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Old School Princeton Football Player, Looking Down in Shame at What's Become of His Team

Old School Princeton Football Player, Looking Down in Shame at What's Become of His Team

It’s been a great season to be a Princeton sports fan. For field hockey, Junior Kathleen Sharkley was the most prolific goal scorer in the nation, notching 31 goals, and won the Ivy League player of the year (Princeton’s had six straight Ivy League players of the year, by the way). The field hockey team won the Ivy League title and made it to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament. Women’s volleyball was in the thick of the Ivy League race until a late season loss at Dartmouth. Women’s soccer played magnificently all season and hosted Penn in their last game for a de facto Ivy League championship, but a tie meant that the Quakers walked away with the Ivy League title and an NCAA berth. Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams are having outstanding years. And how many ways did the men’s soccer team exemplify the Tiger’s autumnal excellence? They were perfect in the Ivy League, winning the title outright after a terrific victory against Penn on the last night of Fall Break. Junior Antoine Hoppenot, who scored the second goal in the 2-1 victory over Penn in the last game of the season, was named the Ivy League Player of the Year. And the team hosts UMBC in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Thursday at 7 p.m.

And then, there’s the football team.

The Tigers currently sit at 1-8, and 0-6 in the Ivy League. Injuries are at least partially to blame. All-American linebacker Steve Cody ‘11 was lost for the year in the first game of the season (quick tangent: I played high school football against Steve Cody. In addition to linebacker, he played offensive guard and returned punts; it was terrifying and he knocked me over repeatedly). Then Princeton lost junior starting quarterback Tommy Wortham in a loss to Brown, and senior running back (and greatest inspirational story ever) Jordan Culbreath not much later.

But wins and losses are wins and losses, and Princeton’s football team is on the precipice of a level of putridity it hasn’t seen since 1973. That’s the last time we went 0-7 in the Ivy League. And 1-9 would be the worst overall record the football team’s ever had since we switched to a 10 game schedule in 1990.

In a year where Princeton’s already had so much success athletically, why does a bad season by the football team bum me out?

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Nov 17, 2010

Premature Elegy for a Football Season

By Spencer Gaffney
Posted in Sports Also tagged , , , , 2 Comments
Senior Striker Kathleen Sharkey, Probably About to Score One of Her Nation-Leading 20 Goals.

Junior Striker Kathleen Sharkey, Probably About to Score One of Her Nation-Leading 20 Goals. (photo credit: Beverly Schaefer)

Pop quiz, sports fans: if you ignore the football teams (hi sprint!), how many games have Princeton sports teams lost to Ivy League opponents this year?

Zero. Zilch. Nary a one. You read that correctly: field hockey, men’s water polo, women’s volleyball, and both soccer teams are UNDEFEATED in Ivy League play. (Granted, men’s water polo doesn’t actually play in the Ivy League, but they beat Harvard and they’re also undefeated in the Collegiate Water Polo Association Southern Division. Boom!)

Maybe sometimes you flip over the Prince at breakfast and inadvertently catch a score or headline while trying to read the Quote of the Day. Maybe the big event of your athletic calendar this fall was the time you wandered over to the football stadium after tailgates because there were pretzels for sale inside. Maybe you had no idea we were nationally ranked in a couple fall sports. (By “you,” of course, I mean me.)

Consider this blog post a mid-season recap; a cheat sheet of reasons to care about Tiger sports this fall. Let’s break it down, team by team!

Field Hockey

(9-2, Ivy 3-0)

Holy crap, field hockey’s good. How good, you ask? Prepare yourself.

The team’s ranked #4 in the country. Striker Kathleen Sharkey ‘12 leads the nation with 20 goals scored. And they already beat off the top team in the country, Maryland, 4-2, back in late September. Get down to 1952 Stadium!

Next home game: Brown at noon this Saturday, Oct. 16.

More Teams After the Jump!

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Oct 13, 2010

Ivy League! Tremble at Princeton’s Autumnal Athletic Dominance (Sorry Football)!

By Spencer Gaffney
Posted in Sports Also tagged , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Top of the agenda this past week: Gen. David Petraeus *85 *87 is tapped to replace Gen. McChrystal as the Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan. Which got us to thinking – what other Tigers found themselves on the rise this week? And, since we believe in a strictly zero-sum world, which Princetonians have seen their stock tumble faster than  BP’s? Here’s our run down of who had the best and worst weeks.

Best Weeks:

Gen. David Petraeus ‘85 ‘87

Gen. David Petraeus offers to pitch in for the war effort in Afghanistan

Gen. David Petraeus offers to pitch in for the war effort in Afghanistan

As we reported on Wednesday, Gen. David Petraeus *85 *87 will be taking over in Afghanistan (the Senate confirmation hearing is Tuesday, but it’d be a shocker if Petraeus wasn’t confirmed).

Granted, most people wouldn’t consider being put in charge of a complex, costly, and potentially unwinnable war a “good week.”  But David Petraeus is not most people. And from a political standpoint, the pick of Petraeus is furthering talks that there might be a presidential run in his future.

Of course, if a year from now Afghanistan is worse than ever and the General’s press office starts giving freelance reporters from Rolling Stone unfettered access, then we may look back on this week as somewhat inglorious. But for now, Good Week!

Heidi Miller ‘74

“Who?” you ask. Well, all you aspiring Wall Street types, listen up:

JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon announced last week that Miller would head up the new Global Corporate Bank. Miller is described as Dimon’s confidant and a possible pick to someday run the giant bank.

So, yeah, Good Week.

Ellie Kemper ‘02

Ellie Kemper '02

Ellie Kemper '02

Arguments in favor of Kemper (known to the uninformed as merely Erin on The Office) being every literary nerd’s dream girl:

1. She writes for McSweeney’s.

2. And The Onion.

3. And she announced this week that she has a contract for a new book she’s writing with her sister.

Sounds like a Good Week to us.

And the unfortunate?

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Jun 28, 2010

Week In Review: Who’s On The Rise, Who’s Falling Down Edition (June 21 – June 27)

By Spencer Gaffney
Posted in Week in Review Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
This kid could be you! (from stripes.com)

This kid could be you! (from stripes.com)

U.S. Soccer announced today that the U.S. Men’s National Team will train at Princeton’s Roberts Stadium from May 17 to 23.

Players should be popping up around town on the 15th, according to a news release, but practices will be closed to the public.

The team’s coach, New Jersey native Bob Bradley ‘80, led the Princeton men’s soccer team in scoring during his senior year. He later came back to coach at his alma mater from 1984 to 1995, an 11 year reign in which the Tigers won the Ivy League title twice. In 1993, the team reached the Final Four.

Another reason Bradley may have picked Princeton? His brother, Scott Bradley, is Princeton’s head baseball coach.

Apr 21, 2010

US Men’s Soccer to Train at Princeton Before World Cup

By Angela Wu
Posted in Goings On Also tagged , , , , , One comment