The Most Special Moment Of 2022

The final day of 2022 is tomorrow.

This year, that also means the Ivy League basketball openers. Princeton's women will be at Harvard at noon. The Princeton men will be home against Harvard at 1.

It's the start of a 14-game league schedule that will then bring the top four teams to Jadwin Gym for the Ivy tournament in March. The winners there will advance to the NCAA tournament.

The Princeton women will head into the game in Cambridge after a 56-54 win over Rhode Island Wednesday afternoon in Jadwin on Grace Stone's buzzer beater. It had been 20 years since the Tigers had a win at the buzzer in women's basketball, not since Eileen Powers' layup gave Princeton an 82-81 win over Southwest Texas State in November 2002.

AT THE BUZZER! @grace_stone10 WINS IT FOR THE TIGERS!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? #GetStops 🐯🏀 | @MarchMadnessWBB pic.twitter.com/HO40lYsZRD

— Princeton WBB (@PrincetonWBB) December 28, 2022

In addition to the basketball games, there is also men's hockey series at Colorado College, with games tonight and tomorrow and today's final day of wrestling at the Midlands Tournament.

TigerBlog hopes you enjoyed his countdown of the top stories of 2022 in Princeton Athletics from yesterday. As he said, that was his list, and he's open to anyone who has his or her own to share in this space.

As TigerBlog also said yesterday, he wants to share with you the most special moment  in Princeton Athletics in 2022. That's not actually completely accurate.

It's the most special moment to him in 2022. And that's not just limited to Princeton Athletics.

For a long time, TB had the year 2022 circled on the calendar in his mind. Why? It was in 2022 that his daughter was going to graduate from college.

He never really considered where that would be. Just when. He kept thinking about the tuition benefit that Princeton offers employees and how his son would be in the Class of 2019 and his daughter in the Class of 2022. Even when they were little, he figured he'd be at Princeton for the long run, knowing that he'd use the benefit for them — and that he'd be pushing 60 by the time he used it for the last time.

It seemed so far in the future when his children were at the Dillon summer camp, or at U-League nursery school or attending one of Princeton's sports camps and staying in the dorms. It was years and years down the road.

Twenty-twenty-two. It seemed so far away. 

In his heart, he hoped his kids would attend Princeton. He can't lie about that. They certainly had enough Princeton gear their whole lives. 

When it came time for his son to choose a college, he followed his Division I lacrosse dream to Sacred Heart University — and had a great experience there. TB watched him graduate with incredible pride.

His daughter used to taunt him when she was younger. Any time you asked her where she wanted to go to school, she'd always say "Harvard." Did she mean it? As it turned out, the answer to that was "no." 

Recruited for lacrosse by some other Division I and a lot of Division III schools, she nevertheless applied early to Princeton. TB can still hear her shrieking on the phone that December day in 2017: "I got in!!! I got in!!!!"

Fast-forwarding more than four years (with an emphasis on fast, since it seemed to fly by), there she was, on Powers Field in Princeton Stadium for graduation this past May 24. In between the acceptance and commencement, there were certainly some tough moments, some growing pains, some major life learning experiences, some amazing friends made, four years of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and four years of lacrosse — not to mention a pandemic that certainly threw a wrench into the works.

And there she was, at graduation, a member forever of the Princeton University Class of 2022. And there was TB, looking down, barely able to hold back the tears from the emotions of it all. 

Now, when he thinks back to what she accomplished at Princeton, he marvels at her work ethic, her persistence, her tenacity, her drive, all of which are things that will stay with her forever.

For TB, that was the top moment of 2022, to see his daughter graduate from the No. 1 school in the country, not to mention his employer for three decades. In fact, there have been few moments in TB's entire life that compare.

Have a happy and safe New Year's Eve, and here's to a great 2023.