On Sept. 8, ahead of the first home football game of the 2024–25 season against the Howard Bisons, Princeton Athletics and the Princeton Varsity Club (PVC) hosted the annual PVC Youth Sports Clinic on the Finney-Campbell Fields behind Princeton Stadium. The free clinic featured 120 Princeton student athletes across several of Princeton’s 38 varsity sports who taught children from the greater Princeton area the basics of soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, water polo, and more. Nearly 200 local kids were in attendance.
PVC develops and supports initiatives that offer Princeton varsity student-athletes opportunities to serve and lead, helping further the Department of Athletics’ mission of “Education Through Athletics.”
“We are really just trying to brand that opening football game as a community-centric event,” Associate Director of Athletics/Advancement & the Princeton Varsity Club Brendan Van Ackeren told The Daily Princetonian. For over a decade, the youth clinic has been a key part of this mindset.
Branded as “Future Tigers Day,” the clinic welcomed members of the Princeton Athletics Kids Club and a Trenton youth football team. The clinic partnered with Princeton’s office of Community and Regional Affairs to advertise the event to the University’s various community partners.
“It is really about engaging the youth community,” Van Ackeren said. “And really wanting children of all backgrounds — of all geographies — to be able to tangibly look up to Princeton athletes and what Princeton athletics is, and you know, what Princeton University stands for, and see themselves and to see that as a possibility in their future.”
The football game was branded as the “Tigers Together: Inclusive Excellence Game,” as “Tigers Together” is the official Princeton athletics slogan for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Though many of Princeton’s varsity sports translate easily to the turf, others faced some challenges.
“It’s pretty hard to teach water polo on land,” sophomore goalie for women’s water polo Lindsey Lucas joked when speaking with the ‘Prince.’ “We like to just bring a few water polo balls, and we kind of teach them how to throw it and catch it, because you can only use one hand, and they’re not very used to that,” she continued.
Despite this, it didn’t stop them from being present and engaged with the local youth. For Lucas and her teammates, the event is much more about introducing kids to water polo and ensuring they have fond memories.
“We all just understand how much water polo has given to us in allowing us to go to this school and all the great opportunities we’ve gotten through that, so it’s nice to be able to give back a little bit and try and encourage kids to start the sport,” she shared.
Each team, however, contributed to the day in their own way.
Through the Team IMPACT organization, the Princeton softball, men’s golf, men’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s swimming & diving, and men’s basketball teams are matched with a child who suffers from a chronic illness or disability that participates in the program. The child joins the team as an honorary member of the program and spends two years learning from and spending quality time with Princeton student-athletes.
Braeden Treharne is a twelve-year-old from the greater Princeton area who was matched through Team IMPACT with men’s golf in the spring of 2023. Though the golf team did not have their own station at the clinic, they spent the day helping Braden meet other athletes and play at their stations.
“When [Treharne] normally comes to campus, he comes to the golf course, and he hits some golf balls and does golf-related stuff, but we all knew that he liked a bunch of other sports as well,” junior golfer Nathan Drogin told the ‘Prince.’ “To be able to play a bunch of other sports with him and see that smile on his face, it was really nice for all of us as well.”
The golf team makes an effort to see Treharne at least once a month.
“Just knowing that you know you’re really making his week, and he’s making ours too, it’s a really special connection we have with him. He’s just an awesome kid. We all love him,” Drogin added.
All five of the Princeton Team IMPACT kids attended Saturday’s football game. They were recognized during a first-half timeout on the field in a game that saw Princeton cruise to a 30-13 win over Howard.
PVC will host a similar clinic indoors in February centered around the women’s basketball team for National Girls and Women in Sports Day.
“We’ve talked about ‘In the Nation’s Service’ as kind of a guiding Princeton motto. We certainly want to live that out through our athletic lens and our athletic platforms, because our Tiger student athletes are incredible representatives of Princeton,” Van Ackeren said.
Diego Uribe is a head Sports editor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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