Column: Princeton athletes enjoy warm training climates over break

Fall break was not particularly eventful in Chevy Chase, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C. Born and raised in the area, I will gladly praise the nation’s capital as one of the best cities in America. But, thanks to Princeton’s Office of Poor Vacation Scheduling, I now know that ridin’ solo in any city is not nearly as fun as Jason Derulo makes it out to be. Without my party-rocking high school crew, all of whom attend universities with reasonable Fall Break schedules, the energetic city I have grown to love was as entertaining as deriving the Slutsky equation.

Needless to say, I had a surplus of free time, and my mind frequently wandered. I couldn’t help but think, “What do Princeton athletes do over Fall Break? Do they train in Colorado Springs? Do they rage for a week in Cottage?”

The truth is most in-season PVC athletes continue training and competing on campus as scheduled. However, a select number of teams, including golf and swimming and diving, seized the opportunity to change the scenery and continue their training elsewhere.

The golf team had a notably good time over Fall Break, traveling to both Augusta, Ga., and Jacksonville, Fla. For the 99 percent, Augusta is home to the Augusta National Golf Club, which is the site of The Masters — one of four major US championships in professional golf. During their stay in Georgia, a number of Tigers were given the privilege to play on the legendary course, and the remaining golfers played a friendly match against Augusta State University, two-time defending NCAA champions.

Several gallons of Arnold Palmers later, the team made its way to Jacksonville. While there Princeton again had the honor of teeing off in the footsteps of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, among other golfing icons, at the Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass. Located in Ponte Vedra Beach just outside of Jacksonville, TPC at Sawgrass is home to the PGA Tour’s The Players Championship. To say the least, it is not your average country-club golf course, and the 17th hole is known for distinguishing the men from the boys.

Most university golf teams would end their vacation after such golfing opportunities, but not Princeton. Only after visiting an additional four courses, including Timuquana Country Club, did our golfing ambassadors begin their Princeton-bound journey.

Similarly, the swimming and diving team migrated south to Coral Springs, Fla., where team members practiced for five hours each day. If you ignore the vigorous training schedule, their trip almost sounds like a vacation. Coral Springs is situated on the coast with beautiful sandy beaches. Its restaurants are superb, and the temperature rarely falls below 70 degrees.

But in order to fully enjoy all that Coral Springs has to offer the average person needs a certain amount of energy. Over the course of a five-hour practice, relatively little energy is left unspent. However, the members of our prestigious team are far from average. Once the day’s training was concluded, swimmers and divers alike ditched their Princeton Speedos, threw on semi-respectable swim gear and headed for the beach.

Finally, the mystery behind Princeton athletics over Fall Break has been resolved. What do our athletes do? They train, they tan, and they train some more. That’s why they dominate: They never stop.