Congratulations Lloyd

When TigerBlog learned yesterday that Lloyd Brewer is retiring, the first thought he had was that he can never remember even once having had a negative interaction in any context with him.

If you don't know who Lloyd Brewer is, he's spent the last 21 years as an assistant coach with the Princeton baseball team. That's 21 years of nothing negative, and that's a pretty good record.

The Princeton baseball record during his time is also impressive.

Princeton won six Ivy League championships and nine Gehrig Division titles (back when there were two divisions in Ivy baseball and softball) while Brewer was with the program. Princeton also sent a ton of players to professional baseball and seven to the Major Leagues, including World Series champion Chris Young and current New York Yankee Mike Ford.

More than just the wins and the great players, Princeton baseball has been a close-knit and loyal group. That family feel has always started at the top, with head coach Scott Bradley and Brewer at his side for 21 of his 23 years.

Bradley spoke about his longtime assistant on yesterday's Princeton Department of Athletics Zoom staff meeting. He talked about his loyalty and commitment to Princeton, how he took the job when it paid next to nothing, how devoted he was to maintaining Clarke Field.

More than anything else, though, he talked about his love of baseball, how he just loved to be out on the field, working with the guys. It's that love of the game and of Princeton's players that drove him all those years.

It's not always easy being an assistant coach.

Many assistant coaches look at what they do as a necessary stepping stone to the ultimate goal, which is being a head coach. Not all will make it that far. In fact, most won't.

College athletics are filled with assistant coaches who have made move after move in hopes of moving up. Some give up all together and find something else to do.

It's a grind. Recruiting is almost always ongoing. Player development is essential. More and more there are responsibilities off the field, with alumni relations, fundraising and even social media content production.

It's not always for everyone.

Then you have to factor in the part about checking your ego at the door. The head coach is the one who gets the glory when the team wins. The head coach is the one who talks to the media. The head coach is the one who wins Coach of the Year.

The assistant coach? The head coach would be nothing without a good one. But there isn't always a lot of glory in it.

There's also the fact that the head coach and the assistant coach don't always see eye to eye. Recruit that kid or the other kid? Run this offense or that offense? Put out this batting order or that batting order?

The head coach has the final say.

Princeton has had several assistant coaches who have lasted longer than 20 years, but not many. TB can think of a handful off the top of his head, and he apologizes right now knowing that he's overlooking some obvious deserving ones.

But there was Ron Celestin in women's soccer. David Metzbower in men's lacrosse. Neil Pomphrey and Richard Hankinson in squash.

And of course, the longest tenured Princeton assistant coach, football's Steve Verbit. The man they call "Verbs" has been with the program for more than 34 years now, working with four different head coaches and hundreds of players.

Bob Surace, by the way, fits in both of those categories. He's a former player during Verbit's time, and he's the current Princeton head coach.

As for Lloyd Brewer, he was also a Princeton fixture for a long time, albeit under one head coach. Like most longtime assistant coaches, he probably had the chance to go after head coaching jobs through the years. Instead, he stayed at Princeton, putting his value and values on the program.

TB traveled with the baseball team to Lafayette, Louisiana, for the 2016 NCAA regional. It is one of the very best events he's seen in all of his time at Princeton, and he's very glad he was able to be a part of it.

That regional is the only time he's traveled with the baseball team. It was a great look inside the program, how Bradley runs things - and how valuable Lloyd was to him.

So now Lloyd has stepped away. He's a grandfather now, and he's put in his time at Princeton. He deserves his time now.

And he always deserves congratulations for a job well done.

As TB said, head coaches cannot win without top assistant coaches. Finding ones like Lloyd Brewer sn't easy.