To The Fathers

Okay everyone. 

Say hello to Lillian.

She's not even four years old yet. Does she look athletic to you? 

She certainly does to TigerBlog. She certainly looks like she's mastered cutting at full speed, right? 

Can't you see her in 10-15 years, turning the corner as she dribbles a basketball or soccer ball or holds a field hockey or lacrosse stick or a baton? Or, for that matter, is it hard to picture her as she excels at any sport she wants?

You never really want to project down the road about how good an athlete someone who could still be classified as a toddler, but Lillian isn't just any toddler. Perhaps the Utah jersey gives her away? 

Lillian is the oldest child of two of the greatest Princeton athletes of all time — field hockey player Kat Sharkey and men's lacrosse player Tom Schreiber. That's Schreiber's Utah Archers jersey, by the way. 

One of TB's favorite stats he's ever stumbled upon at Princeton is that Sharkey scored one more goal (107) than Schreiber did (106) as Tigers. Sharkey went on to play in the Olympic Games after helping Princeton to the 2012 NCAA championship, and Schreiber has won a World Championship, multiple professional championships and pretty much every Outstanding Player and Most Valuable Player award there is. 

Yesterday, of course, was Father's Day. TigerBlog stumbled upon what is one of the greatest videos you will ever see, starring Tom Schreiber. Here, watch for yourself:

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That's just awesome. You can't possibly watch that and not smile.  

And congratulations to Kat and Tom on the coming arrival of their third child, a girl, to join Lillian and her younger brother Patrick. It's a good thing that the video was with a doll and not an actual child, for many reasons, not the least of which is that someone like Patrick wouldn't really sit still for it all. 

Of course, anyone who has ever changed diapers — TB has no idea how many he did all those years ago, but he does know that the first time it took about 20 minutes and the last time it took about 20 seconds — doing so while holding a ball in a women's stick is pretty impressive, even on a doll.  

Father's Day dates back to 1909, or two years after Mother's Day. It began, in all places, in Spokane, Wash. 

The fathers have been playing catch-up ever since. TigerBlog read someplace yesterday that Americans spend nearly $9 billion a year more on Mother's Day than on Father's Day. So what to make out of this?

Well, in fairness, the mothers are a tad bit more, uh, inconvenienced by the whole childbirth process. Still, is that worth $9 billion more?

TigerBlog has met hundreds of dads of Princeton athletes through the year. For that matter, TB is one of them: TigerBlog ’P22. 

There are all different kinds of sports fathers. They exist on a decibel scale that ranges from silent to really, really loud, but the common denominator is the support they offer — to their kids and to all of their kids friends and teammates. 

If you are a former sports dad, like TB, you know that you clearly miss those days, from the youth level until they stopped playing, which for both of TB's kids was college. 

Those were great days. A lot of life lessons were learned on those fields and in the car rides back and forth. For his part, TB will never forget them. They're such an important part of his life, up there with anything he's experienced. 

He, like all fathers, would like to think that he made a big impact on his kids' lives and that they will take with them forever the things he taught them. He also appreciates every day how lucky he is for how his kids turned out. 

Anyway, that's enough sentimentality for one day. 

TigerBlog hopes all the dads out there had a great day yesterday — even if their kids got them gifts on the cheap, at least compared to the mothers.