Jen And Tara

Here's a question for you: How many emails does it take to find a time to do a podcast with a Director of Athletics in New Jersey, a prep school Head of School in New York City and a doctor in California?

The answer turned out to be "a lot."

Ah, but the good news is that after all of the back-and-forth, TigerBlog was able to connect with Mollie Marcoux Samaan (the Director of Athletics), Tara Christie Kinsey (the Head of School) and Jen Babik (the doctor) last night at 9 to put together the most recent edition of "The First 50" podcast.

It was sort of like working with television to find a start time for a game before settling on a 9 pm tip. 

Babik and Christie Kinsey were teammates on the Princeton softball team back in the 1990s, when the Tigers made back-to-back trips to the Women's College World Series in 1995 and 1996. Babik was a senior on the first of those teams, which was Christie Kinsey's sophomore year. 

Between the two of them, they have five first-team All-Ivy League selections (three for Christie Kinsey and two for Babik). Their names are all over the Princeton softball record book.

Among the entries:

* they rank 2-3 in career runs score (Babik is second, Christie Kinsey is third)
* Babik is Princeton's single-season record holder for runs scored; Christie Kinsey is third and fourth
* Babik is third all-time at Princeton in hits with 230; Christie Kinsey is fourth with 225

The Babik/Christie Kinsey years were a glorious time for Princeton softball, under legendary coach Cindy Cohen. The two both played on three Ivy League championship teams, including a 33-1 run through the league from 1994-96.

They were on the winning side of 10 NCAA tournament games.

They've both gone on to do extraordinary things since graduation.

Christie Kinsey went from Princeton to get a Ph.D. in English from Emory, in Atlanta, and she taught at places like Emory, Georgetown, Oxford and Princeton (where she also served as an Associate Dean in the Office of the Dean of the College and the Office of the Vice President for Campus Life). Today she is the Head of School at the Hewitt School in New York City.

If you're looking for great insights into Christie Kinsey, click HERE for her bio on the school's website. It includes some bio information, but more than that it's about her philosophies and values related to girls' education. There's a lot of interesting stuff there.

Speaking of Oxford, Babik went from Princeton to Oxford as a Rhode Scholar, where she earned a D.Phil (English version of a Ph.D.). When she returned to the U.S., she went to medical school at Stanford, and today she is a infectious disease specialist at the University of San Francisco Medical Center. 

The "First 50" podcast is part of the celebration of the first 50 years of women's athletics at Princeton.

Babik is one of the women TB has spoken to for the upcoming book on those first 50 years. Her story includes all kinds of interesting things, including how she learned to handle pressure from playing a marching French horn solo at a "Battle of the Bands" competition in old Giants Stadium while at Piscataway High School.

She also talked about being a two-sport athlete at Princeton (she also played field hockey) while also playing the jazz band, including doing two of those three on the same day. And about her experiences in England during her time there, including how she came to play soccer while she was there instead of softball (it had to do with her first day of practicing with a softball team she found there and how she the first baseman couldn't quite handle her throw from her shortstop position).

Babik talked a lot about the impact her athletic career has had on her personally and professionally. She talked a lot about the relationships she formed with her teammates on each of her teams, wherever they were.

Her time with the Princeton softball team has led to friendships that have only grown through the years. These were friendships that started out in practices and dining halls and on bus rides. 

And there with her was Tara Christie Kinsey.

Of all of those emails that it took to set up the podcast, it was one of the early ones that spoke loudest. It was from Babik, whose response to the invitation was this: "I would be happy to do this, especially if I get to do it with TC!"

Teammates. Always teammates.