A New Year And A Birthday

TigerBlog begins today by wishing a Happy New Year to all of his Jewish readers.

Rosh Hashana is, obviously, the Jewish New Year. If TB is correct, his people are celebrating the Year 5782. 

This is also the start of the High Holy Days, an eight-day period of reflection that ends with a 24-hour fast on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. The High Holy Days never seem to come on time. They are either early or late, and this year, they certainly come early. 

Because of the complexities of the Hebrew calendar, the Jewish holidays never fall on the same day each year. The earliest Rosh Hashana can ever be is Sept. 5, so yes, this year the Holidays are here early. The latest Rosh Hashana can start, by the way, is Oct. 5. A year from now, Rosh Hashana will begin on Sept. 25. It's easy to lose track of these things year by year. 

Today is Sept. 7, so while TigerBlog is sending out good wishes, let him also wish a happy birthday to his longtime (and sadly, former) colleague and dear friend Craig Sachson. Anyone who reads TigerBlog has also read stuff from Craig through the years on goprincetontigers.com, with his great coverage of so many Princeton sports for all those years. 

If TB remembers correctly, Craig was the sport contact for 12 different sports in the OAC, which has to be a record for anyone in college athletics. His tenure at Princeton ran for nearly 20 years, and his legacy is a simple one and a great one: No athlete on any of the teams he ever covered ever had any reason to feel slighted by his coverage. 

Well, that plus he didn't just cover teams. He covered them extremely well. Craig moved on a few years ago to communications work outside of athletics, and in fact he stumbled into a medical field that 1) TB doesn't really understand and 2) had a lot to do with understanding COVID.

TB worked with Craig longer than he has with anyone else in the OAC, and some of his favorite moments since he's been at Princeton were shared with Craig, including many a lunch hour on the squash courts. To Craig, TB wishes the happiest of birthdays.

Meanwhile, speaking of new years, like every other Princeton fan out there, TB waited a long time for a weekend like this past one, where so many Princeton teams were in action. After the pandemic shut things down for so long around here, it was just so nice to see so many athletes who were competing.

In fact, between the women's soccer game Thursday and the games Sunday, there were 16 Princeton athletic events. Ah, it was heaven.

The women's soccer team actually kicked things off last weekend with its season-opening sweep of Loyola and St. Joe's. This weekend, the women's soccer team played twice more, defeating George Mason and tying No. 8 Georgetown. 

Besides women's soccer, there was also field hockey, men's soccer, men's water polo, women's volleyball and men's and women's cross country. The teams that played at home did so in front of huge crowds who share TigerBlog's happiness at the return of the Tigers. 

Weekends like this were pretty routine for many, many years at Princeton. Centuries, actually. They were just taken for granted. 

After the last 20 months or so, there's a different perspective for the people who attend these event and especially for those who compete in them. Now each opportunity to watch the Tigers, or better yet play for the Tigers, is to be cherished. 

At least that was how TigerBlog felt as he watched the games this weekend and read about the teams that he didn't see in person. He assumes that he will always feel this way moving forward. And so it is that he is looking forward greatly to what is coming next for Princeton and its teams. 

There are two midweek games involving Princeton teams this week. The first is this afternoon at 4, when the men's soccer team is at Vermont, a very good team that is already 3-0. The second is Thursday at 7, when the women's soccer team is at No. 16 Rutgers. 

You can watch the men's game today on ESPN+. The women's game is on BTN+.

And then after that is another weekend with 19 more events. You can find the complete schedule HERE.