcaraz was asked about the upcoming England-Spain European championship soccer game, which was a tough question for the 21 year old. Oh, and Alcaraz, despite being 21, already ranks eighth all-time in career earnings on the pro tour.
Spain then broke England's heart with a late goal to win the Euro title 2-1, after England had tied it up earlier. That was a rough one for the English.
The day of big international events ended with the game between Colombia and Argentina for the Copa America championship, which Argentina took 1-0 on a late goal, one that came even later than it otherwise would have after the start was delayed. Oh, and Lionel Messi got hurt.
It was the team that finished fourth that really impressed TB, though. That would be Canada, which lost to Argentina in the semis and then lost the third-place game on PKs to Uruguay.
The Canadians are now coached by Jesse Marsch, one of the most unique Princetonians TigerBlog has ever met. He's very much in the mold of his coach at Princeton, Bob Bradley, for whom he was an All-American.
Marsch can be defined by many of the same words as Bob Bradley: loyal, intense, intellectual, thoughtful, smart.
Marsch played for 14 seasons in Major League Soccer, with 31 career goals. He then followed Bradley into coaching; in fact, his first assignment was as Bradley's assistant with the U.S. men's national team.
He has gone on to be the head coach for teams in Canada, Germany, Austria, England and the U.S. — in addition to spending a year as Jim Barlow's assistant in Princeton. Marsch, like Bradley, coached in the English Premier League, in his case with Leeds.
And now he is the head coach for the Canadian team. If you watched him in the Copa America, you saw all of those attributes TB mentioned on full display.
He also made headlines when asked about any possible interest he might have in the U.S. job, now that it has come open after the team's disappointing performance in the Copa America. This is what Marsch said about that:
"I'm not leaving this job. I have no interest in the U.S. job. And to be fair, unless there's a big shift in the organization, I don't think that I'll ever have any interest in that job in the future. So I'm really happy here. I couldn't be happier actually in terms of what it's like to work with the leaders in this organization and what it's like to work with this team."
Pretty strong words.
Along the long road he has taken in his coaching career, he has never forgotten where his first loyalty was born. He and Princeton head men's basketball coach Mitch Henderson are incredibly close, and Mitch spoke of their friendship often during his team's Sweet 16 run in 2023.
He remains forever a Tiger, a Canadian one these days.
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