Column: Poll ending showed school’s depth
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
The final two weeks turned out the way we had envisioned the Princeton High’s Greatest Athlete contest would when the idea was first hatched in the summer.
There was plenty of participation. There was some spirited debate. And we think it created interest in the history of athletics at Princeton High. That was what the contest was intended to do.
Who is to say whether or not the weekly voting that narrowed an original field of 32 down to Darius Young and Nina Rossi actually determined the best athlete to come through PHS? All 32 in the field were deserving of the honor.
In the early rounds, it sometimes only took just 15 or 20 votes to advance to the next round. By the end, over 1,000 votes were cast in the final, which Young won by a 558-501 margin with a late flurry of votes just before the voting deadline at 2 p.m. on Tuesday.
Not only was there plenty of voter turnout, but PHS alumni and fans were able to discuss athletes of the past on our blog, NJGameOn.
We’re not quite sure what sparked the interest of the fans to turn out in such high numbers. Maybe it was word of mouth. Maybe friends of the participants spread the word. But it was great that so many people took the time not only to log their vote, but also to comment on the process.
Most of the athletes that people mentioned as their choice were involved in the early rounds of the voting before being eliminated. Being younger than some of the other participants probably helped the cause of Young and Rossi.
What became apparent during the whole process was that Princeton High has a lot to be proud of when it comes to its athletic history. The school has always been lauded for its academic achievements, which is certainly warranted. But the athletes who have graced the hallways of the school over the years have also made the school proud.
We limited the field to 32 so the contest would not take forever. We could have easily doubled the size with another 32 deserving participants.
Many of the original field of 32 are already in the Princeton High Athletic Hall of Fame. There is a good chance the two finalists, as well as some of the others who were not in the field, will eventually get there.
The Princeton contest is now over and plans are in the works for the next contest, which will either be athletes from Montgomery High or West Windsor-Plainsboro. Like the Princeton contest, settling on the final field of 32 is the hardest part. Once that is done, the voting us up to anyone that wants to be involved.
The Princeton contest started slowly but eventually picked up momentum. Perhaps that will carry over to the next contest. Neither Montgomery or WW-P have the tradition that Princeton has dating back to the 1940s and 1950s. In fact, those schools were offshoots of Princeton High.
But both Montgomery and WW-P have had their share of great athletes come through the school in the last several decades. And soon, we’ll look to see who their best athletes were.