On Tap with ... Augie Bloom

Sophomore Augie Bloom is on the men's tennis team, playing at No. 2 or No. 3 for the Tigers. He has been key for Princeton this season after a solid freshman year when he was awarded second-team All-Ivy. Bloom spoke with the 'Prince' about golf, his teammates' catchphrases and how no one can touch his rackets pre-match.

Q: Do you have an athletic role model?

A: I guess my role model would be Tiger Woods, just because I love playing golf. I play golf whenever I can when I’m not playing tennis, and I feel like he’s completely changed the sport. I’m a huge fan of his, even after all the scandals and stuff, so Tiger Woods is probably my athletic role model.

Q: So, if you could be fantastic at any other sport, what would it be?

A: Probably golf. You can ask my teammates — I’m totally obsessed with golf. I always play as much as I can in the summers when I’m back home, and over winter break I’m usually out in California or Arizona playing golf with friends or family. I play with someone who’s caddied for Tiger Woods. I guess that’s the closest connection I’ve ever had to him.

Q: Where are you from, and what is it like there?

A: I’m from just outside of Chicago — a western suburb of Chicago. It’s a small town — it’s pretty relaxed. It was nice because in high school I knew everybody in the town and played a lot of tennis growing up.

Q: How did you get into tennis?

A: People always ask me if one of my parents played or if someone in my family played a lot, and no one really played. My brother and I both play now, and I guess I got started when I took a random lesson at a country club nearby and just loved it and then just kind of went from there. And my parents have been nice enough to tell me to keep pursuing it and support me all the way, and it’s been a fun ride.

Q: What would you say your role is on the tennis team?

A: [Laughs] I’d say I’m probably the clown of the tennis team. I’m kind of the person that everyone laughs at, not with. That’s kind of what I feel like. But the team’s great — it’s been one of the best parts of my experiences here. I feel like we get along really well, and it’s just a really quality group of individuals.

Q: I understand that your team does nicknames. Whose is most appropriate, and why?

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A: That’s a good question. Let me think … well, my nickname is Porky, just because, I don’t know, people on my team think I’m kind of thick. And I’m always talking about how much I can bench. Another kid on the team, Dan Davies — he’s a sophomore from New Zealand — his name is Beached Whale. It came from this one Youtube video that he showed all of us one time, this New Zealand video of interactions with a whale on a beach. There’s a bunch of them.

Q: Are you happy with your nickname?

A: Well actually, before it was changed they were calling me Big Baby, and then I’m not exactly sure when the transition to Porky happened, but I guess I’m OK with it. It’s not too bad.

Q: Who is the quirkiest member of your team?

A: I think for sure we have one of the weirdest teams at Princeton, just an unusual group of individuals. [Junior] Matija Pecotic had these lines last year that he would say from Mike Tyson videos. So he would yell out during matches, like “I’m just ferocious!” And then he had this thing called “spritezer,” where he would just yell out “spritezer” and nobody knew what it meant. He’s from Serbia, and he didn’t tell anybody what it really meant. And this year he’s kind of gone into some new phrases that he yells out, like more recently he’s saying, “Whack! About to get tagged!” It’s from this Steve Irwin, the alligator guy, video.

And some other guys on the team: [Junior] Matt Spindler constantly refers to himself as “your boy.” He’ll walk around saying “your boy” referring to himself. Our senior captain Ravi Yegya-Raman claims he can “noodle” people, and you can kind of insert any definition you want, whatever that means, and the team’s kind of started using that word to describe various activities as “noodling.” Dan Davies, the kid I was talking about before, is just — enough said, the most absurd individual by far. And one other kid, a freshman, Michael Katz, sprints onto the court everyday before practice. He’ll get in your face and say, “I’m SO pumped for practice today!” He immediately proceeds to slap four balls into the back fence, and he can be seen 20 minutes later, sitting on the bench, texting his mom about how his day’s been going. That’s some of the stuff that goes on. Oh, one other one that I want to put in there — senior captain Coleman Crutchfield often will walk into practice, his hair a mess, his shoes untied, with a cup of tea and a book — a novel on the economy — and then start to hit some balls. It’s quite a group.

Q: Do you have any superstitions or pre-match rituals?

A: I’m actually really obsessive about my rackets, especially before a match. I can’t let anyone touch my rackets. The team’s always giving me shit for it — the team’s always messing with me, but I guess it’s kind of a weird obsessive thing I have about my rackets.

Q: Has anyone ever touched your rackets before a match here?

A: Oh yeah. My teammates are always just messing with me and getting my rackets. They just love making fun of me for it.

Q: What’s the best thing about being an athlete at Princeton?

A: I’d say the best part of being an athlete is that I got to come to this school. If you knew me back home, no one ever thought it’d be possible, so tennis got me into Princeton. And also the team has been a really cool group, and we’re all pretty close now, so it’s been a great experience travelling with the team. It’s cool to have a close group of friends, and then you meet people through them, so it’s been good that way.

Q: What’s the worst part about being an athlete at Princeton?

A: Probably just that a lot of the time it’s tough balancing, like you don’t have as much time as you’d like, just balancing tennis and classes and trying to have a social life. A lot of times we’re traveling on weekends, and you can’t go out as much to the eating clubs and stuff. But I’d say there’s really not a bad part of being an athlete. It’s all pretty positive. It’s a lot of fun.

Q: What was your “welcome to college” moment?

A: Last year I streaked McCosh 50. It was — I’m not sure if you’re allowed to say the whole frat thing now — but it was for a frat I was doing, and it was definitely one of the most embarrassing times for me, but looking back it was a lot of fun. I’ve never been so self-conscious in my entire life.

Q: I can imagine. What are you studying here?

A: I’m probably going to major in politics. I might try to get the political economy certificate, which is like a mix between politics and economics. I’ve kind of been between politics and economics. Since the year started I’ve been trying to decide so, yeah, probably politics.

Q: What would you say is the highlight of your sports career?

A: [Long pause] This is a tough one. One of the two: either shooting 66 on the golf course with some of my friends — that was great — or Ivies last year. I went 6-1 at Ivies. That was pretty cool. We lost to Cornell, 4-3, in the last match, but I think the Ivies last year were really intense, and we had pretty good support for the matches. That was a lot of fun, being out there playing with the team, because growing up you play individually in the juniors, and being part of a team was a great experience for me last year, especially because it was my first time at Ivies.

Q: Just to wrap it up, what’s the most embarrassing song on your iPod?

A: [Laughs] Probably “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga. That’s probably the most embarrassing one, but I like that song. It’s got a good beat.