 (Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction)
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Jame Wunsch can sense that this year's Princeton University men's soccer team has a special feistiness.
"In the four years I have been here, this team is the one that has everyone fighting for the ball to get that goal," said senior captain Wunsch, a second-team All-Ivy League pick at defender in 2005.
"There is not one guy on the field or one guy on the bench that I don't think can help us. In college soccer, it's all about who wants it more. I think that's going to be in our favor."
It was one of the more miserable moments in Matt Striebel's otherwise glorious athletic career.
With the rain pouring down in London, Ontario this past July 22, Striebel, a former soccer and lacrosse star at Princeton University, commiserated with his U.S. teammates after they fell 15-10 to Canada in the title game of the 2006 International Lacrosse Federation (ILF) World Championship tournament.
Alexz Henriques piled up some eye-popping numbers for the Princeton High football team last fall.
The elusive 5'9, 165-pound running back rushed for 1,707 yards in 2005, the second best single-season total in CVC history. He needs 1,327 yards this season in his final campaign to pass the CVC career record of 3,779 yards held by Trenton's Corey Brown.
But as PHS prepares for its 2006 season-opener this Saturday against visiting Steinert, offensive milestones are the last thing on the minds of the Little Tigers.
"We don't talk about records," said PHS head coach Steve Everette. "We just want to win; our focus is to win games."
For many high school field hockey teams in the area, a group trip to a summer camp somewhere on the east coast is a tried and true way to sharpen skills in advance of the fall.
But for 14 members of the Princeton Day School field hockey team, such a trip was not nearly enough to satisfy their ambition for success.
Instead, the group of Panthers traveled halfway around the world to Australia to participate in the 2006 Hockey Fest in Sydney, an annual field hockey event.