Thank Your SID

The first email that TigerBlog received yesterday said only one word: "Behncke."

When he saw the email, TB had a one quasi-word thought: "duh."

TB would end up hearing from a bunch of people yesterday about sibling pairs at Princeton, a reference to yesterday's entry where he was wondering how many such siblings had each earned multiple first-team All-Ivy League honors.

He knew he was overlooking some people. He can't believe he forgot the Behncke's.

That's a soccer playing family that produced three first-team All-Ivy League Princeton siblings, including two who were first-team more than once. Between the three of them, they had six first-team All-Ivy League selections.

Griff, the oldest, was first-team in 1999. Matt was first-team in 2000 and 2001.

Emily, the youngest, was second-team as a freshman in 2002 and then first-team in 2003, 2004 and 2005, not to mention the Ivy League Player of the Year her senior year. She also scored the biggest goal of the 2004 regular season, a last-minute goal to force overtime against Harvard that 1) ended a very long scoreless stretch against the Crimson and 2) gave Princeton the momentum (after Esmeralda Negron's game-winner in overtime, set up by Diana Matheson) that led to a run that went all the way to the NCAA Final Four.

He got a bunch of suggestions on others that didn't quite fit the original requirement - a minimum of two first-team All-Ivy awards for each sibling.

He also got a few lineages of uncles/nephews and multi-generation relatives who played here and in some cases all earned some form of All-Ivy, if not first-team. And, of course, there are many others out there who have competed here from the same family without any all-league recognition.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who responded. And if you know of any others, let TB know.

One of the messages he got included this at the end: "It would be a cool database to have of all the family athletes."

Yes, it would be.

Of course, such a database would be of great use in the field of athletic communications. So would the ability to easily research something like, say, the last time something happened or how many Princeton players all-time ever had a game with 20 points and 10 rebounds, or the most games with multiple goals scored or something like that.

The record sections here in the Office of Athletic Communications are good, but they're not built for everything. Oh well.

Speaking of athletic communications, this past week was considered "thank your SID" week by the national athletic communications organization, known as CoSIDA. If you're not familiar with the term "SID," it stands for "sports information director."

For TigerBlog, it's a nostalgic, somewhat antiquated term. It refers back to a time when the profession was completely different, back when it was almost all publications and media relations. And a lot of mailing out of press releases.

These days, it's about content production, the kind that frames the message and the brand of the athletic department. This is vitally important in so many areas, including recruiting, fund-raising, student-athlete experience, wellness, alumni relations and beyond.

It is through the communications department that these messages are sent out in all directions, though a website, on social media, to the outside media, directly to fans and recruits, in whatever form information is consumed these days. Even on a daily blog.

It's a much more intense - and exciting - profession than it was when TB first started doing it. The pace is much faster, and the deadlines are much more fluid. There is no shortage of stories to tell and no shortage of ways to tell them, and the demand continues to grow.

As TB has said many times, he'd never have stayed here this long if the profession hadn't done the 180 it has done. The challenge to be ever more creative is what makes it fun.

He'd also like to call your attention to two members of the profession, his Princeton colleagues Andrew Borders and Warren Croxton. It's been an interesting few months in the OAC, with a major restructuring and some big personnel changes.

Warren and Andrew have been asked to do a great deal above and beyond during these months. Looking at the production from the outside, it's unlikely that you could tell anything had changed.

So TB will thank both of them on "thank your SID" week.

And on behalf of SIDs everywhere, TB says "you're welcome."