Each year, the Princeton Department of Athletics gets a big staff photo taken in the stands at Princeton Stadium, and yesterday was the 2019-20 edition of that event. The picture is down to a bit of science by now, with the same two women who run the show and know exactly how to set up such a photo.
TigerBlog actually recruited them a few years ago. One of them, Sue, is the mother of three children, including a son, Christian, who was friends with TigerBlog Jr. from kindergarten or so. He just graduated from Penn State and is in the process of becoming an athletic trainer.
Sue is the one who arranges everyone, making sure the picture is balanced with the correct number of people on each side. She's sort of the drill sergeant of the operation.
The photographer is named Dawn. She's the sister of a guy named Paul, who coached TBJ in lacrosse in fifth and sixth grade. Dawn was the one who always took the individual and team pictures of the kids in the lacrosse league back then - she probably still does it - and when TB needed someone to take a department staff photo, he reached up to her.
Unlike most years, the picture from yesterday was taken on a day when the sun wasn't directly overheard and beating down on everyone as the temperature soared near 100 and the humidity reached highly uncomfortable levels. It was actually pretty nice out.
From the time TB got to the stands until the picture was taken, about three minutes elapsed. That's efficiency from Sue and Dawn.
One thing TB marvels at with this picture each year is how much turnover there is from year to year. It might not seem like much, but when you go back to the picture from just a few years ago, you're struck by just how many new faces there are in the new one.
Anywhere, here's Dawn's picture from yesterday:
The annual photo follows the annual welcome back staff meeting, which this year included a video that had some of the department members discuss what they did this summer. It appears that a few of TB's colleagues have become pretty good at kickball.
And with that, the new year can officially kick into high gear.
Princeton's women's soccer team played its third game of the year last night, and this one was a bit different than any other game every played in the history of Princeton Athletics, dating back to the first baseball game in 1864.
That sounds pretty overstated, no? How was it different?
Well, the game was aired live on NBC Sports Philadelphia + as part of Princeton's expanded partnership with the regional network. And, unlike any other game ever played before at Princeton, the broadcast originated out of the brand-new HG Levine Broadcast Center in Jadwin Gym and then was sent to a TV station to be shown. Cool, no?
It was the first of many games to follow the same production. You can read more about it HERE.
This weekend is the first one of the year with a substantial number of events, including two that are in North Carolina.
The field hockey team is in Chapel Hill to open its season against No. 1 North Carolina. It's another year where the Tigers duck no one, with a schedule that includes seven of the preseason top 10 teams (and Princeton's ranked fifth, so there were only nine available to play), with a stop at No. 10 Wake Forest Sunday.
The field hockey game at UNC starts at 5. One hour earlier, the defending Ivy champion men's soccer team kicks off its season at Duke.
By the time Sunday rolls around, the women's volleyball team, the men's water polo team and the men's and women's cross country teams will all have started their seasons as well. And the women's soccer team will have played again, Saturday night at 8, at home against No. 23 Rutgers.
The men's water polo team, by the way, takes on UCLA and Stanford this weekend at Navy. Those are both top three teams.
Anyway, it's the first busy weekend of the year for Princeton Athletics. And, like the game that was produced out of the broadcast center for TV, it'll hardly be the last.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment