It Was A Long Ride Home

TigerBlog wanted to start off the week by sharing his thoughts from the weekend's NCAA men's and women's lacrosse championships.

He was in Foxboro all weekend, at Gillette Stadium, the home of the New England Patriots.

As TB mentioned when he was writing about the Fireside Inn near Dartmouth recently, some hotels offer rooms with beautiful views and others offer views of parking lots. Some offer both.

The view from TigerBlog's room looked right across the parking lot at the giant facility. It was quite a beautiful sight, especially at night with the stadium lights still on.

Towson, who would lose to Ohio State in a tough semifinal. Prior to that, Towson had been staying in the same hotel as TigerBlog, on the same floor, as a matter of fact. Towson would walk from the hotel to the stadium, which made for some pretty good social media posts.

TB saw eight games in four days: the Division I women's semifinals Friday, the Division I men's semifinals Saturday, the Division I women's final and the Division II and III men's finals Sunday at finally the Division I men's final yesterday.

He was part of the stat crew for all eight games.

You're jealous, right? Whatever you did couldn't possibly be any better than that.

The problem with putting together a post-tournament review is that TB couldn't do it until, well, post-tournament. And post-tournament wasn't going to come until late afternoon yesterday, in New England.

That left TigerBlog staring at a long, long ride back, one that figured to feature some serious holiday weekend traffic. He knew he wasn't getting back until past 11 at the earliest, and the last thing he was going to want to do was sit down and start writing.

So, you'll have to wait a day to hear all about it.

Ah, but that left him needing a subject that he could get through before he had to drive back, or before he had to work the last game. TB, though, is never at a loss for words, especially written ones.

He'll give you a little lacrosse.

The Major League Lacrosse draft was held Sunday. Zach Currier was the sixth overall pick, going to the Denver Outlaws, who traded three draft choices and a player to move up to get him.

TigerBlog was really happy to see Gavin McBride was also drafted, going in the fifth round, also to Denver. And he'd like to mention Brian Masi, who went in the ninth round to Atlanta and in doing so became the first Sacred Heart Pioneer ever to be drafted by Major League Lacrosse.

The end of Memorial Day weekend means that there are only two athletic events left for the 2016-17 academic year.

The IRA national rowing championships will be held this weekend in Sacramento, where the men's lightweights, men's heavyweights and women's lightweights will all be competing.

The other remaining event will be the NCAA track and field championships in Eugene, Oregon, which will be June 7-10. Princeton will be sending four athletes after this past weekend's regional qualifier in Kentucky: women's hammer thrower Julia Ratcliffe, women's pole vaulter Allison Harris, men's pole vaulter August Kiles and men's 1,500 meter runner William Paulson.

It would have been five, as it appeared that men's hammer thrower Adam Kelly originally qualified by finishing 12th, which was the last spot to advance. Unfortunately, two other throwers protested foul calls on throws and won their protests, which bumped Kelly to 14th.

Other than the rowing and track and field national championships, the rest of the academic year has come and gone.

Don't think for a minute that this will be a cushy week at Princeton though. Far from it.

This is one of the busiest times of year, with the Gary Walters ’67 Princeton Varsity Club Banquet Thursday night and then Reunions after that, followed by Class Day and Commencement.

Back when TigerBlog was in the newspaper business, every academic year began with the preseason luncheon at what was then Trenton State College and is now the College of New Jersey. TB has mentioned this before, but the president of the college began each luncheon by saying the same thing: "I predict that every Trenton State team will go undefeated this year."

Of course he was joking. But it was his line, every year TB was at the luncheon.

Each year, TigerBlog had the same feeling - he couldn't believe he was at another luncheon at TSC, that an entire year had come and gone.

He has the same feeling at the lacrosse championships and the banquet every time. Has another year really zoomed by?

Each year is special and different in its own way, each with its own highs and lows. Each one has its own banquet storylines. Each one makes TB wonder what the next year's storylines will be.

In the meantime, he'll have more on the banquet as the week goes along. And probably more on the lacrosse tomorrow.

He just couldn't do it today.

That was a long ride home.