Pancakes With Yariv

There were a lot of years — 13 of them, actually — when Yariv Amir would have been dialed in at Baker Rink on weekends like this coming one.

When Yariv first came to Princeton, it was for the perfect match. Princeton needed an ice hockey communications contact, and Yariv was looking to be the hockey contact at a Division I school in Mercer County.

He'd stay for more than a decade, moving from communications to marketing and being one of the most important reasons why Princeton Athletics was able to get into the videostreaming business. When he was at Princeton, it was clear that he was destined for bigger things.

Yariv was a rower at Colgate and classmate of a women's soccer player named Kellie, who is now the Senior Associate AD for Advancement and the Senior Woman Administrator at Princeton. He'd leave Princeton in 2016 to return to his alma mater, rising to become the Colgate Director of Athletics. 

Princeton men's lacrosse coach Matt Madalon is a big proponent of working in as many different areas as you can as you make your way up. In his case, he was a grad assistant, a Division III assistant, a Division I coordinator and finally the head coach. That is the path that Yariv has followed, and in doing so they both ended up getting the kind of experience that pays off in a huge way when you're the boss.  

Yariv was back in Princeton yesterday, having come from the women's basketball game at Bucknell and then heading into New York City for meetings. He asked TigerBlog if he'd like to meet up for breakfast — which ended up being pancakes for both of them.

It's pretty fascinating that Yariv hasn't even been gone for a full decade and yet there aren't many people who work at Princeton whom he knows. On the bright side, he got to see a few of them yesterday, when he and TB went to Jadwin Gym post-pancakes.

The first person he saw was Brian Fitzwater, the department IT person. He and Yariv used to have lunch together on a regular basis, along with Greg Paczkowski, who is now Associate AD for Facilities. 

After that, there was a stop on D-level to visit with Jon Kurian and Jess Muroff from the business office. And up to John Mack's office, to say hello to Princeton's Ford Family Director of Athletics and Deputy AD/COO Anthony Archbald. 

All in all, it made for a pretty nice homecoming. And somehow, Yariv and his wife Beth, also a Colgate rowing alum, have two daughters in high school? They were little when TB last saw them.

Time marches on.

As TB said before, there were a lot of weekends when Yariv would have spent his time at Baker Rink. This weekend would have been one of them, since there are three games there.

The women play twice, starting tonight at 6 against Brown and then concluding tomorrow at 3 against Yale. The men are then on the Baker ice tomorrow at 7 and Sunday at 4, to take on Bentley. 

The Princeton women enter the weekend tied with RPI for seventh in the ECAC standings, 1.5 points behind Yale and 1.5 points ahead of Brown. That alone suggests that this is a big weekend for the Tigers. 

What else is there this weekend? As will be the case every weekend between now and the end of the academic year, the answer is — a lot. 

There are spring teams (women's water polo, who is at home in DeNunzio Pool against La Salle at 7 tonight, LIU tomorrow at 11:30 and then Wagner Sunday at 4) and tennis (women at the ITA championships, men at Ohio State). There are winterish teams (men's volleyball on the road) and winter sports (including wrestling home in Jadwin tonight at 7 against Rider and then at Columbia Sunday, the CSA individual national squash championships in New York City).

Also, as TB has written this week, there is men's basketball in Jadwin tomorrow at 2 against Cornell, while the women are in Ithaca to take on the Big Red at 1. Next weekend will be a traditional back-to-back in Ivy basketball, with Princeton at home against Yale and Brown on the men's side and the women at New Haven and Providence.  

The complete weekend schedule is HERE, by the way.