It's not quite summer yet, though it might as well be ...
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Nooooooo.
That was TigerBlog's reaction when he heard that Jamea Jackson was leaving Princeton to take the head women's tennis coaching position at Arizona State.
Jackson spent the last two years in the same position at Princeton, where she led her team to Ivy League titles both times and to first-round NCAA tournament wins both times. Now she's off to Arizona State, one of the major national powers in women's tennis.
TigerBlog wrote this about Jackson after he ran into her and her team in the same hotel in Providence where TB was with men's lacrosse this past spring:
"If you've never met Jamea, she is clearly the real deal. She's always smiling, and she appreciates any time anyone comes to watch her team compete. She has a way of making you feel like you're part of the women's tennis family, even if you just stopped in for a bit."
Arizona State is getting a great coach and a great person. Of course, getting a new women's tennis coach is not something that Arizona State does too often.
The first year for ASU women's tennis was 1967. What number coach all-time at the school will Jackson be?
How about the third.
The first coach in program history was named Anne Pittman. She coached the Sun Devils from that first season through 1984, putting up a record of 337-71.
Next up was Sheila McInerney, who coached the team from 1985 until this past season ended. Her record was 589-315.
Now it's Jamea Jackson. Was McInerney successful? She made 35 straight NCAA tournament appearances.
At Princeton, the list of women's tennis coaches is longer than the one at ASU. Tennis was the first women's sport at Princeton, debuting in 1971 with just Margie Gengler Smith and Helena Novakova.
The next coach will be the 10th. Each of the first nine won at least one championship, with Ivy titles for the last six and Eastern or Middle States titles for the three who preceded the Ivy League.
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TigerBlog flew back from Indianapolis Wednesday after attending the NCAA women's rowing championships and the NCAA men's lacrosse rules committee meetings.
His flight back didn't exactly go smoothly. First, thunderstorms rolled in, delaying TB's flight to Philadelphia (and cancelling flights anywhere north of there). In fact TB's flight was supposed to have left at 4, but then the departures board changed that to 5:15. Ah, but in the "something TB has never seen before" department, it changed it back to "on time," which led to immediate boarding.
The plane pushed back from the gate, only to have the pilot come on and say that the flight was, in fact, delayed, though he hoped that it wouldn't be for that long. The plane taxied out to a remote part of the tarmac and sat there for about an hour before leaving just before six.
The seat next to TB was occupied by a man who was around TB's age, with his adult son directly behind him. They were trying to get to Cleveland from Los Angeles but had been redirected into Indy that morning and were now flying to Philly and then back to Cleveland at 9, arriving after 10.
If you're wondering, according to Google Maps, it's a four-hour, 45-minute drive from Indianapolis to Cleveland.
Directly behind TB was an off-duty pilot, in full uniform, on his way to Philly to then fly to Florida. The flight was then extremely bumpy, on the way up, in the middle and on the way down. They didn't even come around with the little cookies or pretzels.
As the turbulence started to get really bad, TB turned around and told the pilot to tap him on the shoulder if it go to the point where there was something to worry about. As he never did, then everything was fine.
During the long delay and on the flight itself, TB started to read John O'Brien's book about his life's experiences at the Milton Hershey School. O'Brien, who would go on to be a member of the Class of 1965 and a football player at Princeton, later returned to the school as its president.
TB is about 50 pages in, but it's already very captivating. And very emotional.
He'll let you know when he's finished.
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TigerBlog has never read or seen The Hunger Games. He has no idea what it's about even.
He does know that he's competing in the Department of Athletics version of The Hunger Games today. He has no idea what to expect, but his team does include Carla Berube, which is always a good start.
He'll report back on how this goes too.
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