A Schwarzman Winner

There are weekends in which Princeton has had upwards of 30 athletic events in a three-day span.

Then there's this time of year.

Today is Dec. 12, which means that there are only 19 days left in the calendar year. During those 19 days, Princeton will have 17 athletic events.

Welcome to the very slow month of December. If you wanted to rank Princeton Athletics in terms of how busy months get around here, it would go something like this:
1. March
2. February
3. November
4. October
5. April
6. September
7. May
8. December
9. January
10. June

July and August are tied for 11th.

June's excuse is that the only teams who would still be competing are track and field, baseball and rowing.

January? It has final exams, which wipe out half the month. And even with that, there might still be more events in January than December in an average academic year.

The busiest time is mid-February through late-March. Without adding it all up, TB thinks March has more events than February, what with teams on spring break trips added in.

The two crossover seasons are stuffed with events. The summer is free. The other months have their moments. January has exams.

December? It has some great matchups for basketball, hockey and wrestling throughout and some other events mixed in, but it's very quiet for the most part. The stretch that Princeton is entering, with the final two weeks before Christmas, is especially so, with eight events between now and Dec. 25, or actually Dec. 28, for that matter.

The breakdown of those eight events is this: three men's basketball games, three women's basketball games, one men's hockey game and one wrestling match.

Of those eight, only two are at home - the women's basketball game against Marist Saturday afternoon (5) and the wrestling match next Thursday against Rider, a team Princeton has lost to 18 straight times.

There will be four home hockey games after Christmas - the women with two against Merrimack and the men with two against Maine. And that's all that's left on campus for 2018.

With the schedule a little lean this week, TigerBlog did want to take a moment to recognize an extraordinary achievement by a member of the men's water polo team. P.J. Greenbaum, a Tiger senior, was one of four Princeton students to be named a Schwarzman Scholar.

The program, in its fourth year, selects students for a one-year master's program, in Beijing. There were 147 seniors around the world (that's the whole world) selected out of 2,800 applicants.

You can read all about the program and Greenbaum's honor HERE. To sum it up, Greenbaum is in the Naval ROTC program headed towards a commission as a surface warfare officer, nuclear propulsion option. He has a family history of service, and his resume also includes, well, a lot. Just read his bio in the story.

In case Greenbaum's name is familiar, it's because he was the subject of a video in the "Beyond the Stripes" series earlier this year. You can see that video HERE.

TigerBlog rewatched the video yesterday. He loves the part where P.J. talks about his great-grandfather, a pitcher on the Princeton baseball team and a member of the class of 1912, not to mention a pilot in World War I, and then his grandfather (also a Princeton pitcher).

He also casually mentions how he will take his year off for grad school if he's chosen, and if not he'll head out to sea. He talks about the responsibility he'll undertake as a Naval officer in the Fleet, and he does so very humbly. It's quite impressive.

Again, watch the video.

Earning the award he did is not easy. If only 147 winners were chosen out of 2,800 applicants, then he had basically a one in 20 shot at it. And that doesn't even count all the people who might have applied but figured they had no chance.

His story is fascinating. He only walked onto the water polo team in the spring of his junior year and yet made his presence felt, all while balancing his academic and ROTC responsibilities.   

Here at Princeton, the goal is to give the student-athletes a chance to "Achieve, Serve, Lead."

P.J. Greenbaum is doing all three at a very high level.

His Schwarzman Scholar award is certainly proof of that.