Welcome, Karameli Fa’ae’e

Karameli Fa'ae'e Named Women's Rugby Head Coach

It dawns on TigerBlog that through the years he's written about a lot of athletes, coaches, alums — and dogs. 

TB loves dogs, ever since he grew up with a toy poodle named "Louie," who was named after the French Revolutionary king.  

And dogs seem to love him. Maybe that's why he takes so many pictures of dogs and has, as such, written about them. 

He's written about dogs on surfboards, dogs on skateboards, dogs who run obstacle courses, dogs who appeared to be driving cars, dogs who were wearing various amounts of Princeton gear; you know, pretty much anything dog-related. 

Take Watson, for instance. 

A Princeton Bulldog. Specifically, the bulldog of former women's lacrosse player Shea Smith and her family. This picture notwithstanding, Watson was the life of the party at pretty much every team tailgate. 

Who else? Remember Fred? TB wrote about him in June of 2014, when he saw him parked outside of a Baltimore ice cream store in a sidecar of a motorcycle. Who was inside the store? A former Princeton swimmer named Stephanie Wright and her family. 

TB didn't know them, though the fact that he was wearing his standard Princeton gear got them to ask about his connection. 

Anyway, here was the photo of Fred (no relation to the Wright family):

Then there was Nutmeg. 

TigerBlog ran into him in the lobby of the Marriott Newton before the 2024 Princeton-Harvard field hockey game. Nutmeg is another good-looking doggo:

How's that for a face? 

It took more than 18 months, but Nutmeg's family reached out yesterday. Yes. Here's what his owner had to say: 

Holy cow!I know I’m a year & a half late to this but very glad Nutmeg brought Princeton great luck in your field hockey game vs Harvard!!
Go Tigers!
Our Nutmeg does love to suck up the attention and rub downs!
He was in town to cheer on our daughter rowing for One Arlington Rowing (club team of Yorktown High School, Arlington, Va) in the Head of the Charles.  

How about that? It's nice to know Nutmeg is doing well. Thanks for reaching out. And his owner is correct. As TB recalls, Nutmeg was an attention, well, hound.  

TigerBlog could go on all day about dogs, except for the news yesterday that Princeton has hired its new women's rugby coach. Her name is Karameli Fa’ae’e, and she's coming to Princeton after being an assistant coach at Brow. 

She's also an assistant coach in the United States national team program, with the U-23 team. Here is a quote from the release announcing her hire that really stood out to TigerBlog:

“I want to acknowledge God, my family and the community who have supported and shaped me into the leader I am today. I am deeply honored to accept the opportunity to serve as Head Coach of the Women's Rugby program at Princeton University. I look forward to building an athletic environment that reflects the same standard of excellence found in its academic mission.  My commitment is to cultivate excellence in performance, integrity in action, and a shared dedication to something greater than ourselves.” 

The women's rugby program at Princeton is still essentially in its infancy. How do you build a winning program? You start by building a winning culture. That seems to be something that Fa’ae’e understands perfectly. 

She certainly has a strong background in the sport. She was a U.S. national team captain as a player, after she played for Samoa and New Zealand. She's been a coach on the collegiate, professional, national and international levels. 

And now she comes to Princeton. If you read the release that TB linked up top, you probably came away thinking the same thing TB did: She looks like she has a lot of energy. 

Maybe it's a rugby thing, but Fa'ae'a certainly gives off a vibe in her photos of enthusiasm, excitement and forcefulness (she can also hold three rugby balls and her phone at the same time). Those are all qualities that will serve her well as she builds her program 

Welcome to Princeton, Karameli Fa'ae'e.