Before I even get started, I would like to say that it's good to be back. No, not from Thanksgiving break, not even from fall break. I'd like to extend a happy and heartfelt welcome back to the entire Princeton community from... summer break.
Let me explain. This is my first column of the school year. With two or three weeks left in my term as a sports editor, this is my first column of the year.
So, for all of you who have been missing my bimonthly trip around the sporting world — I know there's at least one of you out there — it's good to be back. We've got a lot of ground to cover, so let's get started.
The best damn place of all
If somehow the following paragraphs of unabashed praise for our own teams offend anyone I apologize in advance. A few of the fall teams had spectacular or breakout seasons and I think it's worth recognizing.
Starting with the situation on the fields in our very own sleepy little burg in mid-Jersey, it was a great fall for Princeton sports. No national championships or anything that spectacular, but the women's soccer and field hockey teams had solid seasons.
Better than solid in fact. Field hockey rebounded from some unusual early-season losses to win the Ivy League and make the NCAA tournament. And the soccer team played 12 games before losing a game, en route to an NCAA berth of its own.
Overshadowing all of this, however, was the first few weeks of the football season. Until the disappointing loss against Harvard, it actually looked like the class of 2003 might get a bonfire before we have to leave.
Looking back, that was probably hoping for too much. The loss to Penn aside, the Crimson put together a good season with a strong squad. And not just in Ivy League terms — at times both Harvard and Penn actually played like serious college football teams.
Not to diminish the accomplishments of this year's Tiger squad. Cameron Atkinson was rightfully awarded the Kazmaier award for team Most Valuable Player. Jay McCareins was a standout in a defensive constellation full of stars.
Had the quarterback position, riddled with injuries all season, been more stable, the Tigers might have competed for a league title rather than fading somewhat down the stretch.
It's the most wonderful...
Which brings us to the beginning of the winter season, usually something of a mixed bag in Tigertown. The men's and women's hockey teams have gotten off to remarkably different starts.
Granted, the men's team is suffereing through a rebuilding year, but I would not have guessed that losing goaltender Dave Stathos '02 and defenseman David Schneider '02 would have hurt so much.
There are a handful of impressive freshmen, including a line full of them at forward, but it's going to take a big turnaround for this team to make noise in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference after a 1-10 start.
As for the women on the ice, well, what can I say. Unlike the men, the women's hockey team has not played that many games — the Tigers are only 2-0 in the ECAC, compared with league-leading Dartmouth, which is 6-2. Princeton can put a lot of talent on the ice — the Holmes sisters, Gretchen Anderson and Megan Van Beusekom, just to name a few — and should be very successful this season, but it's just too early to tell.
To be brutally honest, I really don't know anything about squash or fencing. It's not that I don't know who's on the team or when they play — although if quizzed on either of those I'd probably fail. I just don't know anything about the sports themselves.
I realize that I edit the sports section of a daily paper at a university with a history of success in each program, but I have no idea what it takes to make a good fencing or squash team. As such, I leave it to someone who is more qualified, who has seen more of each at Princeton, to comment on the kind of season either may have.
One shining . . . you know the rest
Which brings us to the highest profile winter sport of all — basketball.
Acknowleding the Title IX implications, and with apologies to what looks to be a rapidly improving women's basketball program, my focus is on the men's team.
When I was compiling the stats and probable rosters for all the teams in the Ivy League for the 'Prince' pullout a few weeks ago, it looked like Yale might have the best team on paper. The Bulldogs return all their starters from a team that shared the Ivy title last year.
But then I came to my senses, prompted by a few of my collegues here at the newspaper. And so I close my return to the pages of this fine publication with a prediction. Despite the wealth of talented returning starters for both Yale and Penn, the Princeton bench will make the difference in the Ivy League race this season.
Princeton will win the conference — don't ask by how many games — and return to the Promised Land of the NCAA tournament.
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