Items For A Summer Friday

A few items for your summer Friday, before the page turns into August ... 

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One day later than he originally said he would, TigerBlog posted his Ryan Croddick feature story yesterday. 

He invites you to read it, which you can do HERE. 

Croddick, if you don't know, was the Princeton men's lacrosse starting goalie the last two seasons, including a senior year that saw him earn first-team All-American honors and become the Most Outstanding Player at the NCAA Final Four as Princeton won the championship. In addition, Croddick has spent most of his life watching as his father John has battled ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. 

The Croddick's story is uplifting and inspirational and has a deep message that 1) is found at the very end of the 7,500 word piece and 2) should resonate with everyone. 

TB hopes you read it. And that you come away, like he did, with even greater respect and admiration for the job Croddick did in his time at Princeton. 

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Congratulations go out to Princeton head field hockey coach Carla Tagliente, who was inducted into the  New York State Public High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame Wednesday night in Buffalo. 

Tagliente attended Marathon High School, where one of her teammates and closest friends was Hilary Matson. Is that name familiar? Matson is one of the best Princeton field hockey players of all time. 

Tagliente, of course, was a great high school and college field hockey player. Her 159 career goals scored are still the fourth-most ever by a New York public school player, and she scored 51 in one season, which still ranks eighth. 

What you might not have known about her was that she scored 1,692 career points in basketball, still second at Marathon, and she was also a first-team all-state selection in track and field (and is still the Marathon record holder in the triple jump).  

By the way, the Marathon High School graduating class with Tagliente and Matson totaled 55 students. That's total. 

Congratulations to Carla. The field hockey team opens its season Sept. 4 and 6 at the Conference Crossover at North Carolina, taking on Old Dominion in the first game and then UNC in its second (Penn will play the opposite schedule there).

Princeton went 18-4 last year and lost in overtime in the NCAA championship game to Northwestern. 

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While the subject is "field hockey and congratulations, " there is also Martha Russo, who was a superstar in field hockey and lacrosse in the 1980s at Princeton before two devastating knee injuries ended her career. Before that, she was a member of the U.S. women's national team in field hockey and was a lock to be on the team for the 1984 Olympics. 

Her athletic career over, she then shifted her focus to art, becoming a renowned sculptor. She recently had an exhibit in Europe, and TB received an email release announcing that "Walker Fine Art artist Martha Russo has been shortlisted for the European Cultural Centre Italy's ECC Awards 2026, presented as part of Personal Structures — Confluences in Venice."

This is from the release: 

Martha Russo creates sculptural and installation-based works that exist at the threshold of language and compel the viewer to engage on a visceral level. Rooted in the process of ceramics, yet deliberately challenging its historical associations, her work transcends traditional materiality, defying gravity and spilling into space. She harnesses the chameleon-like properties of clay to explore notions of mystery, wonder, and fragility of the natural world. Her work radiates both a quiet tension and undeniable force that creates a primal connection between the viewer and the work, a connection that is felt in the body as much as it is first seen by the mind’s eye.

The winners of the awards across five categories will be announced on Nov. 22. 

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Lastly for today, there is women's basketball/softball player Sarah Lessig, who is also a member of the United States national women's baseball team. Team USA went 5-0 the last two weeks in a qualifying tournament, earning a spot in next summer's women's baseball World Championships. 

This is from the goprincetontigers.com story, which you can read HERE: 

Lessig appeared in two games as a hitter, going 1-for-2 with a run scored and made two appearances on the mound, striking out seven in three innings. She collected a save vs. Korea and picked up the win vs. Hong Kong. 

The picture alone is ferocious. 

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And with that, TB says "have a great weekend." He'll see you in August.