Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at things), our reign as sports editors for the 134th managing board of The Daily Princetonian has finally come to its end. It was only a few years ago that we signed up as contributors, expecting to spend two hours a week at a soccer game and another hour writing up coverage. Before we knew it, we were spending 20 hours a week in the newsroom editing articles, yelling at staff writers and watching helplessly as our GPAs plummeted. Presumably, this was worth it.
In our time in charge, we’ve seen both the highs and the lows of Princeton athletics. The start of 2010 witnessed the rise of the women’s basketball team, which ended up having arguably the best season that any Ivy League team has ever had in that sport. The men’s lacrosse team hit the ground running under new head coach Chris Bates and hosted an NCAA tournament game, quickly recovering from the resignation of legendary former coach Bill Tierney.
There were also the bad times. An onslaught of injuries decimated the football team, leading to the first 1-9 season in program history. In losing 10-6 to Mansfield, the sprint football team came closer than it had to victory in nearly a decade, but its losing streak continued.
But Princeton sports largely continued to impress, recently coming in 25th in the latest national rankings for Division I athletics programs in the fall season. So after one year of covering each and every varsity sport on this campus, here are some final notes that we’ve picked up along the way:
¶ New Meadowlands Stadium didn’t open with a New York Giants game; it opened with a day of lacrosse culminating in Princeton getting destroyed by Syracuse.
¶ We may not have gotten a bonfire, but at least football at this school has nowhere to go but up.
¶ Road games are lots of fun. Except when Princeton gets blown out.
¶ The men’s lightweight crew and men’s heavyweight crew are actually different things, despite our photography editors’ inability to tell them apart in pictures.
¶ We crush the rest of the Ivy League at cross country, swimming and fencing. Whether anyone else (aside from the members of the team) knows this is still up for debate.
¶ The only time a sports article will ever eclipse 1,000 views online is if someone feels the need to post an obnoxious comment and sets off a fierce ‘Prince’ debate. Or, if a Filipino boxing blog picks up your Manny Pacquiao article.
¶ No matter how many injuries, losses or disasters, each team is always cohesive and has great chemistry and is playing for a championship and has to learn to play the full 60 (or 48, or 40, or whatever) minutes.
¶ The best way to recruit new writers is to set up a separate table at the freshman activities fair and pretend that we are cooler than the rest of the newspaper. This has worked twice.
Next term, three of us will be moving to our carrels, and one of us has moved on to bigger and better things as editor-in-chief of the ‘Prince.’
While we are excited to get our lives back (sort of, except for that thesis thing) we will miss the little things about being sports editor for the ‘Prince.’
Living in the squalor that is 48 University Place, receiving angry e-mails from athletes who were misrepresented or not represented or not accurately reported on, yelling at copy to edit faster, and surving long Thursday nights in the office by watching Thursday Night Football on ESPN.
Judging by our online hit counts (thanks Shirley and our three other readers!), we know that we are the ones who will be missed, and that the rest of the Princeton community couldn’t get by without us. So peace out. It’s been fun.
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