B-P-29

There's a computer program called "Stat Crew" that is used for in-game stat-keeping for pretty much every sport by every college.

TigerBlog certainly has enough experience with it. He's used it for lacrosse all these years, as well as for other sports. Most recently, he filled in at women's hockey Friday night to do Stat Crew. He's done field hockey, a lot of soccer, some football, never volleyball (that's just way too hard).

The programs are all basically the same. You enter codes that correlate to any possible situation in the game, and you enter numbers for players who had that stat.

For instance, in lacrosse, if No. 22 Michael Sowers passes the ball to No. 12 Emmet Cordrey, who then scores, you enter "S" for a shot and then the program knows to ask you for which team, so you enter "P" for "Princeton." Then it'll ask you for the uniform number of who took it, so you enter "12." Then the program asks you for the outcome of the shot, and there's a code for every one: G for goal, P for pipe, H for high, W for wide, S for save, B for blocked.

In this case, then, it's S-P-12 and then "G" for goal, at which point the program knows to ask if there's an assist or not, and so you enter "22" for the assist.

The game's stats are totaled from a running accounting of the numbers as they're entered and automatically adds up each team and individual total, as well as producing the live stats. When the game ends, you can upload the XML file that is produced for a box score and to update season stats.

It may sound a little complicated, but if you do it two or three times, you'd get the hang of it.

For the men's lacrosse game against Johns Hopkins, there were 273 different stats that TB had to enter from start to finish, which is about an average number. If you want to multiply that out time all of the events that TB has done stats for, then you get a really, really high number.

Princeton first used Stat Crew for lacrosse in the 2003 season, which comes to somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000 stats that TB has entered here for men's lacrosse. Add to that all of the NCAA championship weekend games he's done, and that's another 20,000 or so.

Then add every other sport he's done, and that's probably another 20,000 on top of that, which comes to somewhere in the neighborhood of 70,000 different stats.

What's his point? Well, this Saturday there was one stat that he'd never experienced before, one that not too many people ever get to do - and one that meant more to him than any of the other 70,000.

For the record, it was "B-P-29." It sounds so simple. It wasn't. It was a lot of things, but simple wasn't one of them. It was emotional. It was exciting. It was awesome.

If you go way back to the beginning with TigerBlog, then you remember the days when he'd refer to his daughter as Little Miss TigerBlog. In fact, he thinks the first time he wrote about her was back in December of 2009, when, as a nine-year-old, she decided she wanted to try out for a local community theater production of "Meet Me In St. Louis."

Eventually, she literally zoomed past the "Little" part as she grew to be a shade below six-feet tall, becoming instead simply Miss TigerBlog and now, Miss TigerBlog ’22.

Her theater career pretty much began and ended with "Meet Me In St. Louis," except for a small role in a middle school play. Instead, she went down the path of being a scholar and an athlete.

When she was still LMTB, she never really seemed all that invested in playing sports, which would have been fine if that's how she would have wanted it. In middle school, she was content to be part of a team, even as she showed flashes of her potential.

By her last two years of high school, she began play with ferocity, and she also began to use her natural size and athleticism to become a force in field hockey and especially lacrosse. With her academic record, she was recruited by some really strong academic Division III schools, but she had a different plan in mind.

She applied instead to Princeton and then, after being accepted, walked onto the women's lacrosse team here, now playing for the same head coach, Chris Sailer, who had given her the first lacrosse stick she ever had about 13 years ago.

MTB is living out the experience that TigerBlog has seen so many athletes here enjoy, and he couldn't be more thrilled for her. She has been introduced to a great group of women's lacrosse players, and she has been warmly welcomed by the upperclassmen and the other eight freshmen.

She is also learning all of the great lessons that Princeton Athletics stands for, the "Education Through Athletics" that has touched so many before her. From TB's perspective, he's gotten a new appreciation for it all as he has watched his daughter from Day 1 of her time here.

It's been fascinating to him, to see all of the things that he's discussed in so many meetings for so many years play out firsthand for her and just what a positive impact it's all having on her.

In fact, TB maintains that one of the things that has given her the confidence to succeed here academically was tied to something athletic, something as simple as passing the women's lacrosse team's run test in the fall. It's hard to explain, but it made a real difference on her as a Princeton student, not just as an athlete.

TB saw her at Freshman Athlete Orientation back in September, which was really cool. He saw her play in fall scrimmages, which also made him smile. The same thing happened when she in with the rest of the team for headshots or posed greenscreen pictures, wearing her Princeton uniform.

Then there was this past Saturday.

Princeton was playing Columbia, a game the Tigers won 19-1. It was 15-0 at halftime, and TB had a sense that every healthy player would get in the game at some point of the second half.

TB was sitting in the Sherrerd Field press box, where he was the official statistician. He was entering "S-P-8-G" or "S-P-20-G" every time Tess D'Orsi or Elizabeth George scored, and every other stat that came along.

As the second half went along, Sailer started to tap different players on the shoulder to tell them to get loose. Eventually, she tapped MTB's shoulder.

And so here it was. For the first time in all the years TigerBlog has been watching Princeton Athletics - 30 of them - he was about to see his daughter play for the Tigers.

She got in the game with about five minutes or so to go. Then, with a little more than three minutes to go, Columbia had the ball in its offensive end. Orna Madigan had the ball for the Lions, and she was being guarded by Lillian Stout, one of MTB's classmates.

Madigan tried to pass, but Stout got her stick in the way, forcing the ball to the middle.

For TB, that meant "T" for turnover, "C" for Columbia and then "16" for Madigan. Then the program asks for a caused turnover if there is one, and that went to "5," Stout's number.

And what happened next?

MTB, near the crease, scooped up the ball. Then she ran towards the sideline and up the field, passing it across the midline to a teammate who was fouled, giving possession to Princeton.

Sitting up in the booth, TB entered "B-P-29."

"B" is for ground ball. "P" is for Princeton. "29" is for MTB.

It's really hard for TigerBlog to accurately describe the emotions of the moment. His daughter was playing for Princeton. And he got to enter her stat into the stat program. A lot of people have coached their kids in college. Not too many have entered their first career stat. Yeah, that sounds weird and all, but from TigerBlog's perspective, it was a moment unlike any he'd ever experienced.

Seriously, he's seen thousands of Princeton Athletes play thousands of games. He's seen national championships, amazing comebacks, wild finishes, unbelievable individual performances, record-setting moments.

What happened last Saturday, though, was for him the most special Princeton moment he's ever had. His daughter, in a Princeton uniform, competing as a Princeton Tiger.

Don't tell anyone, but he teared up a bit.