Back in February, TigerBlog wrote about the situation in which two-time former women's soccer captain Brea Griffiths Kroeker found herself.
Brea was the rock of a defense that made its way all the way to the NCAA Final Four in 2004, her senior year. She had also been the captain a year earlier, when Princeton also reached the NCAA tournament.
In fact, the Tigers played in the tournament all four of her years, with nine total NCAA games. Of those nine games, Princeton won five of them.
Brea was a seemingly indestructible force on those teams. When TB caught up with her last winter, she was battling a very uphill struggle with her health.
To be honest, even after she explained it, TB still doesn't understand what exactly it was. All he knows is that it's been a four-year fight, and it really took a toll on her.
Now?
Brea emailed TigerBlog earlier this week with the link to her update, which she posted on YouTube. You can see it HERE.
She clearly has come a long way in the last few months. She looks great and sounds strong, and she's smiling from the start of her five-minute video. Then again, she was smiling before too, and her attitude seems to have been great throughout this entire ordeal.
Hopefully, she continues to improve.
The video, by the way, had more than 100 views when TB saw it. He's assuming many of those are her former teammates, the ones who have supported her as she has gone down this path.
Hey, once you're a Tiger, you're always a Tiger.
The 2017 women's soccer team made a great run last year, almost equaling the achievement of Brea's senior year. That achievement, by the way, has never been matched by any other Ivy League women's soccer team.
The 2017 Tigers came close though. Princeton reached the NCAA quarterfinals last year, and as you probably remember that run included a stunning 2-1 win over 21-time NCAA champ North Carolina in the Round of 16 that is up there with any win any Princeton team has ever had.
The 2018 Tigers kick off their season three weeks from today with a weekend trip to New Hampshire and Boston University. The women's soccer team also plays the first home event of the 2018-19 academic year with a game against St. Joe's four weeks from today.
TigerBlog talked to one of his colleagues at a non-Ivy school yesterday and he mentioned how his women's soccer team was scrimmaging already.
The summer will be over soon, obviously, at least in college athletics terms. There are still a few weeks left, of course, and the weather around here can only be described as classic New Jersey summer now, with heat and humidity and a chance of thunderstorms every day.
Elijah Barnes of the men's basketball team is one of many Princeton athletes who have stayed around here all summer. Barnes, a native of Middletown in Monmouth County, isn't that far from home to begin with, and he was part of the Princeton University Preparatory Program, which helps high-achieving, low-income students in Mercer County prepare for college.
TigerBlog read about that program in a really well-done story by Maddie Pryor on the princeton.edu site about how some Princeton basketball players have been spending their summer in various spots around the world. You can read it HERE.
The story focuses on the summers of Barnes and then a few of his teammates - Elias Berbari, Jerome Desrosiers and Vittorio Reynoso-Avila - and women's basketball player Taylor Baur, all of whom traveled a little further than Barnes did.
The players talk about their experiences around the world and how they've attempted to stay in basketball shape for the coming seasons. It's definitely worth a read.
Basketball practice starts Sept. 29, which is technically next month. Both teams figure to have interesting seasons for 2018-19, as the women look for a second straight Ivy title and the men look to bounce back after missing the Ivy tournament last year, one year after going a perfect 16-0 in the league, winning the regular season and the first Ivy tournament.
The Ivy tournaments are in March, with is still a long, long way away.
For now, TigerBlog hopes you have a great summer weekend.
There aren't too many of them to go for 2018.
Friday, August 3, 2018
Thursday, August 2, 2018
On Sale Now
TigerBlog went to ride his bike the other day only to find that the front tire was completely flat.
Shredded. He must have ridden over something at the end of his previous ride, but the tire was completely shot.
That was frustrating. Anyway, it was going to be $20 for the tire, $10 for the tube and $10 for the labor to get it fixed. Keep in mind, this is a bicycle that originally cost $80 at Target, was refurbished once for $75 and has a lot of miles on it.
TigerBlog took the old bike to a cycle shop to get a new tire. While it was being fixed, he looked at some new ones and found two that he liked.
He then asked the kid who was working in the shop if he could go ride it around their parking lot, which was a pretty big one. The kid said okay, but then followed TB outside to watch him, prompting TigerBlog to wonder if the kid thought TB was going to try to steal it.
Then he went to another place and had the complete opposite experience. The woman who worked there gave him a $700 bike, never asked his name and told him he could go ride around the block a few times.
Apparently some people think TB has a trusting face and others don't.
Anyway, he definitely needs a new one. And it's good that he fixed the old one, because he can give it to Miss TigerBlog ’22 to ride from her home in Forbes College to the various parts of campus that she'll need to reach.
It's sort of weird for TigerBlog to think about having his daughter on the campus. Even after she was admitted, it seemed so far in the future that it almost wasn't real.
Now, as it's a month away, the reality of it all - and the pride - are growing.
How often will he see her? TB can imagine a scenario by which he gets a call on a rainy or cold morning asking if he wouldn't mind swinging by Forbes and driving her to some classroom somewhere.
In addition to times like that, will she acknowledge that the two are in any way connected?
Peter Farrell, the former women's track and field coach, had two daughters come to Princeton. TB thinks he may have told you this story before, but Peter said he was once walking one of his recruits around campus when he came across his own daughter, who looked at him and asked "what are you doing here?"
TigerBlog can envision that sort of treatment.
Here's a question: If she's at a football game, will she tell her friends that her dad is the PA announcer? TB would guess the answer would be somewhere in the neighborhood of "no chance."
Individual game tickets for Princeton football went on sale yesterday. Season tickets have been on sale for awhile.
You can click HERE for more information on buying your tickets.
The 2018 Princeton football season will feature six home games. It'll also feature none of those games against either Harvard or Yale.
Since 1934, Princeton has had a home game against Harvard or Yale every year, except for the World War II-interrupted years of 1943 and 1944. That changes this year, since Princeton will be at both Harvard and Yale, while both will be here in 2019.
On the other hand, you will get the first meeting ever between Princeton and Monmouth, from, of all leagues, the Big South Conference.
Monmouth is in the MAAC in most sports, but there is no MAAC football, so the Hawks moved to the Big South for that. There are five Big South opponents: Campbell, Presbyterian, Charleston Southern, Kennesaw State and Gardner-Webb.
Liberty was in the league last year but is now in the FBS. Campbell is new to Big South football this year.
Monmouth actually was one of two Big South schools to reach the NCAA playoffs a year ago. That game figures to be a good one.
Lehigh will be on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium as well. That is usually a good one.
As for the other home games, there's Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth and Penn. Six home games. That's a good deal.
So get your tickets. TigerBlog will see you at Princeton Stadium.
He'll probably see his daughter there too. She just won't say hi or anything.
Shredded. He must have ridden over something at the end of his previous ride, but the tire was completely shot.
That was frustrating. Anyway, it was going to be $20 for the tire, $10 for the tube and $10 for the labor to get it fixed. Keep in mind, this is a bicycle that originally cost $80 at Target, was refurbished once for $75 and has a lot of miles on it.
TigerBlog took the old bike to a cycle shop to get a new tire. While it was being fixed, he looked at some new ones and found two that he liked.
He then asked the kid who was working in the shop if he could go ride it around their parking lot, which was a pretty big one. The kid said okay, but then followed TB outside to watch him, prompting TigerBlog to wonder if the kid thought TB was going to try to steal it.
Then he went to another place and had the complete opposite experience. The woman who worked there gave him a $700 bike, never asked his name and told him he could go ride around the block a few times.
Apparently some people think TB has a trusting face and others don't.
Anyway, he definitely needs a new one. And it's good that he fixed the old one, because he can give it to Miss TigerBlog ’22 to ride from her home in Forbes College to the various parts of campus that she'll need to reach.
It's sort of weird for TigerBlog to think about having his daughter on the campus. Even after she was admitted, it seemed so far in the future that it almost wasn't real.
Now, as it's a month away, the reality of it all - and the pride - are growing.
How often will he see her? TB can imagine a scenario by which he gets a call on a rainy or cold morning asking if he wouldn't mind swinging by Forbes and driving her to some classroom somewhere.
In addition to times like that, will she acknowledge that the two are in any way connected?
Peter Farrell, the former women's track and field coach, had two daughters come to Princeton. TB thinks he may have told you this story before, but Peter said he was once walking one of his recruits around campus when he came across his own daughter, who looked at him and asked "what are you doing here?"
TigerBlog can envision that sort of treatment.
Here's a question: If she's at a football game, will she tell her friends that her dad is the PA announcer? TB would guess the answer would be somewhere in the neighborhood of "no chance."
Individual game tickets for Princeton football went on sale yesterday. Season tickets have been on sale for awhile.
You can click HERE for more information on buying your tickets.
The 2018 Princeton football season will feature six home games. It'll also feature none of those games against either Harvard or Yale.
Since 1934, Princeton has had a home game against Harvard or Yale every year, except for the World War II-interrupted years of 1943 and 1944. That changes this year, since Princeton will be at both Harvard and Yale, while both will be here in 2019.
On the other hand, you will get the first meeting ever between Princeton and Monmouth, from, of all leagues, the Big South Conference.
Monmouth is in the MAAC in most sports, but there is no MAAC football, so the Hawks moved to the Big South for that. There are five Big South opponents: Campbell, Presbyterian, Charleston Southern, Kennesaw State and Gardner-Webb.
Liberty was in the league last year but is now in the FBS. Campbell is new to Big South football this year.
Monmouth actually was one of two Big South schools to reach the NCAA playoffs a year ago. That game figures to be a good one.
Lehigh will be on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium as well. That is usually a good one.
As for the other home games, there's Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth and Penn. Six home games. That's a good deal.
So get your tickets. TigerBlog will see you at Princeton Stadium.
He'll probably see his daughter there too. She just won't say hi or anything.
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Welcome To August
Apparently, yesterday was National Avocado Day.
Again, who decides these things? And to TigerBlog, every day is National Avocado Day.
Who could not like avocados? They're really good for you, being high in antioxidants and potassium and all.
Plus, they go with just about anything. In salads. On burgers. With eggs.
Did you know the avocado is a fruit?
TigerBlog isn't sure why National Avocado Day is July 31, but it will be July 31 each of the next two years, at least according to Wikipedia. TB will have to remember that and plan accordingly, though even with no advanced warning that it was National Avocado Day, he still had avocado with his lunch yesterday.
TigerBlog estimates he will eat a lot of avocados between now and next July 31, by the way.
Today is national something day too, probably. What it also is, remarkably, is August 1.
August is a very busy month. There's a lot that goes on in August, as the summer winds down, kids go back to school, college athletic events begin.
In fact, the first of Miss TigerBlog's friends is leaving for school this week. Her name is Nell Webber, and she will be playing field hockey at Boston College, so she is heading out for preseason. The trickle down is that MTB is taking her busboy job at a local restaurant.
As for MTB ’22, she will not be leaving for school this month. Nope. Move-in day here isn't until Sept. 1, so she has exactly one month to go. By then, almost all of her high school friends will have started college.
Also before this month ends, TigerBlog Jr. will have started his senior year of college. How is that possible?
The first mention of TigerBlog Jr. here was back on Feb. 11, 2009. It was on that day that TigerBlog wrote about the time his son, at the age of 11, played the national anthem on his saxophone before a Princeton-Cornell men's basketball game. You can read it HERE if you want to get nostalgic.
Those were back in the days that he was a ballboy for games at Jadwin. He started out with Lior Levy and Zack DiGregorio, both of whom are college grads, and eventually his buddy Matthew, who is starting his senior year at Chestnut Hill College.
In re-reading the piece about the night he played the anthem, TigerBlog remembered how nervous he was. He had to be way more nervous than TBJ, that's for sure.
He actually has a video of TBJ's performance. At one point, Jeff Taylor, who filmed it, zoomed in on TigerBlog as he watched. TB has a great poker face, but he was definitely churning on the inside.
In the end, TBJ's performance was flawless. After he was done, he turned and walked off past the Princeton bench, and got a big pat on the head from then-assistant coach Brian Earl, who is now the head coach at Cornell.
TigerBlog can tell you that having his son play the anthem that night nearly 10 years ago remains one of the highlights of his nearly 30 years of watching Princeton sports.
If you're wondering what happened to his saxophone, he left it in the music room at his high school - after TigerBlog had paid for it. Legend has it that he retrieved it after a few years and then sold it on eBay, keeping the money for himself. TB has no actual proof of this, but he suspects that's what happened.
Anyway, now he's a college senior, of all things. TigerBlog yesterday actually looked up the academic calendar at Sacred Heart and found out two things: 1) school starts August 27 and 2) graduation is May 12.
That would be a Sunday. TigerBlog is hoping that's a busy weekend for him.
That Sunday, in addition to graduation day at Sacred Heart, is also the first round of the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament. And the second round of the women's.
The men's tournament has four games on Saturday the 11th and then four more on Sunday the 12th. What is TB to do if Princeton is playing Sunday?
Hey, if anyone would understand, it would be TBJ.
Anyway, that's for a long time from now. More immediately, for the first time in a long time, this is a true statement: Princeton has games this month.
Again, who decides these things? And to TigerBlog, every day is National Avocado Day.
Who could not like avocados? They're really good for you, being high in antioxidants and potassium and all.
Plus, they go with just about anything. In salads. On burgers. With eggs.
Did you know the avocado is a fruit?
TigerBlog isn't sure why National Avocado Day is July 31, but it will be July 31 each of the next two years, at least according to Wikipedia. TB will have to remember that and plan accordingly, though even with no advanced warning that it was National Avocado Day, he still had avocado with his lunch yesterday.
TigerBlog estimates he will eat a lot of avocados between now and next July 31, by the way.
Today is national something day too, probably. What it also is, remarkably, is August 1.
August is a very busy month. There's a lot that goes on in August, as the summer winds down, kids go back to school, college athletic events begin.
In fact, the first of Miss TigerBlog's friends is leaving for school this week. Her name is Nell Webber, and she will be playing field hockey at Boston College, so she is heading out for preseason. The trickle down is that MTB is taking her busboy job at a local restaurant.
As for MTB ’22, she will not be leaving for school this month. Nope. Move-in day here isn't until Sept. 1, so she has exactly one month to go. By then, almost all of her high school friends will have started college.
Also before this month ends, TigerBlog Jr. will have started his senior year of college. How is that possible?
The first mention of TigerBlog Jr. here was back on Feb. 11, 2009. It was on that day that TigerBlog wrote about the time his son, at the age of 11, played the national anthem on his saxophone before a Princeton-Cornell men's basketball game. You can read it HERE if you want to get nostalgic.
Those were back in the days that he was a ballboy for games at Jadwin. He started out with Lior Levy and Zack DiGregorio, both of whom are college grads, and eventually his buddy Matthew, who is starting his senior year at Chestnut Hill College.
In re-reading the piece about the night he played the anthem, TigerBlog remembered how nervous he was. He had to be way more nervous than TBJ, that's for sure.
He actually has a video of TBJ's performance. At one point, Jeff Taylor, who filmed it, zoomed in on TigerBlog as he watched. TB has a great poker face, but he was definitely churning on the inside.
In the end, TBJ's performance was flawless. After he was done, he turned and walked off past the Princeton bench, and got a big pat on the head from then-assistant coach Brian Earl, who is now the head coach at Cornell.
TigerBlog can tell you that having his son play the anthem that night nearly 10 years ago remains one of the highlights of his nearly 30 years of watching Princeton sports.
If you're wondering what happened to his saxophone, he left it in the music room at his high school - after TigerBlog had paid for it. Legend has it that he retrieved it after a few years and then sold it on eBay, keeping the money for himself. TB has no actual proof of this, but he suspects that's what happened.
Anyway, now he's a college senior, of all things. TigerBlog yesterday actually looked up the academic calendar at Sacred Heart and found out two things: 1) school starts August 27 and 2) graduation is May 12.
That would be a Sunday. TigerBlog is hoping that's a busy weekend for him.
That Sunday, in addition to graduation day at Sacred Heart, is also the first round of the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament. And the second round of the women's.
The men's tournament has four games on Saturday the 11th and then four more on Sunday the 12th. What is TB to do if Princeton is playing Sunday?
Hey, if anyone would understand, it would be TBJ.
Anyway, that's for a long time from now. More immediately, for the first time in a long time, this is a true statement: Princeton has games this month.
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Good Luck, Caroline
TigerBlog mentioned yesterday a picture of live tiger that was on the back cover of a football media guide.
The picture was the work of Nick Donatiello, the former Princeton sports information director who passed away last week.
TigerBlog tried to find the picture yesterday and could not. He's pretty sure it's on the back cover of the 1993 media guide, since he saw the ones from pretty much every other year during that time except for 19993, which he couldn't find.
Isn't that how it always works?
That picture has to be someplace else. In a file or something. He'll find it at some point, maybe.
If not, then there's only one obvious solution - find another live tiger and take another picture.
In addition to talking tigers yesterday, TigerBlog also mentioned that some current Tigers were very successful at the U23 World Rowing Championships. By the way, that event was held in Poznan, Poland.
Speaking of Princeton rowers who have had success on the international level, there is of course Caroline Lind, the two-time Olympic gold medalist. Lind won gold with the United States 8+ in 2008 and 2012.
Lind graduated in 2006 after helping Princeton to the NCAA championship before carrying over her success to the Olympics.
Princeton rowing won its first Olympic medal in 1964 in Tokyo, when Seymore Cromwell of the Class of 1965 won silver before his senior year. Since then, Tiger rowers have continued to do well on the biggest stage, with four gold medals, 11 silver medals and three bronze medals.
Princeton athletes have combined to win 66 Olympic medals. Of that number, there were 29 that were won prior to the 1964 Games.
That leaves 37 Olympic medals that have been won from 1964 on, which is when rowers won their first. If you're doing the math, that means that 18 of the 29 medals Princetonians have won since 1964, or 62 percent, have been won by rowers.
The four rowing golds belong to Mike Evans (1980) and Chris Ahrens (2004), both in men's 8s. And of course Lind, who is the only Princeton rower, male or female, to win two Olympic gold medals.
Actually, if you want to extend that further, Lind is also:
* the only Princeton female to win two Olympic gold medals
* the only Princeton alum to compete in what currently is a varsity sport here ever to win two Olympic gold medals
* one of three Princetonians ever to win more than one gold medal (the other two are Karl Frederick, who won three golds in shooting in Antwerp in 1920 and Herman Wilton, who won gold in sailing in 1948 in London and 1952 in Helsinki)
Interestingly, by the way, Wilton competed in the 1928 Games as well and then did not compete for 20 more years after that (there were no Olympics in 1940 or 1944 because of World War II). Also interestingly, Frederick won his three gold medals 17 years after he graduated with the Class of 1903.
TigerBlog has often asked the question of who the best Princeton woman athlete of all time is. He's also brought up the question of which Princeton athletes, male and female, have had the best careers post-Princeton.
On the women's side, he'd put Caroline Lind up there with any female athlete Princeton has ever had, on both questions. He'd also put Ashleigh Johnson on that list.
If TB had to describe Caroline Lind in one word, it would be "unassuming." Maybe "easy-going." Maybe simply "nice."
For the purposes of this conversation, he'll stick with "unassuming."
Yeah, she has two gold medals, but you'd never know that from the way she talks or carries herself. She's a very down-to-earth person who, as far as TigerBlog was able to tell, has little to no ego.
The most recent time he saw her was at the Friends of Lacrosse golf outing. Caroline was there in her role with the Athletic Friends Group.
As she was introduced to the group of lacrosse alums who were about to go play at Springdale, it was mentioned that she was a two-time Olympic gold medalist.
This was followed by a few oohs and ahhs, and then the question of "what sport?"
TigerBlog thinks that the golf outing was her last in her role with the Friends Group. She left Princeton to relocate with her husband to California, driving across the country with, among other things, her two Olympic golds.
TigerBlog would have been remiss if he didn't mention Caroline Lind now that she's leaving Princeton. He wishes her the best.
She'll be missed by many.
The picture was the work of Nick Donatiello, the former Princeton sports information director who passed away last week.
TigerBlog tried to find the picture yesterday and could not. He's pretty sure it's on the back cover of the 1993 media guide, since he saw the ones from pretty much every other year during that time except for 19993, which he couldn't find.
Isn't that how it always works?
That picture has to be someplace else. In a file or something. He'll find it at some point, maybe.
If not, then there's only one obvious solution - find another live tiger and take another picture.
In addition to talking tigers yesterday, TigerBlog also mentioned that some current Tigers were very successful at the U23 World Rowing Championships. By the way, that event was held in Poznan, Poland.
Speaking of Princeton rowers who have had success on the international level, there is of course Caroline Lind, the two-time Olympic gold medalist. Lind won gold with the United States 8+ in 2008 and 2012.
Lind graduated in 2006 after helping Princeton to the NCAA championship before carrying over her success to the Olympics.
Princeton rowing won its first Olympic medal in 1964 in Tokyo, when Seymore Cromwell of the Class of 1965 won silver before his senior year. Since then, Tiger rowers have continued to do well on the biggest stage, with four gold medals, 11 silver medals and three bronze medals.
Princeton athletes have combined to win 66 Olympic medals. Of that number, there were 29 that were won prior to the 1964 Games.
That leaves 37 Olympic medals that have been won from 1964 on, which is when rowers won their first. If you're doing the math, that means that 18 of the 29 medals Princetonians have won since 1964, or 62 percent, have been won by rowers.
The four rowing golds belong to Mike Evans (1980) and Chris Ahrens (2004), both in men's 8s. And of course Lind, who is the only Princeton rower, male or female, to win two Olympic gold medals.
Actually, if you want to extend that further, Lind is also:
* the only Princeton female to win two Olympic gold medals
* the only Princeton alum to compete in what currently is a varsity sport here ever to win two Olympic gold medals
* one of three Princetonians ever to win more than one gold medal (the other two are Karl Frederick, who won three golds in shooting in Antwerp in 1920 and Herman Wilton, who won gold in sailing in 1948 in London and 1952 in Helsinki)
Interestingly, by the way, Wilton competed in the 1928 Games as well and then did not compete for 20 more years after that (there were no Olympics in 1940 or 1944 because of World War II). Also interestingly, Frederick won his three gold medals 17 years after he graduated with the Class of 1903.
TigerBlog has often asked the question of who the best Princeton woman athlete of all time is. He's also brought up the question of which Princeton athletes, male and female, have had the best careers post-Princeton.
On the women's side, he'd put Caroline Lind up there with any female athlete Princeton has ever had, on both questions. He'd also put Ashleigh Johnson on that list.
If TB had to describe Caroline Lind in one word, it would be "unassuming." Maybe "easy-going." Maybe simply "nice."
For the purposes of this conversation, he'll stick with "unassuming."
Yeah, she has two gold medals, but you'd never know that from the way she talks or carries herself. She's a very down-to-earth person who, as far as TigerBlog was able to tell, has little to no ego.
The most recent time he saw her was at the Friends of Lacrosse golf outing. Caroline was there in her role with the Athletic Friends Group.
As she was introduced to the group of lacrosse alums who were about to go play at Springdale, it was mentioned that she was a two-time Olympic gold medalist.
This was followed by a few oohs and ahhs, and then the question of "what sport?"
TigerBlog thinks that the golf outing was her last in her role with the Friends Group. She left Princeton to relocate with her husband to California, driving across the country with, among other things, her two Olympic golds.
TigerBlog would have been remiss if he didn't mention Caroline Lind now that she's leaving Princeton. He wishes her the best.
She'll be missed by many.
Monday, July 30, 2018
Global Tiger Day
Yesterday, apparently, was Global Tiger Day.
Princeton Athletics offered this tweet in celebration:
Apparently, this was the eighth Global Tiger Day, held annually on July 29. TigerBlog isn't quite sure why that's the date, but it seems that the holiday is meant to call attention to the plight of Tigers in their natural habitats. TigerBlog didn't realize this, but wild Tigers are few in numbers these days.
The Tiger, of course, has been Princeton's nickname since the 1880s, when the orange and black school colors coupled with a newspaper account of how the football team fought like Tigers led to an enduring mascot.
TigerBlog has only ever seen one picture of a live Tiger on the Princeton campus. It was on the back of a football media guide from the late 1980s or very early 1990s, before 1) it was TigerBlog's responsibility to do the media guide and 2) before Princeton stopped doing media guides.
Peter Farrell, the former women's track and field coach, stopped in the other day, talking about Nick Donatiello, the former sports information director at Princeton who passed away last week.
TigerBlog is pretty sure Nick's title at Princeton was sports information director. TigerBlog has had a bunch of different titles at Princeton (seven actually), but none of them have been sports information director.
TB's first title here was as Manager of Sports Media Relations. He doesn't think any of his immediate predecessors here - Chuck Yrigoyen, Kurt Kehl, Mark Panus - had the title of SID, so he's not sure why Nick might have.
Anyway, Peter told TigerBlog that it was actually Nick who came up with the idea of having the picture of the live tiger. The picture itself was of the tiger, in the grass, playing with a football.
The story, as Peter told it, was that the circus was in Jadwin Gym. Actually more than once. TigerBlog knew this. In fact, when he did his countdown of the top 40 moments in Jadwin Gym's first 40 years, the 34th best moment was one of the times the circus came to town - and the elephants damaged the floor just before the start of basketball practice.
Jadwin, by the way, turns 50 this coming winter, and TB will probably - almost surely - update that list to make it the top 50 in 50 years. How many things have happened in building in that last 10 years that warrant being added to the list and take the place of the things that were already on it?
You'll just have to wait a few months to find out. TigerBlog can think of a few off the bat.
You'd think, of course, that the order of the 40 events that had already occurred wouldn't change, but hey, maybe with 10 years of reflection, historical perspectives could possibly have evoled.
Again, that's a few months away.
Peter said it was Nick's idea to take the live tiger from the circus out onto the grass outside of Palmer Stadium to take its picture with a football. It was a pretty good idea, actually.
Maybe one day there'll be another chance to get a live tiger and another picture. That would be interesting.
TigerBlog would keep a safe distance, of course. Does that make him a bit pathetic?
TigerBlog would probably not be much good with a live tiger anyway. By the picture from the 1980s, the big cat seemed to be enjoying the football. TB's surmises he would have been just have happy gnawing on, say, TB's leg or so.
Speaking of tigers, there was a story on goprincetontigers.com yesterday with this headline: Five Tigers Claim Medals At U23 World Championships. That's a good way to celebrate Global Tiger Day, no?
You can read the entire story HERE.
All five medals were won by returning Princeton rowers, including four who were teammates in the Ivy League champion women's open boat. Claire Collins and Hadley Irwin won bronze with the U.S. 8+, while Hannah Scott won a silver with the British pairs and Emily Kallfelz won silver in singles sculls.
David Bewicke-Copley won silver with the British 8+.
Once again Princeton rowing has a tremendous performance on the international stage. And those are names worth remembering for future international competitions, such as the Olympics down the road.
Princeton Athletics offered this tweet in celebration:
Happy Global Tiger Day! 🐅— Princeton Tigers (@PUTIGERS) July 29, 2018
Show us how you support Tigers on #InternationalTigerDay using the hashtag #BeATiger pic.twitter.com/yRRHcemsBf
Apparently, this was the eighth Global Tiger Day, held annually on July 29. TigerBlog isn't quite sure why that's the date, but it seems that the holiday is meant to call attention to the plight of Tigers in their natural habitats. TigerBlog didn't realize this, but wild Tigers are few in numbers these days.
The Tiger, of course, has been Princeton's nickname since the 1880s, when the orange and black school colors coupled with a newspaper account of how the football team fought like Tigers led to an enduring mascot.
TigerBlog has only ever seen one picture of a live Tiger on the Princeton campus. It was on the back of a football media guide from the late 1980s or very early 1990s, before 1) it was TigerBlog's responsibility to do the media guide and 2) before Princeton stopped doing media guides.
Peter Farrell, the former women's track and field coach, stopped in the other day, talking about Nick Donatiello, the former sports information director at Princeton who passed away last week.
TigerBlog is pretty sure Nick's title at Princeton was sports information director. TigerBlog has had a bunch of different titles at Princeton (seven actually), but none of them have been sports information director.
TB's first title here was as Manager of Sports Media Relations. He doesn't think any of his immediate predecessors here - Chuck Yrigoyen, Kurt Kehl, Mark Panus - had the title of SID, so he's not sure why Nick might have.
Anyway, Peter told TigerBlog that it was actually Nick who came up with the idea of having the picture of the live tiger. The picture itself was of the tiger, in the grass, playing with a football.
The story, as Peter told it, was that the circus was in Jadwin Gym. Actually more than once. TigerBlog knew this. In fact, when he did his countdown of the top 40 moments in Jadwin Gym's first 40 years, the 34th best moment was one of the times the circus came to town - and the elephants damaged the floor just before the start of basketball practice.
Jadwin, by the way, turns 50 this coming winter, and TB will probably - almost surely - update that list to make it the top 50 in 50 years. How many things have happened in building in that last 10 years that warrant being added to the list and take the place of the things that were already on it?
You'll just have to wait a few months to find out. TigerBlog can think of a few off the bat.
You'd think, of course, that the order of the 40 events that had already occurred wouldn't change, but hey, maybe with 10 years of reflection, historical perspectives could possibly have evoled.
Again, that's a few months away.
Peter said it was Nick's idea to take the live tiger from the circus out onto the grass outside of Palmer Stadium to take its picture with a football. It was a pretty good idea, actually.
Maybe one day there'll be another chance to get a live tiger and another picture. That would be interesting.
TigerBlog would keep a safe distance, of course. Does that make him a bit pathetic?
TigerBlog would probably not be much good with a live tiger anyway. By the picture from the 1980s, the big cat seemed to be enjoying the football. TB's surmises he would have been just have happy gnawing on, say, TB's leg or so.
Speaking of tigers, there was a story on goprincetontigers.com yesterday with this headline: Five Tigers Claim Medals At U23 World Championships. That's a good way to celebrate Global Tiger Day, no?
You can read the entire story HERE.
All five medals were won by returning Princeton rowers, including four who were teammates in the Ivy League champion women's open boat. Claire Collins and Hadley Irwin won bronze with the U.S. 8+, while Hannah Scott won a silver with the British pairs and Emily Kallfelz won silver in singles sculls.
David Bewicke-Copley won silver with the British 8+.
Once again Princeton rowing has a tremendous performance on the international stage. And those are names worth remembering for future international competitions, such as the Olympics down the road.
Friday, July 27, 2018
Welcomes And Congrats
TigerBlog had a meeting earlier this week and needed to set up a follow-up for next week.
How's Wednesday, he was asked. Sure. No problem.
Then he got a calendar notice about the meeting, and he was slightly taken aback by the part that said his meeting was going to be August 1.
Wait. It's going to be August already? This is the last weekend of July?
So it is.
TigerBlog starts the last Friday in July with a welcome to Sean Letsinger, the new head coach of men's and women's diving. Sean comes to Princeton from Richmond, where he coached the last five years.
He's also a 2010 graduate of the University of Tennessee, and his resume also includes two years as the head coach at South Dakota State and extensive success as a club coach.
You can read the complete release about his hire HERE.
Welcome to Princeton, Sean. And while TB is in a welcoming mood, how about a welcome back to THESE GUYS?
Didn't click on the link? Well, TigerBlog stumbled on the story of these 42,000 year old worms who were just unfrozen in Siberia.
Each day TigerBlog get a list of news stories that have some connection to Princeton from the University's Office of Communications. He likes to scan the list to see if anything leaps out at him that he would consider to be interesting.
What could be more interesting than this headline: Worms Frozen In Permafrost For 42,000 Years Come Back To Life? It's a story that appeared in the Siberian Times, of all places.
When TigerBlog clicked on the link to "sports" in the Siberian Times, the top headlines included:
* World Cup goal triggers marriage proposal by Siberian doctor
* Women's American football team in Vladivostock accused of vulgarity after daring photo shoot
* Fan killed in fight between rival football clubs in Novosibirsk
* Burning angel gets second degree burns to win $350 prize at snow festival
* Don't mess with Siberia's strongest woman as she deals with crazy driver
Those were some good stories. The "Burning Angel" set himself on fire to win a ski competition. The marriage proposal one was sweet. The strongest woman one, well, it's what you think.
You can read them all HERE.
By the way, as bad as Siberian winters are known to be, the summers can be worse, what with the worst mosquito problem in the world.
What else does TB have for you on this Friday?
In addition to the welcomes, there are also some congratulations in order.
First, there's Margot Putukian, Princeton's team doctor. Margot was also the team doctor for the U.S. team at the World Lacrosse championships in Israel, where the Americans won the gold medal.
Did TigerBlog mention that before? He can't remember.
Anyway, being the team doctor is a lot more involved than just standing on the sideline in case someone gets hurt. With team rosters frozen at 23, health and wellness become hugely important, especially considering some of the American players were a little older and that the tournament was played in the oppressive Israeli heat.
So congratulations to Margot. And also to the members of the Princeton fencing program who had such great success at the recent World Championships in China.
Eliza Stone won bronze in the women's saber. Stone, the 2013 NCAA champions in the saber, was seeded 23rd of 101 fencers in the knockout round after going 5-1 in round-robin and then won four times to get to the semifinals.
Kat Holmes, a 2016 Olympian and the NCAA runner-up in the epee to fellow Princetonian Anna Van Brummen, was part of the U.S. epee team that won the gold medal in China. From the goprincetontigers.com story:
The U.S. then beat Russia in the semifinals, 27-25, with Holmes again turning a deficit into a lead, outscoring her match-ending foe 13-10. That set up a final against South Korea, and Holmes again was the closer, turning a two-touch deficit into an 18-17 win by outscoring her opponent 8-5.
You can read that entire story HERE.
And so congratulations to the two Princeton fencers.
And that's your last Friday in July.
Enjoy the weekend.
And keep this thought in mind: The first Princeton athletic event of the 2018-19 season is just four weeks away.
How's Wednesday, he was asked. Sure. No problem.
Then he got a calendar notice about the meeting, and he was slightly taken aback by the part that said his meeting was going to be August 1.
Wait. It's going to be August already? This is the last weekend of July?
So it is.
TigerBlog starts the last Friday in July with a welcome to Sean Letsinger, the new head coach of men's and women's diving. Sean comes to Princeton from Richmond, where he coached the last five years.
He's also a 2010 graduate of the University of Tennessee, and his resume also includes two years as the head coach at South Dakota State and extensive success as a club coach.
You can read the complete release about his hire HERE.
Welcome to Princeton, Sean. And while TB is in a welcoming mood, how about a welcome back to THESE GUYS?
Didn't click on the link? Well, TigerBlog stumbled on the story of these 42,000 year old worms who were just unfrozen in Siberia.
Each day TigerBlog get a list of news stories that have some connection to Princeton from the University's Office of Communications. He likes to scan the list to see if anything leaps out at him that he would consider to be interesting.
What could be more interesting than this headline: Worms Frozen In Permafrost For 42,000 Years Come Back To Life? It's a story that appeared in the Siberian Times, of all places.
When TigerBlog clicked on the link to "sports" in the Siberian Times, the top headlines included:
* World Cup goal triggers marriage proposal by Siberian doctor
* Women's American football team in Vladivostock accused of vulgarity after daring photo shoot
* Fan killed in fight between rival football clubs in Novosibirsk
* Burning angel gets second degree burns to win $350 prize at snow festival
* Don't mess with Siberia's strongest woman as she deals with crazy driver
Those were some good stories. The "Burning Angel" set himself on fire to win a ski competition. The marriage proposal one was sweet. The strongest woman one, well, it's what you think.
You can read them all HERE.
By the way, as bad as Siberian winters are known to be, the summers can be worse, what with the worst mosquito problem in the world.
What else does TB have for you on this Friday?
In addition to the welcomes, there are also some congratulations in order.
First, there's Margot Putukian, Princeton's team doctor. Margot was also the team doctor for the U.S. team at the World Lacrosse championships in Israel, where the Americans won the gold medal.
Did TigerBlog mention that before? He can't remember.
Anyway, being the team doctor is a lot more involved than just standing on the sideline in case someone gets hurt. With team rosters frozen at 23, health and wellness become hugely important, especially considering some of the American players were a little older and that the tournament was played in the oppressive Israeli heat.
So congratulations to Margot. And also to the members of the Princeton fencing program who had such great success at the recent World Championships in China.
Eliza Stone won bronze in the women's saber. Stone, the 2013 NCAA champions in the saber, was seeded 23rd of 101 fencers in the knockout round after going 5-1 in round-robin and then won four times to get to the semifinals.
Kat Holmes, a 2016 Olympian and the NCAA runner-up in the epee to fellow Princetonian Anna Van Brummen, was part of the U.S. epee team that won the gold medal in China. From the goprincetontigers.com story:
The U.S. then beat Russia in the semifinals, 27-25, with Holmes again turning a deficit into a lead, outscoring her match-ending foe 13-10. That set up a final against South Korea, and Holmes again was the closer, turning a two-touch deficit into an 18-17 win by outscoring her opponent 8-5.
You can read that entire story HERE.
And so congratulations to the two Princeton fencers.
And that's your last Friday in July.
Enjoy the weekend.
And keep this thought in mind: The first Princeton athletic event of the 2018-19 season is just four weeks away.
Thursday, July 26, 2018
Saying Goodbye To Nick And Polly
TigerBlog never met Nick Donatiello.
When he heard that Donatiello had passed away last week, though, it still felt as if someone he knew well was gone.
Nick Donatiello was, at one time, the sports information director here at Princeton. He was a 1982 Princeton grad - the class president and the manager of the football team as an undergrad - and he stepped immediately into the role of communications director, also in 1982.
That made him a little before TigerBlog's time. Nick was here in a way, way different era of athletic communications, one that disappeared on TB's watch, actually.
Back in 1982, sports information was still most media relations. It was like that in the 1990s, when TigerBlog first started working here, when it was still a time of pitching stories and judging success by how much you could get written about you in publications local and national.
All that changed, of course, with the advent of the internet. Now Princeton Athletics is its own media outlet, one that for the most part has sidestepped the media to give information directly to those who want to consume it.
TigerBlog likes this way much better on so many levels. It forces constant creativity and the ability to adapt to changing technologies, and it allows Princeton to tell its story directly.
If there's one thing he misses about the way it used to be, though, it's the relationships he used to have, and make, with media members. TigerBlog got to meet so many great people who were sportswriters and broadcasters - and yes, some really annoying ones too.
The job then was creating information that media members could use to tell the stories. That was the job for Nick Donatiello, back in the early 1980s.
There are still old files in the Jadwin basement of former coaches and administrators, and TB looked in Nick's. There were all kinds of interesting things in there, including a story from the Daily Princetonian with this title: "Sports Information Office Enters The Computer Era."
What was the computer? A Wang OIS - 115 -2.
TigerBlog has heard a lot of people talk about Nick with great fondness.
Nick was a civil engineering major, one whose senior thesis was entitled: "Queuing Theory Applications and Considerations in the Design of Upstream Line-Concentrator-Type Data Communications Devices." When TB saw that, it made him wonder why someone that smart would want to work in athletic communications.
Well, he very briefly thought that before he was struck by the irony anyway.
Nick left athletic communications long ago, embarking instead on a long career in business and technology after attending the Stanford School of Business, where he'd also teach. He was two days shy of his 58th birthday when he died of natural causes.
His complete obituary can be found HERE.
Nick's funeral was held last Friday. TigerBlog was at a funeral at the same time, this one for Polly Bohus.
Polly and Nick knew each other, TB would guess. Nick and Harvey Yavener definitely knew each other. TB knows that for a fact.
And, going by what TB observed for about 15 years or so, any SID who knew Yav knew Polly.
Harvey and Polly were inseparable for more than 60 years. They never got married, but they lived together from 1959 through her death a week ago. That was a rarity for those days.
Harvey was one of those sportswriters who covered Princeton back then. In fact, it's possible - actually likely - that no sportswriter ever wrote more column inches about Princeton Athletics than Harvey. TB would guarantee that no sportswriter has written more about Princeton women's athletics than Yav.
Wherever Yav went, Polly went too. If there was a game going on in Jadwin Gym, Polly was most likely in the balcony while Yav was on press row.
At her funeral, Yav gave a very emotional eulogy. He called them an "odd coupling" and started with what was obvious - she was very tall and he is very short.
He also mentioned that his prospects for lifetime happiness were slim until he met her. He also said that in 60 years together they never had one argument.
And so what if TB witnessed one or two spats between them? It didn't matter. They were in love, and they were the perfect partners for each other.
They traveled together. They rented a shore house together - in the off-season. They cooked together. They ate in the best restaurants. And mostly, more than anything else, they went to college sporting events together.
No matter what he did, she patiently waited for him. She was definitely a saint, that's for sure. TB used to joke that there was a special place in heaven for her. He thought back to that at her funeral.
He also thought about how Polly didn't eat chicken. It wasn't because she didn't like how it tasted. It was because she grew up on a poultry farm.
She loved the Jets and hated Penn State. She was generous. She was warm. When you went to their small apartment on the eighth floor of a building on West State Street in Trenton, she was going to feed you like few others would.
Her career was in the Trenton Police Department, as an administrative assistant. She had a stroke in the 1970s but came back from it to the point where you couldn't tell anything was wrong, though she'd never drive again.
A few times when Yav couldn't drive because of a surgery or eye issue, TigerBlog would drive her on her errands. Wherever they went in Trenton, everyone of every race and every background and every occupation would stop and say hello to her.
They left the apartment in Trenton a few years ago, settling in an assisted living facility in South Jersey. Her health had been failing and she was 86 when she died, but still the news that she was gone stung TB.
Polly loved to collect ceramic angels. Her house was jammed with them.
At her funeral, Yav mentioned that she was now with the very angels she used to collect.
TigerBlog smiled at that.
Then he went back to shedding a few tears for Polly Bohus, one of the most beautiful people he's ever met.
When he heard that Donatiello had passed away last week, though, it still felt as if someone he knew well was gone.
Nick Donatiello was, at one time, the sports information director here at Princeton. He was a 1982 Princeton grad - the class president and the manager of the football team as an undergrad - and he stepped immediately into the role of communications director, also in 1982.
That made him a little before TigerBlog's time. Nick was here in a way, way different era of athletic communications, one that disappeared on TB's watch, actually.
Back in 1982, sports information was still most media relations. It was like that in the 1990s, when TigerBlog first started working here, when it was still a time of pitching stories and judging success by how much you could get written about you in publications local and national.
All that changed, of course, with the advent of the internet. Now Princeton Athletics is its own media outlet, one that for the most part has sidestepped the media to give information directly to those who want to consume it.
TigerBlog likes this way much better on so many levels. It forces constant creativity and the ability to adapt to changing technologies, and it allows Princeton to tell its story directly.
If there's one thing he misses about the way it used to be, though, it's the relationships he used to have, and make, with media members. TigerBlog got to meet so many great people who were sportswriters and broadcasters - and yes, some really annoying ones too.
The job then was creating information that media members could use to tell the stories. That was the job for Nick Donatiello, back in the early 1980s.
There are still old files in the Jadwin basement of former coaches and administrators, and TB looked in Nick's. There were all kinds of interesting things in there, including a story from the Daily Princetonian with this title: "Sports Information Office Enters The Computer Era."
What was the computer? A Wang OIS - 115 -2.
TigerBlog has heard a lot of people talk about Nick with great fondness.
Nick was a civil engineering major, one whose senior thesis was entitled: "Queuing Theory Applications and Considerations in the Design of Upstream Line-Concentrator-Type Data Communications Devices." When TB saw that, it made him wonder why someone that smart would want to work in athletic communications.
Well, he very briefly thought that before he was struck by the irony anyway.
Nick left athletic communications long ago, embarking instead on a long career in business and technology after attending the Stanford School of Business, where he'd also teach. He was two days shy of his 58th birthday when he died of natural causes.
His complete obituary can be found HERE.
Nick's funeral was held last Friday. TigerBlog was at a funeral at the same time, this one for Polly Bohus.
Polly and Nick knew each other, TB would guess. Nick and Harvey Yavener definitely knew each other. TB knows that for a fact.
And, going by what TB observed for about 15 years or so, any SID who knew Yav knew Polly.
Harvey and Polly were inseparable for more than 60 years. They never got married, but they lived together from 1959 through her death a week ago. That was a rarity for those days.
Harvey was one of those sportswriters who covered Princeton back then. In fact, it's possible - actually likely - that no sportswriter ever wrote more column inches about Princeton Athletics than Harvey. TB would guarantee that no sportswriter has written more about Princeton women's athletics than Yav.
Wherever Yav went, Polly went too. If there was a game going on in Jadwin Gym, Polly was most likely in the balcony while Yav was on press row.
At her funeral, Yav gave a very emotional eulogy. He called them an "odd coupling" and started with what was obvious - she was very tall and he is very short.
He also mentioned that his prospects for lifetime happiness were slim until he met her. He also said that in 60 years together they never had one argument.
And so what if TB witnessed one or two spats between them? It didn't matter. They were in love, and they were the perfect partners for each other.
They traveled together. They rented a shore house together - in the off-season. They cooked together. They ate in the best restaurants. And mostly, more than anything else, they went to college sporting events together.
No matter what he did, she patiently waited for him. She was definitely a saint, that's for sure. TB used to joke that there was a special place in heaven for her. He thought back to that at her funeral.
He also thought about how Polly didn't eat chicken. It wasn't because she didn't like how it tasted. It was because she grew up on a poultry farm.
She loved the Jets and hated Penn State. She was generous. She was warm. When you went to their small apartment on the eighth floor of a building on West State Street in Trenton, she was going to feed you like few others would.
Her career was in the Trenton Police Department, as an administrative assistant. She had a stroke in the 1970s but came back from it to the point where you couldn't tell anything was wrong, though she'd never drive again.
A few times when Yav couldn't drive because of a surgery or eye issue, TigerBlog would drive her on her errands. Wherever they went in Trenton, everyone of every race and every background and every occupation would stop and say hello to her.
They left the apartment in Trenton a few years ago, settling in an assisted living facility in South Jersey. Her health had been failing and she was 86 when she died, but still the news that she was gone stung TB.
Polly loved to collect ceramic angels. Her house was jammed with them.
At her funeral, Yav mentioned that she was now with the very angels she used to collect.
TigerBlog smiled at that.
Then he went back to shedding a few tears for Polly Bohus, one of the most beautiful people he's ever met.
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Finding Baggie
The World Cup began on June 14, if TigerBlog remembers correctly.
It ran through July 15, when France defeated Croatia 4-2 in the final. There were 64 games played in all. Any guesses on the total number of goals scored?
Any guesses on how many of those games TB watched? He'd guess he saw at least some of at least 55, maybe even 60 games.
So yeah, he liked it.
The World Championships of men's lacrosse started on July 12 and ran through July 21, which was this past Saturday. There were 170 games played in the tournament, and TB watched, well, a lot of them, whether it was the top division, the Princeton players who played on other teams or just some random games that were on ESPN+.
Oh, and there were 169 goals scored in the World Cup. There were way more than that in the lacrosse tournament.
Anyway, that was a lot of soccer and lacrosse to watch - and write about - for TB.
The tournament ended a little after 5 am Saturday on a goal by Princeton's Tom Schreiber with one second to play that gave the United States a 9-8 win over Canada for the gold medal.
If you've never met Tom Schreiber and only know him as one of the greatest lacrosse players of all time, that doesn't really tell you what kind of person he is. This tweet when he got back might give you some insight:
He picked up his two kids.
More specifically, he picked up his two kids at two different airports in two different states a little more than two hours apart.
It made for a lot of driving in a short time. Hey, that's what parenting is all about.
Miss TigerBlog ’22 came in from Paris first, to Newark Airport. She was there for a week with BrotherBlog and Joe, the official brother-in-law of TigerBlog.
Her choices were a graduation party last month or the trip this month. She chose correctly.
MTB saw all the Paris sights, with the Eiffel Tower, the Arc De Triomphe, Versailles, the museums, a river tour of the Seine. In something that is definitely a sign of the times, she posted a few pictures on social media and then was messaged by a young woman she met at the Princeton Preview. The two then met up at a cafe in Paris.
As for TigerBlog Jr., he had been in Israel for 29 days, the first 10 as a tourist and the next 19 playing and working at the tournament. His trip home was from Tel Aviv to Amman, Jordan, and then Amman to JFK.
For most of the time that TBJ was at the tournament, TigerBlog kept asking him if he could find Ravi Sitlani, an assistant coach for the English national team. For the entire time, he kept missing him.
By the way, nobody calls him "Ravi." TigerBlog has known him for 10 years, and he's never heard anyone call him anything other than "Baggie."
When TBJ came through the gate at JFK off his Royal Jordanian flight, he had two pieces of good news for his father. First, he'd brought him a present from his month in Israel - a hat from the World Championships that he'd clearly been wearing.
Second, he told him that, lo and behold, Baggie was on his flight. They'd connected in Amman as the only people at the gate wearing lacrosse stuff, in TBJ's case Sacred Heart lacrosse shorts and, for some reason, a Wales Lacrosse shirt.
TB and TBJ waited a few minutes, and then there was Baggie himself. When Baggie said he was looking for a cab, TigerBlog offered him a ride into Manhattan.
As a result, they got to spend another hour or so together. It's always great to see him, and has been since TB first met him back in Spain when the Princeton men's lacrosse team was there in 2008.
They talked about their times together in the past, and Princeton lacrosse, and how the Tigers are going to be this spring. They talked about Michael Sowers. They talked about head coach Matt Madalon.
And the World Championships. What TB thought of the games. What it was like for them to be there.
And, of course, tthe picture that Baggie and Princeton's Nikhil Ashra took together in 2008, when Baggie called them the only two Indian goalies in the world. TB told him he still had that picture:
Since then he's seen him a few times in this country at lacrosse events, and in Portugal in 2016, again when Princeton played England. That's where, by the way, the English first met up with Alistair Berven, a 2017 Princeton grad who played in the tournament for England.
He's just a really good guy, a big guy of Indian descent with a serious English accent. He told TBJ that he must have "made a lot of new mates" in Israel, for instance.
Baggie sent TB an email Monday thanking him for the ride and the beauty of friendship through lacrosse.
Anyway, it was great to see him. Traffic was pretty bad getting into Manhattan, and, as always, it took awhile to get crosstown.
This was one time TigerBlog didn't mind at all.
It ran through July 15, when France defeated Croatia 4-2 in the final. There were 64 games played in all. Any guesses on the total number of goals scored?
Any guesses on how many of those games TB watched? He'd guess he saw at least some of at least 55, maybe even 60 games.
So yeah, he liked it.
The World Championships of men's lacrosse started on July 12 and ran through July 21, which was this past Saturday. There were 170 games played in the tournament, and TB watched, well, a lot of them, whether it was the top division, the Princeton players who played on other teams or just some random games that were on ESPN+.
Oh, and there were 169 goals scored in the World Cup. There were way more than that in the lacrosse tournament.
Anyway, that was a lot of soccer and lacrosse to watch - and write about - for TB.
The tournament ended a little after 5 am Saturday on a goal by Princeton's Tom Schreiber with one second to play that gave the United States a 9-8 win over Canada for the gold medal.
If you've never met Tom Schreiber and only know him as one of the greatest lacrosse players of all time, that doesn't really tell you what kind of person he is. This tweet when he got back might give you some insight:
Anyway, Schreiber's goal ended a little more than five weeks of fascination between the two tournaments. So what did TB do when it was all over?Something on my mind since returning home — @JLKelly94’s contributions post injury. His energy, focus, & mental toughness were contagious down the stretch. Made himself as valuable as anyone on the field. Truly the epitome of a great teammate. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Qy7g08K6Gj— Tom Schreiber (@TomSchreiber26) July 24, 2018
He picked up his two kids.
More specifically, he picked up his two kids at two different airports in two different states a little more than two hours apart.
It made for a lot of driving in a short time. Hey, that's what parenting is all about.
Miss TigerBlog ’22 came in from Paris first, to Newark Airport. She was there for a week with BrotherBlog and Joe, the official brother-in-law of TigerBlog.
Her choices were a graduation party last month or the trip this month. She chose correctly.
MTB saw all the Paris sights, with the Eiffel Tower, the Arc De Triomphe, Versailles, the museums, a river tour of the Seine. In something that is definitely a sign of the times, she posted a few pictures on social media and then was messaged by a young woman she met at the Princeton Preview. The two then met up at a cafe in Paris.
As for TigerBlog Jr., he had been in Israel for 29 days, the first 10 as a tourist and the next 19 playing and working at the tournament. His trip home was from Tel Aviv to Amman, Jordan, and then Amman to JFK.
For most of the time that TBJ was at the tournament, TigerBlog kept asking him if he could find Ravi Sitlani, an assistant coach for the English national team. For the entire time, he kept missing him.
By the way, nobody calls him "Ravi." TigerBlog has known him for 10 years, and he's never heard anyone call him anything other than "Baggie."
When TBJ came through the gate at JFK off his Royal Jordanian flight, he had two pieces of good news for his father. First, he'd brought him a present from his month in Israel - a hat from the World Championships that he'd clearly been wearing.
Second, he told him that, lo and behold, Baggie was on his flight. They'd connected in Amman as the only people at the gate wearing lacrosse stuff, in TBJ's case Sacred Heart lacrosse shorts and, for some reason, a Wales Lacrosse shirt.
TB and TBJ waited a few minutes, and then there was Baggie himself. When Baggie said he was looking for a cab, TigerBlog offered him a ride into Manhattan.
As a result, they got to spend another hour or so together. It's always great to see him, and has been since TB first met him back in Spain when the Princeton men's lacrosse team was there in 2008.
They talked about their times together in the past, and Princeton lacrosse, and how the Tigers are going to be this spring. They talked about Michael Sowers. They talked about head coach Matt Madalon.
And the World Championships. What TB thought of the games. What it was like for them to be there.
And, of course, tthe picture that Baggie and Princeton's Nikhil Ashra took together in 2008, when Baggie called them the only two Indian goalies in the world. TB told him he still had that picture:
Since then he's seen him a few times in this country at lacrosse events, and in Portugal in 2016, again when Princeton played England. That's where, by the way, the English first met up with Alistair Berven, a 2017 Princeton grad who played in the tournament for England.
He's just a really good guy, a big guy of Indian descent with a serious English accent. He told TBJ that he must have "made a lot of new mates" in Israel, for instance.
Baggie sent TB an email Monday thanking him for the ride and the beauty of friendship through lacrosse.
Anyway, it was great to see him. Traffic was pretty bad getting into Manhattan, and, as always, it took awhile to get crosstown.
This was one time TigerBlog didn't mind at all.
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Past Halfway
If you come off of Route 1 into Princeton up Washington Road, then the first light you come to is at Faculty Road.
If you turn right at that light, then you have about a quarter-mile drive to the entrance of the Jadwin Gym parking lot. TigerBlog has driven thousands of miles on that quarter-mile stretch.
Think about it. If it's a quarter-mile, and TB has been driving into that parking lot for nearly 30 years, then, yeah, that number is pretty high.
Whatever that number is, it's stayed frozen this summer, since there is construction currently being done on that piece of Faculty Road.
Now you'd think that closing off a quarter-mile piece of a road couldn't possibly make that big of a difference, but then you'd be wrong. If you're trying to get to Alexander Road to go to either the Princeton Pike or Route 1, you now have to take the very long way around.
You have to go to the far end of the parking lot, for starters. It's taken TigerBlog about three weeks to not instinctively go to the closed off end.
Then you have to either go to Harrison Street to get to Route 1, which takes awhile. Or you can go up to Nassau Street and then fight your way down to 206 or the Princeton Pike.
Or you can turn left out of the parking lot and then left on Ivy Lane, back to Washington Road. Then it's a left on Washington down to Faculty (or cutting through back by the lacrosse, field hockey and soccer fields, although Elm Drive was closed for awhile too).
TigerBlog was in the parking lot the other day heading out when he was flagged down by a woman and her son, who had just taken a campus tour. TB had no idea who they were, though he did find out they're from Ohio.
She thought at first she had been parked in Lot 21, the Jadwin lot, but it turned out that they were actually parked on the other side of campus.
The woman told TB that she had parked in one of three lots, none of which, TB thinks, is the actual number of a lot at Princeton, though they were pretty close to matching up with 20, 23 and 17, which are on the other side of the campus.
TigerBlog tried to give her directions to get to where her car was. He's terrible at that. He's awful at giving directions in general, since he doesn't pay all that close attention to the names of the roads he's been on so many times.
Fortunately Waze has eliminated most of those issues.
TB has walked from Jadwin to where their car was about a thousand times. He has spent a lot of time on this campus obviously, so you'd think he'd be better at directing people around it.
Instead, all he could really do was point to Jadwin and Princeton Stadium and say to walk in between them, take the road around, find the bridge and just sort of keeping going in that direction. Anyway, they were very nice, and TB hopes they enjoyed their time on campus.
The construction on Faculty Road will be done in another month, in time for the start of the new academic year and the 2018-19 athletic calendar.
Each summer, TigerBlog likes to calculate the midway point between the end of one athletic year and the start of the next. Hey, what could be more fun than that?
Anyway, the last game of the 2017-18 year was May 13, when the women's lacrosse team lost to eventual runner-up Boston College in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The last event was the NCAA track and field championships, which ended for Princeton on June 9.
The first game, and event, of 2018-19 will be August 24, when the women's soccer team plays at New Hampshire.
The halfway point, then, has already come and gone. If you go by the last game, then the halfway mark was the Fourth of July. If you go by the event, then halfway was July 17.
Today is July 23. That means the women's soccer game is a month from tomorrow.
How is that possible?
There will be seven Princeton Athletic events in August featuring four teams: both soccers, field hockey and women's volleyball.
And that's only a month away? How'd that happen?
If you turn right at that light, then you have about a quarter-mile drive to the entrance of the Jadwin Gym parking lot. TigerBlog has driven thousands of miles on that quarter-mile stretch.
Think about it. If it's a quarter-mile, and TB has been driving into that parking lot for nearly 30 years, then, yeah, that number is pretty high.
Whatever that number is, it's stayed frozen this summer, since there is construction currently being done on that piece of Faculty Road.
Now you'd think that closing off a quarter-mile piece of a road couldn't possibly make that big of a difference, but then you'd be wrong. If you're trying to get to Alexander Road to go to either the Princeton Pike or Route 1, you now have to take the very long way around.
You have to go to the far end of the parking lot, for starters. It's taken TigerBlog about three weeks to not instinctively go to the closed off end.
Then you have to either go to Harrison Street to get to Route 1, which takes awhile. Or you can go up to Nassau Street and then fight your way down to 206 or the Princeton Pike.
Or you can turn left out of the parking lot and then left on Ivy Lane, back to Washington Road. Then it's a left on Washington down to Faculty (or cutting through back by the lacrosse, field hockey and soccer fields, although Elm Drive was closed for awhile too).
TigerBlog was in the parking lot the other day heading out when he was flagged down by a woman and her son, who had just taken a campus tour. TB had no idea who they were, though he did find out they're from Ohio.
She thought at first she had been parked in Lot 21, the Jadwin lot, but it turned out that they were actually parked on the other side of campus.
The woman told TB that she had parked in one of three lots, none of which, TB thinks, is the actual number of a lot at Princeton, though they were pretty close to matching up with 20, 23 and 17, which are on the other side of the campus.
TigerBlog tried to give her directions to get to where her car was. He's terrible at that. He's awful at giving directions in general, since he doesn't pay all that close attention to the names of the roads he's been on so many times.
Fortunately Waze has eliminated most of those issues.
TB has walked from Jadwin to where their car was about a thousand times. He has spent a lot of time on this campus obviously, so you'd think he'd be better at directing people around it.
Instead, all he could really do was point to Jadwin and Princeton Stadium and say to walk in between them, take the road around, find the bridge and just sort of keeping going in that direction. Anyway, they were very nice, and TB hopes they enjoyed their time on campus.
The construction on Faculty Road will be done in another month, in time for the start of the new academic year and the 2018-19 athletic calendar.
Each summer, TigerBlog likes to calculate the midway point between the end of one athletic year and the start of the next. Hey, what could be more fun than that?
Anyway, the last game of the 2017-18 year was May 13, when the women's lacrosse team lost to eventual runner-up Boston College in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The last event was the NCAA track and field championships, which ended for Princeton on June 9.
The first game, and event, of 2018-19 will be August 24, when the women's soccer team plays at New Hampshire.
The halfway point, then, has already come and gone. If you go by the last game, then the halfway mark was the Fourth of July. If you go by the event, then halfway was July 17.
Today is July 23. That means the women's soccer game is a month from tomorrow.
How is that possible?
There will be seven Princeton Athletic events in August featuring four teams: both soccers, field hockey and women's volleyball.
And that's only a month away? How'd that happen?
Monday, July 23, 2018
Laxing At 3 AM
TigerBlog never really found out why the gold medal game of the FIL World Championship started at 10 am in Israel Saturday morning.
He thinks it might have something to do with the Jewish holiday of Tisha B'av, which at one time he must have learned about in Hebrew school but whose significance he long ago forgot. As it turns out, TB (TigerBlog) had to relearn that TB (Tisha B'av) is considered the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, which is really saying something.
It's a day of fasting and mourning actually. It's a day of sadness, not of celebration, and because it began sundown on Saturday, the championship game needed be done by then.
Of course, that doesn't really explain why it had to be played at 10 am. Maybe it was because of the combination of the holiday at sundown and the a desire to keep the game out of the stifling midday Israeli heat?
Whatever the reason, it does explain why TigerBlog was watching TV at 3 am Saturday.
His options were to watch the game live or to wait until noon and watch the replay and try to get that far without finding out who won. That, of course, would never have happened, and, of course, he would have watched it live whatever time it as played.
As it turned out, it was worth getting up in the middle of the night, since the United States and Canada played what will be remembered as one of the greatest - maybe even the greatest - lacrosse game ever played (and certainly the best one that ever started at 3 am Eastern). As he thinks about, he's hard-pressed to come up with a game that can match the drama, the level of play and the prize at stake. Not even an NCAA championship game - even an overtime NCAA final, the way Princeton won four of its six - stacks up.
In the end, all that separated what are by far the two best teams in the world was a goal with one second left by Princeton great Tom Schreiber.
Final score: United States 9, Canada 8.
Schreiber's goal was his third of the day, along with an assist. It gave the USA its first lead since it had been 2-1, and it came after a controversial final five minutes that will only add to the lore of the game through the years.
TigerBlog did decide not to put anything on goprincetontigers.com or Princeton men's lacrosse social media about the game until after the replay ended at 2 in the afternoon. Hey, if even one person managed to avoid seeing how it ended before getting to watch it, then it was worth it.
This game was played with ferocity for all 80 minutes, or more than 80 minutes, possibly. That's the best word to describe it. Ferocious.
If you wanted to see what ferocious lacrosse looks like, then watch the last few minutes of the third quarter, when Canada had the ball for an extended possession and never scored. Watch how hard the United States defended.
Ferocious had to share with controversial for the final five minutes though. And Princeton's two representatives, Schreiber and Zach Currier of Canada, were right in the middle of it all.
Canada took the lead with 5:17 to go, with the international running clock, and then Trevor Baptiste of the U.S. won the next face-off, briefly. Currier, though, attacked Baptiste's stick in a way that only Currier can, and in a blink the ball was in Currier's stick.
With the way the international game is played, it's possible that had Canada kept possession, the United States never would have gotten it back. There is no shot clock, only a stall warning that forces a team to keep it in the offensive box, which is much wider than it is in college. Canada probably would have tried to run the clock out and, with the way it could handle the ball, would likely have been successful.
Instead, just as quickly as Currier took it away from Baptiste, the officials took it away from Canada, calling an offsides infraction that by all accounts was incorrect. Now the Americans had the ball, tied it and won the face-off with three minutes left.
The closest Canada came to touching the ball again came when it was a loose behind the goal and there was a, well, ferocious chase for it. Currier at one point looked like he might have been pushed, but no call was made. Schreiber definitely was pushed down after that, giving possession back to the U.S.
TigerBlog Jr. was at the game. He also worked a lot of games at the tournament, and he would tell TB that the way the clock works, there was an official time kept by the box official and an unofficial time on the scoreboard. The scoreboard time was the time that was also on TV or the videostreams, and this explains why there always seemed to be a delay between when the clock would get to all zeroes and the play would actually stop.
This is what happened at the end of the championship game. The clock on TV kept jumping around in the final 10 seconds, as the U.S. took two shots that went high. Each time play stopped, the clock on TV - which was also on the scoreboard - added time back on.
Still, the official time in the box was correct, and it's why Schreiber's goal was legit. He made a great play, running off a screen from Ned Crotty and taking a soft feed from Rob Pannell before beating the great Dillon Ward with one second still to go.
If you're a lacrosse fan, then you had to love the game. TigerBlog was rooting for Schreiber and Currier, which made it somewhat difficult because one of them had to lose.
Of all of the great players that TigerBlog has ever seen play at Princeton, none has approached the game quite like Currier. In a game of ferocity nobody is more ferocious or competitive, yet he plays with what you could call grace at the same time. And he never, ever stops.
Forget just lacrosse. TB can't think of another athlete in any sport he's ever seen who plays harder all the time. The result is a player that you always want on your side.
And then there's Schreiber, who was named the top midfielder in the tournament and earned a spot on the All-World team. He may very well be the best player in the world right now, as both Inside Lacrosse and Lacrosse Magazine have said, but that is not something that he considers.
He also is a graceful player, one who seems to glide as much as anything else. But don't think that he lacks ferocity, because he doesn't. He is the best passing midfielder TigerBlog has ever seen, and he is big and powerful as a scorer as well.
His second goal in the championship game, which tied the game at 7-7 in the fourth, was typical of him, where he caught the ball. He took a pass in the middle and, with very little time or very little arm extension, rocketed the ball into the goal. And he can do it with either hand. Most players need to step into a shot like that and have a full extension of their arms. Not Schreiber.
The game-winner was as much instinct as anything else. It was a great cut, and Pannell, with little time to spare, put it in a small window. Catch. Finish.
Gold medal. In epic fashion.
And so what if it was at 3 am? This game figured to be a great one, and it exceeded expectations.
In fact, it could be the greatest lacrosse game ever played.
He thinks it might have something to do with the Jewish holiday of Tisha B'av, which at one time he must have learned about in Hebrew school but whose significance he long ago forgot. As it turns out, TB (TigerBlog) had to relearn that TB (Tisha B'av) is considered the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, which is really saying something.
It's a day of fasting and mourning actually. It's a day of sadness, not of celebration, and because it began sundown on Saturday, the championship game needed be done by then.
Of course, that doesn't really explain why it had to be played at 10 am. Maybe it was because of the combination of the holiday at sundown and the a desire to keep the game out of the stifling midday Israeli heat?
Whatever the reason, it does explain why TigerBlog was watching TV at 3 am Saturday.
His options were to watch the game live or to wait until noon and watch the replay and try to get that far without finding out who won. That, of course, would never have happened, and, of course, he would have watched it live whatever time it as played.
As it turned out, it was worth getting up in the middle of the night, since the United States and Canada played what will be remembered as one of the greatest - maybe even the greatest - lacrosse game ever played (and certainly the best one that ever started at 3 am Eastern). As he thinks about, he's hard-pressed to come up with a game that can match the drama, the level of play and the prize at stake. Not even an NCAA championship game - even an overtime NCAA final, the way Princeton won four of its six - stacks up.
In the end, all that separated what are by far the two best teams in the world was a goal with one second left by Princeton great Tom Schreiber.
Final score: United States 9, Canada 8.
Schreiber's goal was his third of the day, along with an assist. It gave the USA its first lead since it had been 2-1, and it came after a controversial final five minutes that will only add to the lore of the game through the years.
TigerBlog did decide not to put anything on goprincetontigers.com or Princeton men's lacrosse social media about the game until after the replay ended at 2 in the afternoon. Hey, if even one person managed to avoid seeing how it ended before getting to watch it, then it was worth it.
This game was played with ferocity for all 80 minutes, or more than 80 minutes, possibly. That's the best word to describe it. Ferocious.
If you wanted to see what ferocious lacrosse looks like, then watch the last few minutes of the third quarter, when Canada had the ball for an extended possession and never scored. Watch how hard the United States defended.
Ferocious had to share with controversial for the final five minutes though. And Princeton's two representatives, Schreiber and Zach Currier of Canada, were right in the middle of it all.
Canada took the lead with 5:17 to go, with the international running clock, and then Trevor Baptiste of the U.S. won the next face-off, briefly. Currier, though, attacked Baptiste's stick in a way that only Currier can, and in a blink the ball was in Currier's stick.
With the way the international game is played, it's possible that had Canada kept possession, the United States never would have gotten it back. There is no shot clock, only a stall warning that forces a team to keep it in the offensive box, which is much wider than it is in college. Canada probably would have tried to run the clock out and, with the way it could handle the ball, would likely have been successful.
Instead, just as quickly as Currier took it away from Baptiste, the officials took it away from Canada, calling an offsides infraction that by all accounts was incorrect. Now the Americans had the ball, tied it and won the face-off with three minutes left.
The closest Canada came to touching the ball again came when it was a loose behind the goal and there was a, well, ferocious chase for it. Currier at one point looked like he might have been pushed, but no call was made. Schreiber definitely was pushed down after that, giving possession back to the U.S.
TigerBlog Jr. was at the game. He also worked a lot of games at the tournament, and he would tell TB that the way the clock works, there was an official time kept by the box official and an unofficial time on the scoreboard. The scoreboard time was the time that was also on TV or the videostreams, and this explains why there always seemed to be a delay between when the clock would get to all zeroes and the play would actually stop.
This is what happened at the end of the championship game. The clock on TV kept jumping around in the final 10 seconds, as the U.S. took two shots that went high. Each time play stopped, the clock on TV - which was also on the scoreboard - added time back on.
Still, the official time in the box was correct, and it's why Schreiber's goal was legit. He made a great play, running off a screen from Ned Crotty and taking a soft feed from Rob Pannell before beating the great Dillon Ward with one second still to go.
If you're a lacrosse fan, then you had to love the game. TigerBlog was rooting for Schreiber and Currier, which made it somewhat difficult because one of them had to lose.
Of all of the great players that TigerBlog has ever seen play at Princeton, none has approached the game quite like Currier. In a game of ferocity nobody is more ferocious or competitive, yet he plays with what you could call grace at the same time. And he never, ever stops.
Forget just lacrosse. TB can't think of another athlete in any sport he's ever seen who plays harder all the time. The result is a player that you always want on your side.
And then there's Schreiber, who was named the top midfielder in the tournament and earned a spot on the All-World team. He may very well be the best player in the world right now, as both Inside Lacrosse and Lacrosse Magazine have said, but that is not something that he considers.
He also is a graceful player, one who seems to glide as much as anything else. But don't think that he lacks ferocity, because he doesn't. He is the best passing midfielder TigerBlog has ever seen, and he is big and powerful as a scorer as well.
His second goal in the championship game, which tied the game at 7-7 in the fourth, was typical of him, where he caught the ball. He took a pass in the middle and, with very little time or very little arm extension, rocketed the ball into the goal. And he can do it with either hand. Most players need to step into a shot like that and have a full extension of their arms. Not Schreiber.
The game-winner was as much instinct as anything else. It was a great cut, and Pannell, with little time to spare, put it in a small window. Catch. Finish.
Gold medal. In epic fashion.
And so what if it was at 3 am? This game figured to be a great one, and it exceeded expectations.
In fact, it could be the greatest lacrosse game ever played.
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