And The Nominees Are ...

TigerBlog ran into Greg Carroccio, one of Princeton Athletics' photographers, last week.

The first thing TB said to him was that it was hard to believe that another year had come and gone. Did he remember when he took the field hockey team photo back in August? Did that really seem like nine months ago? 

It didn't, Carroccio said, agreeing with TB. 

TigerBlog cannot believe how quickly the years fly by. What day is today? May 18th? Oh wait. One second.

If today is May 18th, then it's TB's cousin Paul's birthday. Paul is the oldest of the first cousins on TB's mother's side, and he was recently the father of the bride when his daughter Rachel got married back in March. That was actually on the day that Princeton played Rutgers in men's lacrosse, and that day doesn't really seem all that long ago either.

In the meantime, happy birthday Paul.

Okay, back at another academic year that has flown by, Princeton is wrapping up finals for second semester. After that comes the sprint to Reunions, Class Day and Commencement. 

If you're not aware, Reunions begins one week from today. The campus will be bulging with alums and families, and it's one big party after another. It's the 60th Reunion of the Class of 1963, which includes the great Bryce Chase. It's the 25th for the Class of 1998, which is also something that's hard to wrap TB's head around.

The first night of Reunions also corresponds with the Gary Walters Princeton Varsity Club Awards banquet, which is also a week from tonight. Gary, the Director of Athletics from 1994-2014, created this banquet early on in his tenure, with the first one held in the lobby of Jadwin Gym to a relatively small crowd.

From there, the event has grown to what it is now, a large gathering that is a celebration of Princeton's senior athletes, complete with videos, highlights, commentaries and of course awards. The banquet has been held on the concourse of Princeton Stadium, at the boathouse, at the Grad College and even online. Now it's back in Jadwin, only in the main part of the arena.

In advance of the banquet, the Department of Athletics has started releasing the finalists for the senior awards. If you were on the website yesterday, you saw the first of these announcements, with the nominees for the Art Lane Award and the Chris Sailer Leadership Award.

Still to come will be those athletes who will be the finalists for the von Kienbusch Award and Roper Trophy, which go to the top senior female and male athlete. While those awards are the ones that get the most attention, and rightly so, since they are a celebration of the best among so many great athletes, the awards that were announced yesterday are just as impressive. Actually, maybe even more so.

The Art Lane Award recognizes outstanding contribution to sport and society by an undergraduate athlete. Read what the nominees have done — and then remember that they did all this while competing at such a high level of intercollegiate athletics while also being Princeton students. 

The Chris Sailer Award is a new one. It's obviously named for the Hall of Fame women's lacrosse coach, who retired a year ago. This is the wording of the award:

The award, made possible by Lucy Small DeStefano '99 S94 and Chris DeStefano '94 S99, will be awarded annually to senior student-athletes who demonstrate exceptional leadership and a commitment to serving others.

In many ways, it's hard to quantify leadership. You can't just list what it is they do to lead. When you have great leaders, though, you know it. You can see it. And your organization, or in this case your team, is way better off for it. 

It's an honor to be recognized for any of these awards, but it's even more so to be in the inaugural group of finalists for the award. These five are also top flight athletes, with All-Americans (Hannah Davey in field hockey, Quincy Monday in wrestling, Keller Maloney in water polo), a school record holder (Arianna Smith of women's track and field) and a key figure on a team that won its opening round NCAA tournament game in back-to-back years (Grace Stone of women's basketball). 

The winners of all of the senior awards will be announced at the banquet. As a reminder, that's one week from tonight in Jadwin Gym. 

Another year comes, and another year goes. It ends in style, as always.