The Fifth Of July

Did you have a good Fourth of July? 

Hopefully you did. Are you a fan of fireworks? TigerBlog is "eh" on the subject.

They're fine and all for the first minute, especially the first five seconds, when the anticipation builds and you hear the first "woosh," followed by the first explosion of color. They're also fine for the final 30 seconds, when the fireworks people basically say "well, what do we have left" and toss it out there.

In the middle? It gets a bit monotonous. 

You know what is the best thing to see on the Fourth of July? It's "Yankee Doodle Dandy." That'll make you stand up and cheer every time. 

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Princeton has two boats remaining at the Henley Royal Regatta, and both compete today. In fact, depending on when you read this, they might have already competed, since it's five hours earlier in England than in the Eastern Time Zone.

Princeton's second varsity 8 boat, racing as "Princeton A" in the Temple Challenge Cup, has won two races already, leaving it as a quarterfinalist after 32 boats began in the division Monday. Princeton A rows (or, more likely, rowed, since the race started at 5 am Eastern) against ASR Nereus, who knocked off fellow Dutch crew GSR Aegir by four lengths in its second race.

TB originally didn't realize that there was a day off in between the second and third races, so he thought the race between Princeton and ASR Nereus was going to be yesterday. It would have been a great day for an American boat to race in England. 

The Princeton 1V, in the six-team Ladies' Challenge Cup, races for the first time today, at 7:20 am Eastern against Thames R.C.

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The list of Princeton's 2024 Olympians continues to grow. Simen Guttormsen added his name to the group of Tigers headed to Paris when he officially was named to the Norwegian Olympic team as a pole vaulter. 

Simen will join his brother Sondre, another Princeton alum, who is returning to his second Olympics, also as a pole vaulter for Norway. Simen's presence brings to a startling 25 the number of current or former Princeton athletes who will be competing in Paris. 

Look for a ton of Olympic coverage from Princeton Athletics on social media and on the website in the next few weeks and then once the Games actually begin.

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Bella Alarie, Princeton's all-time leading scorer in women's basketball with 1,703 points, was the No. 5 pick in the WNBA draft after she graduated in 2020. Her pro career, both here and in Europe, was cut short by problem knees, but her work in basketball is hardly over.

Earlier this week, Alarie was named Georgetown's Director of Player Development and Experience, after spending last year as a grad assistant coach. You can see the entire release HERE, but this quote from head coach Darnell Haney caught TB's eye:

"Bella is an amazing addition to our staff. She brings a dynamic to us as a former pro and high-level collegiate player that helps us in a variety of ways. I wanted to create a development position that not only helped our young women grow on the court, but off the floor as well. Bella is a future superstar in the business and is the perfect fit for us and what we need."

A future superstar in the business. That's quite a quote. 

There have been many, many Tiger alums who have gone into coaching, across pretty much every sport. It's not always easy to pick out the ones who will make great coaches, though sometimes — like in the case of Mitch Henderson or Jim Barlow — it was impossible to miss when they were undergrads. Others, like Bob Surace, seemed like they were already coaches when they played. 

Right now Princeton has one female alum who is a current head coach in the department, and that's women's volleyball head coach Sabrina King. Who was the last Princeton female alum to be a head coach at Princeton other than King? 

That would be Maureen Barron, who coached the softball team through 2007.

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TB can't believe he is posting this, but hey, here goes. He got quite a few emails on his entry the other day about his shorts, so here is what they look like:

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Enjoy the rest of your Fourth of July weekend.